What is more important language or speech. Functions of language, language and speech, language and thinking
Language is a socially intended system of signs that naturally arose in human society, which serves as the most important means of communication.
The sign system of the language consists in establishing a correspondence between the set of sounds (expression plan) and the totality of meanings (content plan).
Language exists in two forms: spoken and written. The sound form is primary in relation to the written one.
Speech- this is a specific speaking, occurring in oral or written form, the implementation of which is carried out through the use of language means.
The concept of "speech" is broader than the concept of "speech activity" in the sense that the first is understood to mean both the process of speaking (speech activity) and its result (speech works).
| SPEECH | LANGUAGE |
| communication process | means of communication |
| situationally and contextually conditioned (i.e. motivated) | independent of the situation, communication environment (i.e. unmotivated) |
| deliberate and directed towards a specific goal | unfocused |
| material, specific | perfect, abstract |
| unfolds in time and is realized in space | abstracted from these parameters of reality |
| can be correlated with the phenomena of reality and evaluated in terms of truth or falsity | truth value not applicable |
| allows elements of random and unordered | regular |
| Variable | relatively invariant (in a single period of existence) |
| linear | has a level organization |
| Endless | finite |
| Relevant | potential |
| Active | passive |
| dynamic, mobile | static, stable |
| subjective | objective |
| Individual | social |
| reflects the experience of the individual | captures team experience |
| Arbitrary | obligatory (mandatory) |
LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS:
1. Means of communication (depending on the addressee of communication, varieties of this function are distinguished: communicative (means of communication with people) and magical (means of communication with God or the forces of nature)).
2. A means of creating verbal artistic images.
3. A means of expressing emotions, internal states of a person and will.
4. Means of knowledge.
5. Means of generating new units of language subsystems.
6. A means of accumulating and storing social experience and knowledge.
SPEECH FUNCTIONS:
1. The implementation of the process of communication (varieties of the function: communicative (implementation of the process of communication with people) and magical (implementation of the process of communication with God or the forces of nature)).
2. Implementation of the process of creating artistic images, works (aesthetic function).
3. Implementation of the process of expressing emotions, internal states of a person and will.
4. Implementation of the processes of cognition.
5. Implementation of the processes of generating new units of language subsystems.
6. Implementation of the process of accumulation and storage of public experience and knowledge.
Types of signs, features of a linguistic sign. Language as a system, relations between its elements.
So properties of a linguistic sign:
1. materiality (because any sign can have a sound form, i.e. how this sign is expressed; it can have a graphic form)
2. the unity of the plan of expression and the plan of content (PV and PS). These terms were given by Dats. Linguist L. Elmslev, in S. these are signifiers and signifiers. The unity of the PV and PS points to the theory of bilaterality, i.e. that the sign has 2 sides. But in addition to this theory, there is a theory of monoterality (the sign is one-sided), then only the PV is a sign, which in this theory is called the exponent or body of the sign, or the sign itself. The sign refers to the content that is in the mind of a person. In this theory, the ratio of the exponent and the person himself is called a sign complex.
3. the sign acts only in its own system (semiotic system). For example: the Russian alphabet a-b-c ... and the opposition of English. a-b-c...
4. the sign is opposed to other signs within the given system
5. The relationship between the sign and the object it denotes is conditional. The connection is established directly for onomatopoeia of words (“Ku-ku” - connection with an object - a cuckoo) - there are few such words in the language.
6. Signs are mutually translatable. Eg. Higher educational institution - we say university, Automobile school - car)
7. the sign has not only meaning, but also value (significance) (introduced by F. de S.) The ratio of the sign with other signs of this system, showing what place this sign occupies in the system (for example, in Russian - where? where ?, in English - where-- means this is the significance of the word). “It is necessary to study not only the meaning of signs, but also the relationship between them,” wrote F. de S.
8. linearity of the sign. Any signs form a linear sequence
9. sign valence. (combinatorics of this sign with other signs - tolisten to,tosuffer from)
In addition, F. de S. described 3 types of signs:
1. Iconic (a sign is a similarity or likeness between a sign and its object)
2. Indexal (index - Latin “informer”. This is a sign that refers to the designated object due to the fact that the object really affects it. Such a sign is built on an association by adjacency (bullet - window - crack)
3. Symbolic or conventional signs, according to C. Pierce, this is the only true sign, because it does not depend on similarity or connection. Its connection with the object is conditional, because exists through the sign complex and exists through agreement. Most words are symbols.
Language system- a set of elements of the language, connected with each other by one or another relationship, forming a certain unity and integrity. Each component of the language system exists in opposition to other elements, which gives it significance. The concept of a language system includes the concepts of language levels, language units, paradigmatics and syntagmatics, linguistic sign, synchrony and diachrony.
System- a set of units of the language, interconnected by stable relationships and characterized by interconnection and interdependence. The systems of separate tiers of the language structure, interacting with each other, form the general system of a given language.
Language relations- these are the relationships that are found between tiers and categories, units and their parts. The main types of relations are paradigmatic and syntagmatic, associative and hyponymic (hierarchical).
Paradigmatic relations are those relations that unite language units into groups, categories, categories. Paradigmatic relations are based, for example, on the consonant system, the declension system, the synonymic series.
Syntagmatic relations unite language units in their simultaneous sequence. Words are built on syntagmatic relations as a set of morphemes and syllables, phrases and analytical names, sentences (as sets of sentence members) and complex sentences.
Associative relations arise on the basis of the coincidence of representations in time, i.e. images of the phenomena of reality. There are three types of associations: by adjacency, by similarity and by contrast. These types of associations play an important role in the use of epithets and metaphors, in the formation of figurative meanings of words.
Hierarchical relations are relations between heterogeneous elements, their subordination to each other as general and particular, generic and specific, higher and lower. Hierarchical relations are observed between units of different tiers of the language, between words and forms when they are combined into parts of speech, between syntactic units when they are combined into syntactic types. Associative, hierarchical and paradigmatic relationships are opposed to syntagmatic ones in that the latter are linear.
There are also sound units (phonemes), which have the functions of perception and discrimination. Thanks to the first, we can perceive speech; thanks to the second, language units of a more complex nature are distinguished from each other: house-that, there-so.
Language is inextricably linked with society, its culture and the people who live and work in society. The language belonging to society and its use by each individual are two different, albeit closely interrelated phenomena: on the one hand, it is a social phenomenon, a certain set of units, the rules for the use of which are stored in the collective consciousness of native speakers; on the other hand, it is the individual use of some part of this totality. The foregoing allows us to distinguish between two concepts - language and speech.
Language and speech form a single phenomenon of human language. Language – it is a set of means of communication between people through the exchange of thoughts and rules for the use of these means; language as an entity finds its manifestation in speech. Speech is the use of existing linguistic means and rules in the very linguistic communication of people, therefore speech can be defined as the functioning of the language.
Thus, language and speech are closely interconnected: if there is no speech, then there is no language. To be convinced of this, it is enough to imagine that there is a certain language in which no one speaks or writes, and at the same time nothing has been preserved that would have been written in it before. In this case, how can we know about the existence of this language? But speech cannot exist without language, since speech is its practical use. Language is necessary for speech to be understood. Without language, speech ceases to be speech proper and turns into a set of meaningless sounds.
Despite the fact that language and speech, as already mentioned, form a single phenomenon of human language, each of them has its own, opposite, features:
1) language is a means of communication; speech is the embodiment and realization of language, which through speech performs its communicative function;
2) the language is abstract, formal; speech is material, everything that is in the language is corrected in it, it consists of articulated sounds perceived by the ear;
3) the language is stable, static; speech is active and dynamic, it is characterized by high variability;
4) the language is the property of society, it reflects the "picture of the world" of the people speaking it; speech is individual, it reflects only the experience of an individual;
5) the language is characterized by a level organization, which introduces hierarchical relationships into the sequence of words; speech has a linear organization, representing a sequence of words connected in a stream;
6) the language is independent of the situation and the environment of communication - speech is contextually and situationally conditioned, in speech (especially poetic) units of the language can acquire situational meanings that they do not have in the language (for example, the beginning of one of S. Yesenin's poems: “The golden grove dissuaded with a cheerful birch tongue”).
