In our dialogue it is the fact that Alex may be involved in criminal activities, therefore his social adviser tries to receive information about the previous night Alex had spent with his gang, and to warn him that he is likely to get to prison in future. Expressive function gives standpoints of the speakers, their evaluation of the reality. In our case, Deltoid disagrees with Alex’s activities, he stands on the side of the law; while Alex de Large (A-lex – a man without law) does not want to collaborate with Deltoid, he does not want to reveal any information about the previous night, he is standing on the side of crime (his expressive funstion is very low). Conative, or appellative function attempts to appeal or persuade the hearers/readers of a text. Hence, Mr. Deltoid tries to persuade Alex to accept his standpoint, and vice versa Alex makes an attempt to persuade Deltoid to his point of view. They both want to receive emotional responses from their partners.
Referential content of Deltoid’s speech is very high. He participates on the conversation from more than three quarters. Most information we get from the dialogue is via Deltoid’s words. The social worker also shows a clear standpoint. He definitely disagrees with Alex’s activities. He appeals to Alex for changing his behaviour: “if you have no consideration for your horrible self you at least might have some for me”, he warns him: “just watch out” and threatens him with prison. However, as we may see from the text, Alex gives him only a very slight positive response, balancing on the edge of sarcasm and irony, ending with an insincere statement: “you can rely on me, sir.” Hence, we might consider Deltoid’s persuasive attempts as a failure, despite a very high degree of appealing in his words.
Since Alex is not the leader of the conversation, we don’t have sufficient-enough material to analyze his speech. From what we have, we can conclude that the referential content of Alex’s speech is rather low. He tries to evade answers, he is unclear, sarcastic and ironic, he does not want to tell the truth: “nobody’s got anything on me, sir. I’ve been out of the rookers of the millicents for a long time now.” Similarly, like a low degree of referential function, Alex shows a low degree of expressive function. He does not say exactly what he thinks, he keeps his thoughts in his mind. His insincere politeness and gentlemanly way of speaking only hides disgust and contempt he feels for Mr. Deltoid. He also does not appeal on Deltoid in any special way.