Funcionalitat/disfuncionalitat dels llenguatges administratius

Resum

The paper puts forward some considerations on the definition of administrative language as "functional language." The different meanings given by linguists and sociolinguists to the term "functional" as synonymous with "customary," "relational," "intentional," "communicative," and so on are analyzed. The article examines the conditions required by paralinguistic sciences of languages regarded as highly operative and powerful, in other words, "functional": verbal economy, low entropy, simplicity, comprehensiveness, efficiency, channeling of non-aberrant messages, easy transmissibility, unequivocalness, scarce referential opacity, strong coherence, cohesion at all levels, general acceptability, easy access to its expression channels, and a grammaticalness adequate to its level and register. Each of these characteristics are defined in a simple and succinct manner. The authoress points out that Spanish research has not until now studied in depth how these characteristics required of "functional" languages in administrative languages are met. Consequently, it seems premature to define administrative language as a "functional" language in the sense given to this term by paralinguistic sciences. It would be more appropriate to consider it a "civil service" language, or to clarify the term whenever it is used in the sense of "customary," "intentional," and so on.