Concepts language and speech correlate, thus, as the general and the particular: the general (language) is expressed in the particular (speech), while the particular (speech) is a form of embodiment and realization of the general (language).
Being the most important means of communication, language unites people, regulates their interpersonal and social interaction, coordinates their practical activities, ensures the accumulation and storage of information that is the result of the historical experience of the people and the personal experience of the individual, forms the consciousness of the individual (individual consciousness) and the consciousness of society (public consciousness). ), serves as a material and form of artistic creativity.
Thus, language is closely connected with all human activity and performs various functions.
Language features- this is a manifestation of its essence, its purpose and action in society, its nature, i.e. its characteristics, without which the language cannot exist. The main basic functions of the language are communicative and cognitive, which have varieties, i.e., functions of a more particular nature.
Communicative function means that language is the most important means of human communication (communication), i.e., the transfer of a message from one person to another for one purpose or another. Language exists precisely in order to provide communication (communication). Communicating with each other, people convey their thoughts, feelings and emotional experiences, influence each other, achieve a common understanding. Language gives them the opportunity to understand each other and to work together in all spheres of human activity, being one of the forces that ensure the existence and development of human society.
The communicative function of language plays a leading role. But language can fulfill this function due to the fact that it is subordinated to the structure of human thinking; therefore exchange of information, knowledge and experience is possible.
This inevitably leads to the second main function of the language - cognitive(i.e., cognitive, epistemological), meaning that language is the most important means of obtaining new knowledge about reality. The cognitive function connects language with human mental activity.
In addition to the above, the language performs a number of other functions:
Phatic (contact-establishing) - the function of creating and maintaining contact between interlocutors (greeting formulas at a meeting and parting, exchange of remarks about the weather, etc.). Communication occurs for the sake of communication and is mainly unconsciously (rarely consciously) aimed at establishing or maintaining contact. The content and form of phatic communication depend on gender, age, social status, interlocutor relationships, but in general such communication is standard and minimally informative. The standard, superficiality of phatic communication helps to establish contacts between people, overcome disunity and lack of communication skills;
Emotive (emotionally-expressive) - an expression of the subjective-psychological attitude of the author of the speech to its content. It is realized in the means of evaluation, intonation, exclamation, interjections;
Conative - the function of assimilation of information by the addressee, associated with empathy (the magical power of spells or curses in an archaic society or advertising texts in a modern one);
appellative - the function of an appeal, an inducement to certain actions (forms of the imperative mood, incentive sentences);
Accumulative - the function of storing and transferring knowledge about reality, traditions, culture, history of the people, national identity. This function of the language connects it with reality (the fragments of reality, isolated and processed by the human mind, are fixed in the units of the language);
Metalinguistic (speech commentary) - the function of interpreting linguistic facts. The use of a language in a metalinguistic function is usually associated with difficulties in verbal communication, for example, when talking with a child, a foreigner, or another person who does not fully know the given language, style, or professional variety of the language. The metalinguistic function is realized in all oral and written statements about language - in lessons and lectures, in dictionaries, in educational and scientific literature about language;
Aesthetic - a function of aesthetic impact, manifested in the fact that speakers begin to notice the text itself, its sound and verbal texture. A single word, turn, phrase begins to like or dislike. The aesthetic attitude towards language means, therefore, that speech (namely, speech itself, and not what is reported) can be perceived as beautiful or ugly, that is, as an aesthetic object. The aesthetic function of language, being the main one for a literary text, is also present in everyday speech, manifesting itself in its rhythm and imagery.
Thus, the language is multifunctional. He accompanies a person in a variety of life circumstances. With the help of language, a person learns the world, remembers the past and dreams of the future, studies and teaches, works, communicates with other people.
A culture of speech
Before talking about the culture of speech, you need to know what culture is in general.
Language is not only the most important means of communication between people, but also a means of cognition that allows people to accumulate knowledge, passing it on to other people and other generations.
The totality of the achievements of human society in industrial, social and spiritual activities is called culture. Therefore, we can say that language is a means of developing culture and a means of assimilation of culture by each member of society. The culture of speech is the most important regulator of the "man - culture - language" system, manifested in speech behavior.
Under culture of speech is understood as such a choice and such an organization of language means that, in a certain situation of communication, while observing modern language norms and ethics of communication, can provide the greatest effect in achieving the set communicative tasks.
According to this definition, the culture of speech includes three components: normative, communicative and ethical. The most important of these is normative aspect of speech culture.
Language norms are a historical phenomenon. Their appearance led to the formation in the bowels of the national language of a variety processed and fixed in writing - the literary language. National language is the common language of the whole nation, covering all spheres of speech activity of people. It is heterogeneous, since it contains all varieties of language - territorial and social dialects, vernacular, jargon, literary language. The highest form of the national language is literary- the language is standardized, serving the cultural needs of the people; the language of fiction, science, press, radio, theater, government agencies.
The concept of "culture of speech" is closely connected with the concept of "literary language": one concept implies another. The culture of speech arises along with the formation and development of the literary language. One of the main tasks of the culture of speech is the preservation and improvement of the literary language, which has the following features:
1) written fixation of oral speech: the presence of writing affects the nature of the literary language, enriching its expressive means and expanding the scope;
2) normalization;
3) general obligatory nature of norms and their codification;
4) an extensive functional and stylistic system;
5) the dialectical unity of book and colloquial speech;
6) close connection with the language of fiction;
What is a norm? Under the norm understand the generally accepted use of linguistic means, a set of rules (regulations) that regulate the use of linguistic means in the speech of an individual.
Thus, the means of the language - lexical, morphological, syntactic, orthoepic, etc. - are made up of the number of coexisting, formed or extracted from the passive language.
The norm can be imperative (i.e., strictly obligatory) and dispositive (i.e., not strictly obligatory). imperative the norm does not allow variance in the expression of a linguistic unit, regulating only one way of its expression. Violation of this norm is regarded as poor language skills (for example, errors in declension or conjugation, determining the gender of a word, etc.). Dispositive the norm allows variance, regulating several ways of expressing a language unit (for example, a cup of tea and a cup of tea, cottage cheese and cottage cheese, etc.). Variation in the use of the same language unit is often a reflection of a transitional stage from an outdated norm to a new one. Variants, modifications or varieties of a given language unit can coexist with its main form.
There are three degrees of the "norm - variant" ratio:
a) the norm is obligatory, and the variant (primarily colloquial) is prohibited;
b) the norm is mandatory, and the option is acceptable, although undesirable;
c) the norm and the variant are equal.
In the latter case, further displacement of the old norm and even the birth of a new one is possible.
Being sufficiently stable and stable, the norm as a historical category is subject to change, which is due to the very nature of the language, which is in constant development. The variance that arises in this case does not destroy the norms, but makes it a more subtle tool for selecting linguistic means.
In accordance with the main levels of the language and the areas of use of language tools, the following are distinguished norm types:
1) orthoepic (pronunciation) associated with the sound side of literary speech, its pronunciation;
2) morphological, related to the rules of formation of grammatical forms of the word;
3) syntactic, related to the rules for the use of phrases and syntactic constructions;
4) lexical, associated with the rules of word usage, selection and use of the most appropriate lexical units.
The language norm has the following features: sustainability and stability ensuring the balance of the language system for a long time;
The prevalence and obligatory observance of normative rules (regulations) as complementary moments of "management" of the elements of speech;
Cultural and aesthetic perception (assessment) of the language and its facts; in the norm, all the best that has been created in the speech behavior of mankind is fixed;
Dynamic character (variability), due to the development of the entire language system, which is realized in live speech;
Possibility of linguistic "pluralism" (coexistence of several options that are recognized as normative) as a result of the interaction of traditions and innovations, stability and mobility, subjective (author) and objective (language), literary and non-literary (vernacular, dialects).
Normativity, that is, following the norms of the literary language in the process of communication, is rightly regarded as the basis, the foundation of speech culture.
