In Jakobson's model of linguistic communication the dominance of any one of six factors within an utterance reflects a different linguistic function. referential: oriented towards the context; expressive: oriented towards the addresser; conative: oriented towards the addressee; phatic: oriented towards the contact; metalingual: oriented towards the code; poetic: oriented towards the message. In any given situation one of these factors is 'dominant', and this dominant function influences the general character of the 'message'.