Linguistic competence accounts for a speaker’s knowledge of his language. Communicative competence accounts for both the tacit knowledge of language and the ability to use it. According to Hymes, there are four parameters that unable a speaker’s communicative competence, namely the ability to judge:
Whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible;
Whether (and to what degree) something is feasible;
Whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate;
Whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done.