The concept of codification(from lat. codification)- a linguistically reliable description of the fixation of the norms of the literary language in sources specially designed for this (grammar textbooks, dictionaries, reference books, manuals). Codification involves the conscious selection of what is prescribed to be used as correct.
Second in importance after normativity is communicative component of speech culture.
A high culture of speech lies in the ability to find not only the exact means for expressing one’s thoughts, but also the most intelligible (i.e., the most expressive), and the most appropriate (i.e., the most suitable for a given case), and, therefore, stylistically justified , as S.I. Ozhegov.
The language performs a number of communicative tasks, serving various areas of communication. Each of the spheres of communication, in accordance with its communicative tasks, imposes certain requirements on the language. The communicative component plays a decisive role in achieving the goals of communication. Compliance with the norms of the language, all the rules of communication ethics does not guarantee the creation of satisfactory texts. For example, many instructions for using household appliances are oversaturated with special terminology and therefore incomprehensible to a non-specialist. If any lecture is given without taking into account what the listeners really know about the subject of the lecture, the lecturer has little chance of being "accepted" by the audience.
The language has a large arsenal of tools. The main requirement for a good text is the use of such language tools that perform the tasks of communication (communicative tasks) with maximum completeness and efficiency. The study of a text from the point of view of the correspondence of its linguistic structure to the tasks of communication has received the name of the communicative aspect of the culture of language proficiency in the theory of speech culture.
The combination of knowledge of the language with the experience of verbal communication, the ability to construct speech in accordance with the requirements of life and perceive it, taking into account the author's intention and the circumstances of communication, provide a set communicative qualities of speech. These include: right(reflection of the ratio "speech - language"), consistency("speech - thinking"), accuracy("speech - reality"), conciseness("speech - communication"), clarity("speech - addressee"), wealth(“speech is the language competence of the author”), expressiveness("speech - aesthetics"), purity("speech - morality"), relevance(“speech is the addressee”, “speech is the situation of communication”).
The totality of the communicative qualities of speech in the speech life of an individual is combined into the concept of the speech culture of an individual, as well as a social and professional community of people.
Another aspect of the culture of speech - ethical. Every society has its own ethical standards of behavior. Ethics of communication, or speech etiquette, requires compliance with certain rules of linguistic behavior in certain situations.
The ethical component manifests itself mainly in speech acts - purposeful speech actions: the expression of a request, a question, gratitude, greetings, congratulations, etc. A speech act is carried out in accordance with special rules adopted in a given society and at a given time, which are determined by many factors that are not related to linguistics - the age of the participants in the speech act, official and unofficial relations between them, etc.
A special area of communication ethics is explicit and unconditional prohibitions on the use of certain language means, for example, foul language is strictly prohibited in any situation. Some intonational linguistic means may also be prohibited, for example, speaking in “raised tones”.
Thus, the ethical aspect of the culture of speech implies the necessary level of ethics of communication in different social and age groups of native speakers of the literary language, as well as between these groups.
Ensuring the maximum effectiveness of communication is associated with all three distinguished components (normative, communicative, ethical) of speech culture.
The modern Russian literary language, expressing the aesthetic-artistic, scientific, social, spiritual life of the people, serves the self-expression of the individual, the development of all forms of verbal art, creative thought, the moral revival and improvement of all aspects of society at a new stage of its development.
Control questions and tasks
1. What is linguistics?
2. Expand the content of the concept of "language system".
3. Name and describe the main units of the language. What is the basis of their selection and opposition?
4. What are language levels? List them.
5. What are paradigmatic, syntagmatic and hierarchical relations of language units? What are the main differences between them?
6. What sections does the science of language include?
7. What properties does a linguistic sign have?
8. What is the linearity of a linguistic sign?
9. How is the arbitrariness of a linguistic sign manifested?
10. What property of a linguistic sign is evidenced by pairs of words: braid(female) - braid(sandy); world(calm) - world(Universe)?
11. How do the concepts of "language" and "speech" relate?
12. Name and describe the functions of the language.
13. Define the culture of speech.
14. What is a literary language? What areas of human activity does it serve?
15. What are the main features of the literary language.
16. What are the three aspects of the culture of speech are considered leading? Describe them.
17. Expand the content of the concept of "norm of the literary language." List the characteristic features of the language norm.
18. Describe the communicative qualities of speech.
19. Name the main types of language norms.
Choose the correct answer
1. The units of the language are:
a) word, sentence, phrase;
b) phoneme, morpheme, judgment;
c) phrase, concept, morpheme.
2. In the means of evaluation, intonation, interjections, the following is realized:
a) emotive function of language;
b) phatic function of language;
c) cognitive function of language;
d) the appellative function of the language.
3. The characteristics of speech include:
a) materiality;
b) stability;
c) line organization;
d) independence from the situation;
d) personality.
4. Linguistics (linguistics) - science:
a) about natural human language;
b) about the properties of signs and sign systems;
c) about the mental processes associated with the generation and perception of speech;
d) about the structure and properties of scientific information;
e) about the life and culture of peoples.
5. The general typology of dictionaries is being developed by:
a) lexicography;
b) semasiology;
c) lexicology;
d) grammar.
6. Language connects with the mental activity of a person:
a) cognitive function;
b) emotive function;
c) phatic function;
d) appellative function.
7. The language is a universal means of communication between people, performing:
a) communication function;
b) phatic function;
c) metalinguistic function;
d) emotive function.
8. The characteristics of the language include:
a) abstraction;
b) activity, high variance;
c) the property of all members of society;
d) level organization;
e) contextual and situational conditioning.
9. Language units are connected by hierarchical relationships when:
a) phonemes are included in the sound shells of morphemes;
b) sentences consist of words;
c) morphemes, when connected, form words.
10. For naming and distinguishing objects of the surrounding reality is:
11. For naming and distinguishing objects of the surrounding reality is:
a) the nominative function of a language unit;
b) the communicative function of a language unit;
c) the formative function of a language unit.
12. To establish a connection between phenomena and transfer information is:
a) the communicative function of a language unit;
b) the nominative function of a language unit.
13. The semantic function is performed by:
a) phoneme;
b) morpheme;
d) offer.
14. The word-forming and inflectional function is performed by:
a) morpheme;
b) phoneme;
d) phrase.
15. The nominative function is performed by:
b) offer;
c) morpheme;
d) phoneme.
16. Words that form a synonymous series, an antonymic pair, enter:
a) in paradigmatic relations;
b) syntagmatic relations;
c) hierarchical relationships.
17. Sounds or morphemes in a word, words or phrases in a sentence can serve as an example of:
a) syntagmatic relations;
b) paradigmatic relations;
c) hierarchical relationships.
18. Semantic design and completeness - a sign:
a) proposals;
b) phrases;
19. A communicative sign is:
a) an offer
b) morpheme;
20. Natural signs include:
a) signs-signs;
b) traffic signs;
c) smoke in the forest;
d) symbols.
21. Artificial signs include:
a) signs-informers;
b) linguistic signs;
c) frosty pattern on glass;
d) hot sun.
22. The ability of a linguistic sign to combine with other signs is its:
a) combination;
b) linearity;
c) systematic;
d) bilateralism.
23. Language differs from other sign systems in that it:
a) material
b) social;
c) serves the society in all spheres of its activity.
Language exists as if it were alive because it functions, and it functions in speech.
The main object of linguistics is the natural human language, in contrast to the artificial language or the language of animals.
Two closely related concepts should be distinguished - language and speech.
Language- a tool, a means of communication. This is a system of signs, means and rules of speaking, common to all members of a given society. This phenomenon is constant for a given period of time.
Speech- the manifestation and functioning of the language, the process of communication itself; it is unique for every native speaker. This phenomenon is variable depending on the speaker.
Language and speech are two sides of the same phenomenon. Language is inherent in any person, and speech is inherent in a particular person.
Speech and language can be compared to a pen and text. Language is a pen, and speech is the text that is written with this pen.
