Among the child’s uses of language there appears, after a time, the use of language to convey new information: to communicate a content that is (regarded by the speaker as) unknown to the addressee. I had referred to this in general way as the ʻrepresentationalʼ function; but it would be better, and also more accurate, if one were to use a more specific term, such as ʻinformativeʼ, since this makes it easier to interpret subsequent developments. In the course of maturation this function is increasingly emphasized until eventually it comes to dominate, if not the adult’s use of language, at least his conception of the use of language.
- Halliday (1973), a pag.35