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Language |
Speech |
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1. a kind of social code that exists in the minds of carriers. |
1. speech is individual. It is impossible to imagine collective speech, it is possible only on the basis of a common language. If there is no code, it is impossible to speak. |
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2. The language is perfect. It is unobservable; in order to present it, we must analyze the speech. |
2. speech is material. This is a physical and physiological phenomenon, and a written text is a recoding of oral speech. |
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3. Language is multidimensional. A complex structure, the elements of which are in different relationships. There are paradigmatic and syntagmatic connections. |
3. Speech - talk! Linear. The elements are arranged sequentially, we can measure the time, count the number of lines. |
Lyrics:
The term "native language" does not mean "innate", but only "acquired in early childhood". Language penetrates into the consciousness of each person, of course, “from outside”, penetrates because this language is used by other people around. Following their example, this person himself begins to use it from childhood. And, on the other hand, the language is gradually forgotten, and in the end completely disappears from memory (even the native language), if a person for some reason stops using it.
From all this it is clear that one can speak of the true existence of a language only insofar as it is used. Language exists as a living language because it functions. And it functions in speech, in statements, in speech acts.
The distinction between the concepts of "language" and "speech" was first put forward and justified in a clear form by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), the greatest theorist in the field of general linguistics and one of the founders of the modern stage in the development of our science. Then these concepts were further developed by other scientists, in particular, Acad. L.V. Shcherboy (1880-1944) and his students. Let us note that under speech (according to Saussure "la parole") modern linguistics understands not only oral speech, but also written speech. In a broad sense, the concept of "speech" also includes the so-called "inner speech", i.e., thinking with the help of linguistic means (words, etc.), carried out "inwardly", without speaking aloud.
A separate act of speech, a speech act, in normal cases is a two-way process, covering speaking and proceeding in parallel and simultaneously auditory perception and understanding of what is heard. In written communication, the speech act covers, respectively, writing and reading (visual perception and understanding) of what is written, and the participants in communication can be distant from each other in time and space.
A speech act is a manifestation of speech activity. Text is created in a speech act. Linguists designate by this term not only a written, fixed one way or another text, but also any “speech work” created by someone (whether written down or just spoken) of any length - from a one-word replica to a whole story, poem or book. In inner speech, an “inner text” is created, that is, a speech work that has developed “in the mind”, but has not been embodied orally or in writing.
Why would a spoken (or written) statement normally be correctly understood by the addressee?
Firstly, because it is built from elements whose form and meaning are known to the addressee (let's say, for simplicity, from words, although, as we will see, other units can be considered elements of the statement).
Secondly, because these elements are connected into a meaningful whole according to certain rules, also known (albeit largely intuitively) to our interlocutor or reader. Possession of this system of rules allows both to build a meaningful text and to restore its content from the perceived text.
It is these elements of the utterance and the rules of their connection that are precisely the language of our participants in communication, parts of their language, i.e., the language of the collective to which these individuals belong. The language (for Saussure "la langue") of a particular group is the system of elements at the disposal of this group - units of different tiers (words, meaningful parts of words, etc.) plus a system of rules for the functioning of these units, which is also basically the same for everyone who uses this language.
The system of units is also called the inventory of the language; a system of rules for the functioning of units, i.e., rules for the generation of a meaningful statement (and thus the rules for its understanding by the grammar of this language).
Language and speech differ in the same way, as a rule, the grammar and phrases in which this rule is used, or the word in the dictionary and the countless uses of this word in different texts. Speech is a form of the existence of language. Language functions and is "immediately given" in speech.
“Speech is a concrete speaking, flowing in time and clothed in sound (including internal pronunciation) or written form. Speech is understood as both the process of speaking (speech activity) and its result (speech products fixed by memory or writing). (Speech // Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary / Edited by V.N. Yartseva M. 1990)
“Language should be understood as a system of objectively existing, socially fixed signs that correlate conceptual content and typical sound, as well as a system of rules for their use and compatibility.” (ibid.)
1. Language and speech: common and different.
L.V. Shcherba believed that speech is one of the sides, or components, of language (in the broad sense of the word). In language he saw:
● structure (grammar, vocabulary, system of sounds, etc.);
● mechanisms of speech, or pragmatics of language;
● language material, ie. the totality of everything that is written in the language, pronounced - in its best literary samples.
In speech, all the riches of the language, all its expressive possibilities are realized. And this is the only channel for their implementation. At the same time, the language is enriched through speech, it includes new words, new shades of already known words, their meanings, new compatibility options, new phraseology. In the speech element, everything new in the language arises, the old is rethought and re-evaluated, the “linguistic taste of the era” is formed (V. G. Kostomarov).
As you know, language is a sign system. Signs are morphemes, words, phraseological units, phrases, sentences. The system refers to the levels of the language, its internal connections, interactions, language rules, paradigms, models.
Language as a sign system is used by people to form and express thoughts, emotions, for internal dialogue, communication with other people of the same language community.
Speech is communication itself, the expression of thought, the self-expression of a person. Speech is verbal, linguistic communication, self-expression.
Language is a potential system of signs, it does not come into action by itself, it is stored in the memory of every person - a linguistic personality, it is neutral in relation to the life boiling around. Its signs and rules are recorded in numerous folios, thus it is preserved for all speakers of a given language (for example, Russian), and for posterity, and for history.
Speech is an action and its product, it is the activity of people, it is always motivated - caused by circumstances, a situation, always has a specific goal, is aimed at solving any problems - social and personal.
The language strives for stability, it is conservative, it does not accept innovations immediately, but only under the pressure of the requirements of its goals and consumers.
For example, the Russian language of the times of A.S. Pushkin to us - after almost 200 years - is not only quite understandable, but also basically serves as a model, a standard.
Speech allows liberties, it is in speech (in usage) that new words, phonetic and even grammatical deviations appear, which either remain random, occasional and soon disappear, are forgotten or, gradually asserting themselves, become facts of the language system.
The language is subject to a strict norm, which in the state acquires the force of a legal law. The norm is established, more precisely, formulated by linguists who are guided by tradition, the laws of the language, the literary use of language means, and linguistic intuition. The norm is preserved in the form of dictionaries (explanatory, orthoepic, spelling), in sets of grammatical and spelling rules. The best theaters are the guardians of the literary norm.
Speech, too, ideally, obeys the norm of the literary language - both in word usage, and in pronunciation, and in spelling, but violations of the norm in the speech element still take place, since speech, unlike language, is individual. With all the efforts of the school and other educational systems, it is unlikely that one will ever be able to achieve one hundred percent mastery of the literary norm, because speech both affirms and constantly corrects it, itself updates the norm.
It should not be forgotten that violations of the norm are sometimes necessary as a means of higher expressiveness. I.S. Turgenev, one of the most strict stylists (his works are widely used in teaching the Russian literary language), sometimes deliberately violates the norm: he pronounces the word principles nihilist Bazarov as “pryntsypy”, and Kirsanov - “prensips”, in the French way. The purpose of the author's violation of the norm is the linguistic characteristics of these characters.
Language stabilizes, unites the people, the nation, the state, performs protective functions. Such concepts as "state language", "language of interethnic communication" are known. The language is characterized by centripetal tendencies
Speech, being the realization of language, of course, also unites people of the same nationality and even representatives of different nationalities, but at the same time it gives rise to jargons, slang, professionalism, preserves the dialectal and individual characteristics of people. In other words, speech is subject to centrifugal tendencies.
Language serves the whole people as a linguistic community; in this sense, it is indifferent to individuals. Speech is always individual, it is produced by the individual, serves him, reflects and expresses him as a person, it is situational.
The language has a level structure (its levels: pronunciation, morpheme, lexical, morphological, syntactic, text level). Speech is linear, it unfolds in time and space like a ribbon or a chain.
The language is finite: it has a strict number of sounds (phonemes), morphemes, cases, even the number of words at any given moment is finite and can be counted.
Speech is theoretically infinite: the number of sentences is so great that it is hardly possible to count, and the number of texts cannot be counted even theoretically.
Speech as a process has a certain tempo, duration, volume, in written form - a font, location on a sheet. The language does not have such characteristics.
The signs of the language, primarily words, reflect the realities of life, but outside of speech, outside of the text, they are, as it were, silent, abstract. They are not included in event content.
In speech, in its generation and process, the primary factor is always the content, the transmitted thought, as it were, leads the speech tape. The language design of the thought expressed in speech, from the point of view of the speaker and writer, is secondary, it can be variant. The same content can be expressed by different means, and this possibility often becomes the goal of the speaker (for example, if he was not understood). Text editing is aimed at this variance; flexibility of expression of thought becomes the goal of teaching at school.
Speech is always subject to qualitative assessment, including from the standpoint of morality. We can say truthful speech - false speech, sincere speech - hypocritical speech, beautiful, artistic, expressive speech - sloppy, obscene, illiterate speech. Such estimates are not applicable to language.
But the unification of meanings is not excluded: speaking about the language of A.S. Pushkin, we mean not only his speech activity, but also the enrichment of the language, the reformatory role of the poet in the development of the Russian literary language.
We see the same unification in the concept of "linguistic personality", which is included in the circle of linguistic research. This concept combines such features of an individual as the degree of proficiency in the native language, the development of speech mechanisms (automatism), knowledge of non-native languages, possession of them, the individual style of a person’s speech, his creative data (literary creativity, artistry), literacy and culture of speech, speech activity of the individual , philological knowledge, the presence or absence of defects in speech, inclinations and hobbies in the field of languages, etc.
The speech reflects the personality of the speaker, the native speaker: linguistic influences in childhood and throughout life, the educational, cultural level of a person, his experience, his hobbies. Wilhelm Humboldt wrote: "It is only in the speech of the individual that language reaches its ultimate definiteness." Learning a language without speech, without texts is impossible. This is confirmed by a wide variety of situations: long-dead languages become the property of modern science. So, Sanskrit, ancient Greek, Gothic, Latin, Old Russian become the property of our time only through the texts that have come down to us, i.e. through recorded speech.
As you deepen into the study of speech, the latter more and more “acquires” the so-called non-verbal components of speech, communication: gestures, facial expressions, pantomime, shades of voice, intonations, elements of the situation or the background of communication, omissions, previous experience, etc. Allusion is based on the latter - a hint, accessible to the understanding of only a few people, sometimes only two: they understand each other perfectly, and those around them do not understand anything.
Verbal communication alone, devoid of the emotional factor, visual and other perceptions, loses a lot, perhaps the most valuable. As a result of such communication, a person does not understand a joke, a hint, he is deprived of a sense of humor, does not perceive connotations - those additional stylistic or semantic openings that deepen the hidden meaning of what was said, give the statement a tone of ease, intimacy or alienation, etc.
Therefore, in modern linguistics, the theory of discourse is actively developing (“speech as an act, action, as an event” - French). Discourse is speech immersed in life, one of the components of activity, interaction of people. Discourse involves the study, creation, modeling of frames (typical situations) and scenarios, which can help in the study of speech and their application in life. The discourse is also addressed to mental factors, as well as to the peculiarities of speech perception: its pace, style key of communication; to the forms of etiquette, including speech etiquette, the nature (level) of humor, allusions. Indeed, often the listener has to figure out whether it is possible to take what he hears seriously, and which of the two or three possible understandings of what he hears is the main one.
It is no coincidence that modern linguistic science turned to hermeneutics - the science of interpreting ancient texts, transferring its function and methods to the modern mutual understanding of people.
It is easy to see that traditional linguistics cuts off all the factors listed above as non-linguistic, thereby impoverishing the multicolored palette of people's real speech communication.
Another interesting question is what came first - language or speech. Modern hypotheses admit that communication was primary (at the dawn of mankind): the need to transmit information, for example, about an emerging danger, forced our ancestors to assign a constant meaning to stable signals (signs): for example, a certain cry served as a signal of danger, another - an invitation to food. A certain number of signals gradually accumulated - signs with a constant meaning, and this is already the beginning of a language, a sign system. Then the rules for connecting words, signs for expressing more complex content became necessary, and this is the germ of grammar. By the way, it is possible that the first signs could not be acoustic, but rather graphic: a broken branch, a line in the sand, stacked pebbles, etc.
3. Basic concepts of the theory of language and speech.
The theoretical development of the problem of language and speech is mainly associated with the name of Saussure, who attributed the distinction between language and speech to the very subject of study - the phenomenon of language (in his terminology langage "speech activity"), in which, as he believed, objects of a fundamentally different nature are connected: language (langue) and speech (parole). He believed that, although language and speech are interdependent in their existence, they are irreducible to each other and cannot be considered from one point of view, and "speech activity, taken as a whole, is unknowable, since it is heterogeneous." Saussure therefore insisted on a distinction between the linguistics of language and the linguistics of speech. Saussure's concept was criticized for too sharp a distinction between language (language system) and speech, which led to an excessive abstraction of the metalanguage of linguistics, the subject of which was limited to the language system. The idea of heterogeneity, dialectical inconsistency of the phenomenon of language has been expressed by scientists before. Thus, Humboldt distinguished between language, defined by him as an activity of the spirit (energeia), the form of language - permanent elements and connections realized in speech activity, and the product of this activity (ergon)
In Soviet linguistics of the 30s. 20th century language was considered as a multifunctional phenomenon, the study of which cannot be separated from specific forms of speech. The language system was defined as a set of rules for speech activity (works by L.V. Sherba, E.D. Polivanov, etc.). Similar thoughts have already been expressed by I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, who distinguished between two types of language units - language units and functional speech units. In Russian linguistics, A. I. Smirnitsky attributed to the language everything that is reproduced in speech (words, phraseological units, morphological forms), and to speech - everything that is produced in the process of communication (phrases, specific sentences). Such a point of view aroused the objections of those who saw in language and speech two aspects of one phenomenon. T. P. Lomtev believed that "all linguistic units are units of language and speech: on one side they are turned to the language, on the other - to speech." The units of speech are the realizations of the units of the language. This point of view can be applied to such constructive units as phonemes, morphemes, words, syntactic structures, cf. such pairs of units as background and phoneme, morph and morpheme, in which the "emic" member belongs to the language system and is characterized by invariant features implemented in speech variants (morphs, backgrounds). Meanwhile, the segments resulting from the division of the speech flow according to phonetic and concrete semantic features, i.e. syllables, measures (syntagma, in the understanding of Shcherba), super-phrasal units (for written speech - paragraphs), are usually considered only as units of speech ( text), although they also have some typical characteristics. The distinction between the units of language and speech, according to this view, turns out to be due to the magnitude of the discrepancies between the type fixed in the language system and its speech realizations. For a phoneme, a morpheme, and a word, this relationship is different than for a sentence. Some scholars have proposed to single out other aspects in the language, albeit correlative with the opposition of language and speech. In computer science and communication theory, operating not only natural, but also artificial languages, the opposition of code and message is used. Those who consider speech in a static, structural aspect use the opposition of the system and the text (L. Elmslev).
In a number of concepts, not two, but three aspects of the language are distinguished. The idea of the possibility of a threefold approach to language, echoing the ideas of Humboldt, was expressed in 1931 by L.V. Shcherboy, who distinguished:
● speech activity (processes of speaking and understanding of speech), produced by the psychophysiological mechanisms of the individual;
● language system (dictionary and grammar of the language);
● linguistic material, i.e. the totality of everything spoken and understood in one or another environment.
Koseryu added to the opposition of language and speech the third component - the norm, understood as a socially fixed usage - obligatory forms in the stereotypes accepted in a given society. Here he included not only the phenomena of speech (for example, situationally determined stereotypes), but also the phenomena of language, such as paradigms of declension and conjugation that deviate from the productive pattern. Thus, in the system of language and in speech, a certain “petrified” component was isolated, protected from changes by the normative activity of society. Some researchers (G. V. Kolshansky) reduced the opposition of language and speech to the opposition of a real object to its scientific description (theoretical model). This point of view, which replaces the ontological difference with an epistemic one, is vulnerable, because it makes the existence of a language (language system) dependent on the existence of linguistics, which develops models for its description, while the language system itself loses stability, since the same speech reality allows differences in modeling. Saussure's opposition of language and speech thus turned into a problem of the reality and objectivity of the system of language. The latter was either defined as a part or aspect of speech (text), or identified with a scientific model based on speech material, or understood as some psychological or sociopsychological category - language knowledge, a person’s language ability, “a set of imprints that everyone has in their voice” ( Saussure). The modern version of the psychological tradition is the opposition of language competence and language performance (competence and performance) introduced by N. Chomsky, which is an analogue of the opposition of language and speech. Competence is understood as some generative device that creates speech works. The term "performance", already used by Saussure (French execution), detracts from the creative nature of speech production.
Thus, language (code) and speech form a single phenomenon of human language and each specific language, taken in its certain state. Speech is the embodiment, the realization of the language (code), which reveals itself in speech and only through it fulfills its communicative purpose. If language is a tool (means) of communication, then speech is the type of communication produced by this tool; it is created by the application of the old language to the new reality. Speech introduces language into the context of use.
LECTURE 4. THE CONCEPT OF THE SYSTEM AND STRUCTURE OF THE LANGUAGE. LANGUAGE UNITS AND STRUCTURAL RELATIONS BETWEEN THEM. LEVELS OF THE LANGUAGE SYSTEM.
The problem of language as a system was first raised by Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913). He never used the word "structure" in any sense. For him, the concept of a system was the most essential. Here are some of the formulations of F. De Saussure: "Language is a system that obeys only its own order" ... "Language is a system of arbitrary signs" ... "Language is a system, all parts of which can be considered in their synchronic unity" ... F. De Saussure argues that the system takes precedence over its constituent elements.
Another innovator in solving the problem of "the system and structure of language" is Ivan Alexandrovich Baudouin de Courtenay (1845-1929). His ideas anticipated the modern understanding of language as a system. He puts forward his understanding of the language system as a set, the parts of which are interconnected by relations of meaning, form, etc.
The term "structure" was introduced by the founders of the Prague School. The structure is understood by them as a whole, consisting, as opposed to a simple combination of elements, of interconnected and interdependent elements.
In modern linguistics, the structure is considered as a set of connections and relations that organize elements in the composition of the whole, and the system is considered as a set of elements organized by connections and relations into a single whole.
When there are many signs, there is always the possibility of certain relationships between signs. The totality of relations between them forms a structure, and together they, therefore, are a system. Language is a system of systems, a heterogeneous system.
Any system is a set of interconnected elements, an element of the system carries some essential features of this system, and the main unit has all the basic properties inherent in the whole. Based on this, we can conclude that the language unit has all the basic properties of the language, its essential common features. To identify language units, it is necessary to segment the sentence. The sentence can be divided into phrases. Next, words (word forms) are highlighted. As part of the word form, morphemes are distinguished, which in turn can be divided into phonemes.
The invariant units of the language can be represented as the following scheme:
sentence / phrase - word form - morpheme - phoneme
Accordingly, we speak about the levels (or tiers) of syntactic, lexical, morphological and phonological. The level is understood as a set of structurally organized empirical units, which is one of the subsystems that hierarchically form an integral language system. Language units of varying degrees of complexity are located at different levels. Hierarchical relations organize the totality of language units into a system of levels (tiers). There is a direct connection between the concept of a linguistic unit and the concept of a level: the level is that part of the language system that has the corresponding unit; the presence of its own level in the linguistic hierarchy is considered a defining feature of a linguistic unit. The level includes a set of all relatively homogeneous units (units of the same degree of complexity) that can enter into syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations with each other, but cannot be in hierarchical relations (phonemes cannot consist of phonemes, morphemes cannot consist of morphemes, words cannot be words).
Structural tiers of the language system:
Segmentation Integration
Syntactic level
OFFER
Lexical level
LEXEMA
Morphological level
MORPHEME
Phonological level
PHONEME
Some researchers distinguish between the level of sentences and the level of words the level of phrases. But more often it is believed that phrases, along with syllables, constitute intermediate levels between the main ones: phonological and morphological (syllables), or the level of words and the level of sentences (phrases).
Syntactic is recognized as the highest level, and phonological is recognized as the lowest. The function of language units is their ability to form units of a higher level. The unit of this level can potentially act as the minimum unit of the next level in the hierarchy. Thus, phonemes function as integrants of morphemes and words. Morphemes act as integrants of words. Word forms act as integrants of the sentence. The chain of occurrence of lower units in the upper ones can be represented as follows:
phoneme - morpheme - word form - sentence.
Thus, it turns out that units of lower levels, for example, morphemes and the levels formed by them, belong to language as a means, and units of higher levels, for example, sentences and the level formed by them, belong to speech, i.e., to the use of language. Words, if we consider them as units of some middle level (higher than the level of morphemes, and lower than the level of sentences), can belong both to language proper (reproduced words) and to speech (produced words). Because of this, this level, in contrast to the lower and higher levels, includes both units of language and units of speech. If language is a tool or means, and speech is the application of this tool, then speech can be considered "language at work", in functioning. For language as a means of communication, the verbal level is the highest level. The units formed with the help of units of this level, as a rule, already belong to speech (with the exception of phraseological units and idioms).
Language units from a morpheme and above are two-sided units that have form and meaning, semantics.
Relations of occurrence and relations of inequality, dependence, subordination can connect not only units of different levels, but also units within the same level. So, a word form can consist of a stem and a formant, a sentence member - of the leading and dependent members of the phrase. The inconsistency of such formations in relation to the concept of hierarchical relations in the language system is overcome by the introduction of the concept of intermediate levels (tiers) of the language system. The main tiers in such a concept are the tiers of minimal, further indivisible units. The units of the intermediate levels act in relation to the units of the next higher level as their parts: thus, the stem, which is often a linearly larger unit than the morpheme, is only part of the word form. Yu.S. Maslov called such intermediate units tmemes. For tmemes, a paired existence within the framework of units of the highest tier is typical: the main and dependent members of phrases, the stem and formant, the subject and the predicate. It is also typical that tmemes mutually presuppose each other.
With each transition to a higher level, there is a change in two directions: in the degree of complexity of a single unit and in the number of units that together make up the next level. A morpheme is more complex than a phoneme, the number of morphemes is much greater than that of phonemes. A word is more complex than a morpheme, the number of words is many times greater than the number of morphemes. But if the assertion that a sentence is a unit more complex than a word is undoubtedly true, then the assertion that there are more sentences in a language than words simply does not make sense, since sentences are fundamentally uncountable. If the corpus of words, for all its multiplicity, is all conceived as something finite, to be reflected in dictionaries, then the corpus of sentences cannot exist at all as such, since the sentence is the product of an individual act of predication.
Language units enter into relationships with each other. The properties of all units of the language are manifested in their relations with other units of the language. There are four global relations: paradigmatic, syntagmatic, hierarchical and derivational. With the exception of paradigmatic ones that exist only in language, other global relations connect units not only in language, but also in speech (speech activity).
Paradigmatic - these are associative relations (grouping units into classes based on commonality or similarity, their some essential properties). Thus, phonemes are grouped into different classes or paradigms, for example, classes of vowels and consonants. These classes, in turn, are combined into a common class of "phonemes". Such a class is an extremely wide union of these units in the language. It can no longer be combined into a wider class with any other units of the language.
Syntagmatic are the relations of units in a linear sequence. By no means any units of the language can enter into syntagmatic relations, but only units of relatively the same degree of complexity (relatively homogeneous units). Thus, for example, in a linear sequence, phonemes are combined neither with morphemes nor with words, but only with other phonemes; morphemes do not combine with phonemes or words, but only with other morphemes; words combine only with other words, but not with sentences and not with phrases.
Hierarchical - these are relations according to the degree of complexity, or relations of "entry" of less complex units into more complex ones. Hierarchical relations characterize only relations between units of different levels, i.e., relations of qualitatively different quantities. At the same time, the transition from a unit of a lower level to a unit of a higher level is carried out, as a rule, as a result of combination, i.e., the realization of the syntagmatic properties of elements of a lower level (we are talking, I emphasize again, about the structure of the language in its synchronous state). So, combinations of phonemes make up the sound shells of morphemes, combinations of morphemes form words, and combinations of words form sentences. But this means that hierarchical relations are represented in the syntagmatics of the language (in its speech chains). In other words, syntagmatic relations act as a form of existence of hierarchical relations. Therefore, in the sentence, all levels of the language are represented by their relations. This in turn means that all levels can be found in the speech chain, or in syntagmatics. Because of this, one can hardly consider the remark of S. D. Katsnelson that “by extracting language units directly from a phrase, arranging them into levels depending on the sequence of their isolation from a phrase, the theory of levels clearly simplifies the matter. Of the two types of relations that characterize speech activity - paradigmatic and combinational - it, in essence, takes into account only combinatorial ones. But the point is precisely that syntagmatics is the firm of the existence of hierarchy. Therefore, units of different levels can only be "extracted" from a phrase. Another thing is that the unification of units of one degree of complexity (i.e., relatively homogeneous units) into a superparadigm (level) requires going beyond the limits of syntagmatics and taking into account the ability of units to be combined into classes, i.e., taking into account their paradigmatic properties. But this, ultimately, again implies an appeal to the speech chain (syntagmatics), since the members of one paradigm are usually considered to be such elements that either occupy the “same place” in the speech chain (without any restrictions), or used in the speech chain are in the relationship of "additional distribution", as, for example, different forms of the same word.
Different linguists value the importance of considering language at different levels in different ways. In the Russian linguistic tradition, the word level is usually regarded as central to the description of a language system. On the contrary, English-speaking linguists can even meet the denial of this level. Such heterogeneity is explained not only by the fact that different researchers show a difference in their own interest in different aspects of language activity. The point is that in different natural languages, objectively different linguistic tiers are distinguished with unequal definiteness. So there are languages called isolating, root isolating, in which (ideally) each syllable is an independent meaningful word, and each word is a separate syllable. Here the units of three tiers coincide: syllable - morpheme - word. Such languages include Chinese, Vietnamese, and some others in Southeast Asia. The English language also approached this type in its historical development. In it, a typical word is a monosyllabic element in which it is impossible to distinguish meaningful components (morphemes). So the material of the English language objectively provokes the indistinguishability of the verbal and morphemic tiers.
In other languages, other tiers may merge. Thus, in languages called polysynthetic, incorporating each word is formed as an integral statement, and each statement (sentence) is organized as a single word, in which all members of the message, both new and old, are represented by non-independent morphemes that cannot be distinguished outside the word. Thus, verbal-level units merge with sentence-level units. Some languages of the northern peoples, the Caucasus, and American Indians approach this type. Although there are no pure types.
Language features (Maslov Yu.S. "Introduction to linguistics")
§ 7. In linguistics, the word "function" is usually used in the sense of "work performed", "appointment", "role". The first function of the language is communicative (from Latin communicatio "communication"), its purpose is to serve as an instrument of communication, that is, primarily the exchange of thoughts. But language is not only a means of conveying a “ready thought”. It is also a means of the very formation of thought. As the outstanding Soviet psychologist L. S. Vygotsky (1896-1934) said, thought is not only expressed in the word, but is also accomplished in the word. The communicative function of language is inextricably linked with its second central function - thought-forming. With this function in mind, the largest linguist-thinker of the first half of the 19th century. Wilhelm Humboldt (1767-1835) called language "the forming organ of thought". The organic unity of the two central functions of language and the continuity of its existence in society make language the custodian and treasury of the socio-historical experience of generations.
The relationship between language and thought will be discussed in more detail below. As for the communicative function of language, its separate aspects are distinguished in science, in other words, a number of more particular functions: ascertaining - to serve for a simple "neutral" report of a fact (cf. declarative sentences), interrogative - to serve as a request for a fact (cf. interrogative sentences, interrogative words), appellative (from Latin appello "I address someone") - serve as a means of calling, inducing to certain actions (cf. forms of the imperative mood, incentive sentences), expressive - to express (selection words or intonation) the personality of the speaker, his mood and emotions, establishing contact - the function of creating and maintaining contact between the interlocutors, when there is still (or already) no significant information to be transmitted (cf. greeting formulas at a meeting and farewell, exchange of remarks about the weather and etc.), metalinguistic - the function of interpreting linguistic facts (for example, explaining the meaning of a word that is incomprehensible to the interlocutor), aesthetic - the function of aesthetic impact. A special place is occupied by the function of an indicator (indicator) of belonging to a certain group of people (to a nation, nationality, to a particular profession, etc.). In the case of conscious use of this function, it turns into a kind of means of self-determination of the individual in society.
In concrete utterances, particular functions of language usually appear in various combinations with each other. The statement, as a rule, is multifunctional. Vivid expression can be in an incentive sentence, and in a question, and in a greeting formula, and when stating a fact, and when explaining a word that turned out to be incomprehensible; a sentence that is narrative in form (for example, It's late) may contain a hidden motivation, i.e., perform an appellative function.
Language and speech.
The concept of language and speech are among the most important and complex concepts of linguistics, they are of great importance for the norms of the language and its practical description. However, in the practice of linguistics, sometimes there are cases of mixing the facts of language and speech, so it is necessary to accurately determine the essence of these concepts.
The problem was first formulated by Humboldt. He distinguished language as an organ that forms thought, and speech as a process. Other linguists also differentiated these concepts. Saussure developed a whole doctrine, understanding language as a system of signs and rules for their combination, and speech as the use of this sign system, as communication.
The differences seemed incompatible => divided the science of language into linguistics of language and linguistics of speech. But scientists did not agree with his conclusions, because. between language and speech, despite their differences and contradictions, there is a dialectical connection.
Modern understanding of the problem.
The dichotomous concept of language and speech today is the majority of linguists. Language and speech stand out.
Language- a spontaneously arising system of signs and rules for their combination, designed for communication.
Speech- language in action, the use of language for the purpose of communication.
Language and speech can be compared with anatomy (an organ and physiologists, respectively).
Language and speech necessarily presuppose each other and form a dialectical unity. Natural language is the language of words. The word is equated with the sign. Language is defined as a particular system of signs, and speech is a question based on this system.
Differences between Language and Speech:
Language: Speech:
From a logical point of view.
Language and speech are social and individual. Language is social in its functional nature, in its purpose. It is individual in the way of storage, since the storage is the human brain.
Speech serves to unite people into a team and is built on the basis of a single language for all this amount. The individuality of speech is manifested:
1) in the selection of language elements
2) in the frequency of certain elements of the language
3) in the order of the arrangement of language elements in the phrase
4) in various modifications of linguistic elements (metaphors, tropes, author's neologisms).
Language and thinking
Language and thinking are two inextricably linked types of social activity that differ from each other in their essence and specific characteristics. “Thinking is the highest form of active reflection of objective reality, purposeful, mediated and generalized knowledge of the essential connections and relations of objects and phenomena. It is carried out in various forms and structures (concepts, categories, theories), in which the cognitive and socio-historical experience of mankind is fixed and generalized” (“Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary”, 1983).
Thinking processes manifest themselves in three main forms that act in complex interaction - practical-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical. “The tool of thinking is language, as well as other systems of signs (both abstract, for example, mathematical, and concrete- figurative, for example, the language of art)” (ibid.). Language is a sign (in its original form, sound) activity that provides the material design of thoughts and the exchange of information between members of society. Thinking, with the exception of its practical-active form, has a mental, ideal nature, while language is a physical, material phenomenon in its primary nature.
In the course of the historical development of language and thinking, the nature of their interaction did not remain unchanged. At the initial stages of the development of society, language, which developed primarily as a means of communication, at the same time was included in the processes of thinking, supplementing its two initial types - practical-effective and visual-figurative - with a new, qualitatively higher type of verbal-logical thinking and thereby actively stimulating the development of thinking in general. The development of writing increased the influence of language on thinking and on the very intensity of linguistic communication, and significantly increased the possibilities of language as a means of shaping thoughts. In general, as the historical development of thinking in all its forms, its impact on the language gradually increases, affecting mainly the expansion of the meanings of words, the quantity, the growth of the lexical and phraseological composition of the language, reflecting the enrichment of the conceptual apparatus of thinking, and the clarification and differentiation of syntactic means. expressions of semantic relations.
The most important conventional signs of human culture are words. Objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality are rarely completely subject to a person, and the words - signs that we designate them, obey our will, connecting into semantic chains - phrases. It is easier to operate with signs, with the meanings that are attached to them, than with the phenomena themselves. With the help of words, you can interpret other sign systems (for example, you can describe a picture). Language is a universal material that is used by people in explaining the world and forming one or another of its models. Although the artist can do this with the help of visual images, and the musician - with the help of sounds, but they are all armed, first of all, with signs of a universal code - language.
Language is a special sign system. Any language consists of various words, that is, conventional sound signs denoting various objects and processes, as well as rules that allow you to build sentences from these words. Sentences are the means of expressing thoughts. With the help of interrogative sentences, people ask, express their bewilderment or ignorance, with the help of imperative sentences they give orders, declarative sentences serve to describe the world around them, to transfer and express knowledge about it. The set of words of a particular language forms its dictionary. The dictionaries of the most developed modern languages contain tens of thousands of words. With their help, thanks to the rules for combining and combining words into sentences, you can write and pronounce an unlimited number of meaningful phrases, filling hundreds of millions of articles, books and files with them. Because of this, the language allows you to express a variety of thoughts, describe the feelings and experiences of people, formulate mathematical theorems, etc.
It is possible to separate two ways of the existence of thought with the help of language: "living thought", i.e. actually experienced by a given person in a given interval of time and space and “alienated thought” recorded in the text, etc. “Living thought” is actually thinking, its real ontological deployment. It is never abstract thinking, i.e. with which science deals. The latter is possible only in a form alienated from humans, for example, in a computer. The real process of thinking carried out by an individual is a complex and dynamic formation in which many components are integrated: abstract-discursive, sensory-imaginative, emotional, intuitive. To this should be added the indispensable inclusion in the process of thinking of goal-forming, volitional and sanctioning factors, which have been studied very poorly so far. As you can see, the real process of thinking and thinking, as a subject of logic, as a logical process, are very different from each other.
To this day, the most incomprehensible and just as attractive for study from the side of linguistics, psychology, linguistics, psycholinguistics, logic and other sciences is the topic of the relationship between language and human consciousness. Even without knowing the laws by which thinking carries out its work, and only roughly guessing how our speech activity is carried out, we have no doubt that thinking and language are interconnected. How many times in life each of us had to communicate some information to someone. In this case, the process of speaking is intended to generate the process of understanding in the recipient of information.
The relevance of the problem of the relationship between language and consciousness is not the only one in our time, there are still a number of unanswered questions, and one of them, in our opinion, is the most interesting: which element in this bundle is dominant - language or thinking; we say because we think so or we think because we say so.
Language is a system of verbal expression of thoughts. But the question arises, can a person think without resorting to language?
Most researchers believe that thinking can exist only on the basis of language and in fact identify language and thinking.
Even the ancient Greeks used the word "logos" to denote the word, speech, spoken language and at the same time to denote the mind, thought. They began to separate the concepts of language and thought much later.
mentalinguistics - a section of the OL that studies the relationship between language and thinking. Mentalinguistics comes into contact with other sections of linguistics - ethnolinguistics and psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and linguosemiotics, as well as a number of related sciences - logic and psychology, ethnography and semiotics, philosophy and sociology. It is these connections that explain the existence of the main mentalinguistic directions: logical, psychological, semiotic and contensive. The logical direction is the most influential, but not homogeneous. The subject of logical mentalinguistics is the study of the logical in the word and pre-th, the relationship of the concept and judgment as forms of thinking with the meaning of the word and pre-e; the syntactic expression of the inference is also investigated. Logical mentalinguistics also pays attention to cases of discrepancy between logical and linguistic forms. The psychological direction is opposed to logical mentalinguistics. Therefore, psychological mentalinguistics is characterized by emphasizing the discrepancy between forms of language and logical forms and criticizing logical metalinguistics. In the semiotic direction, language is understood as a form, and meaning is understood as a function that manifests itself when using the language, when studying the context and the sign situation. Contensive mentalinguistics studies linguistic meanings as mental formations, their types and kinds, structure, relation to logical and psychological categories, universal and idioethnic properties. Contensive mentalinguistics is the doctrine of sign meanings as special concepts, their categories and structures.
Types of thinking
One of the classifications of the types of mental activity of people according to the signs of extraversion and introversion, the dominance of the rational or irrational, emotional and logical in the processes of thinking was proposed by K. Jung. He identified the following types of people according to the nature of thinking:
intuitive type. It is characterized by the predominance of emotions over logic and the dominance of the right hemisphere of the brain over the left.
Thinking type. It is characterized by rationality and the predominance of the left hemisphere of the brain over the right, the primacy of logic over intuition and feeling.
The criterion of truth for the intuitive type is the feeling of correctness and practice, and the criterion of correctness for the mental type is experiment and the logical impeccability of the conclusion.
The cognition of the thinking type differs essentially from the cognition of the intuitive type. The thinking type is usually interested in knowledge as such, seeks and establishes a logical connection between phenomena, while the intuitive type is focused on pragmatics, on the practically useful use of knowledge, regardless of their truth and logical consistency.
Relationship between thought and speech.
The word is a means of communication, therefore it is part of speech. Being devoid of meaning, the word no longer refers to either thought or speech; acquiring its meaning, it immediately becomes an organic part of both. It is in the meaning of the word, says L. S. Vygotsky, that the knot of that unity, which is called verbal thinking, is tied.
However, thinking and speech have different genetic roots. Initially, they performed different functions and developed separately. The original function of speech was the communicative function. Speech itself as a means of communication arose due to the need to separate and coordinate the actions of people in the process of joint work. At the same time, in verbal communication, the content conveyed by speech belongs to a certain class of phenomena and, consequently, already by this presupposes their generalized reflection, i.e., the fact of thinking. At the same time, for example, such a method of communication as a pointing gesture does not carry any generalization in itself and therefore does not apply to thought.
In turn, there are types of thinking that are not associated with speech, for example, visual-effective, or practical, thinking in animals. In small children and in higher animals, peculiar means of communication are found that are not connected with thinking. These are expressive movements, gestures, facial expressions that reflect the internal states of a living being, but are not a sign or generalization. In the phylogenesis of thinking and speech, a pre-speech phase in the development of intellect and a pre-intellectual phase in the development of speech clearly emerge.
inner speech
Inner speech is a hidden verbalization that accompanies the process of thinking. Its manifestations are most pronounced in the mental solution of various problems, mental planning, attentive listening to the speech of other people, reading texts to oneself, while memorizing and recalling. In terms of inner speech, the logical ordering of the perceived data is carried out, their inclusion in a certain system of concepts, self-instruction is carried out, and an analysis of one's actions and experiences is carried out. According to its logical-grammatical structure, which is essentially determined by the content of thought, inner speech is a generalized semantic complexes, consisting of fragments of words and phrases, with which various visual images and conventional signs are grouped. When faced with difficulties or contradictions, inner speech acquires a more detailed character and can turn into an internal monologue, into whispered or loud speech, in relation to which it is easier to exercise logical and social control.
INTERNAL SPEECH is speech *to oneself*, for oneself, the mechanism of verbal thinking, the process of the birth of a thought in a word. When speaking, inner speech precedes outer speech, and vice versa when listening. Inner speech does not perform the function of direct communication, it does not have an external sound expression. Inner speech is distinguished by the fact that it is abbreviated, has omissions, although it proceeds arbitrarily, but it is not always completely logically formed. Inner speech is possible both with abstract and visual-figurative thinking. This speech often has an ethical connotation, when an analysis and evaluation of one's own behavior is carried out, a conversation is conducted with an imaginary critic. A high level of development of inner speech is a condition for increasing psychological culture. Experiments show that when solving complex mental problems, the process of internal pronunciation increases. Hence the conclusion follows: when students are thinking about new and complex material, the teacher should not rush them.
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