Functioning of the language. Question. General and private functions of the language. Language as the most important means of communication

Language functions:

1) this is the role (use, purpose) of language in human society;

2) correspondence of units of one set to units of another (this definition refers to language units).

The functions of a language are a manifestation of its essence, its purpose and action in society, i.e. they are its characteristics, without which language cannot be itself.

1) Communicative: language is a means, an instrument of communication between people, thus carrying out a communicative function. The communicative function includes: contact-establishing, conative (assimilation), voluntative (impact), the function of storing and transmitting the national identity of the traditions of the people and culture.

2) Cognitive function (expressive, epistemological, cognitive): A person can express himself meaningfully. This function is due to the content of the communication. The purpose of language to be a means of expressing, transmitting and storing content is called it cognitive or expressive function.

There are also 3 more functions: 3) emotional- to be one of the means of expressing feelings and emotions; 4) metalanguage- to be a means of research and description of the language in terms of the language itself; 5) accumulative- the function of language to reflect and preserve knowledge. These are the main social functions of language as the most important means of communication. The rest of the functions are additional, secondary, they do not belong to the language as a whole, but to its variants and styles.

So, within the framework of the communicative function, integrating and differentiating are identified. Integrating language performs function when it is used as a language of international or world significance. A language that is not used for communication between peoples fulfills differentiating function. This is the native language of a particular nation or nationality.

Exists stylistic and speech functions. Language styles classified based on cognitive function: normal conversation function lies at the heart of everyday life style, message function official documentary and scientific style, action function journalistic and artistic style. Accordingly, it speaks about the functions of language, most often rhetorical and poetic.

Each functional style of language has smaller variations. For example, the scientific style is subdivided into scientific, popular science, educational and scientific. Each style has written and spoken variations.

Speech functions are associated with the use of language to express specific thoughts, expressions of will, feelings, emotions: contact involving the interlocutor in the conversation, drawing his attention to one or another moment of the statement. Situational the function consists in updating linguistic forms and meanings, using them to express specific thoughts, expressions of will and feelings in accordance with the goals, conditions of communication, the topic and content of the conversation, discussion and any other form of dialogue.

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Magnitogorsk
Published by the decision of the Methodological Council of the FLiP. Minutes No. 1 dated 09.21.12. UDC BBK T.V. Yemets Introduction to Linguistics: Educational and Methodological Complex

Theoretical course material
Lecture topics: Topic 1. Linguistics as a science of language. Language, speech, speech and language activity. Topic 2. The origin of the language. Historical development of languages ​​Topic 3. Language of ka

Lecture plan
"Introduction to Linguistics" as an academic discipline. Linguistics as a science of language. Language, speech, speech and language activity. Language functions. Communication of linguistics with a friend

Linguistics as a science of language
Linguistics, linguistics, linguistics is a science that studies languages ​​(existing, existed, may exist in the future), and thus language in general. Linguistics (linguistics, linguistics

Diachrony
Ferdinand de Saussure argued that the synchronic aspect is more important than the diachronic one, since for the speaking masses only it is the true reality (from other Greek syn-together and chronos-time - referring

Language, speech, speech and language activity
The most popular definition of language as a means of forming and expressing thoughts. Throughout the 19th century, not to mention a more ancient time, linguistics did not distinguish between understood

Connection of linguistics with other sciences
Linguistics is associated: a) with the social sciences (humanities): philosophy, archeology, ethnography, anthropology, history, psi

Basic theories of the origin of language
A legitimate question arises: how did the language develop, how did people learn to speak? It is necessary to strictly distinguish 2 independent and different problems: the problem of the origin of language in general - how a person taught

Labor theory of language
In the same years, i.e. in the last third of the 19th century, another philosophical theory was developed, it is more correct to call it the social theory of the origin of language. The foundations of this theory were outlined by F. Engel

Laws and patterns of language development
The development of a language is closely related to the history of the development of society, the social situation in which the language is used, and those social functions that the language performs. The social nature of language, in

Differentiation and interaction of languages
Differentiation of languages ​​Languages ​​in the process of development can receive 2 forms: oral-spoken and written-book, literary. Raz

Literary language
Literary language is the main supra-dialectal form of language existence. Literary language is a historical category. Classical Arabic - literary language - took shape at 7-8

The concept of the sign Types of signs
Modern linguistics recognizes language as a complex sign system. Let us agree, without pretending to be the final decision, to consider any material carrier of social information as a sign. Know

About artificial languages
The idea of ​​an artificial language is long-standing, it has attracted many philosophers and linguists. Back in the II century. n. NS. Roman court physician K. Galen created an international written language. T. More in the "Golden Book"

Units of language and speech as objects of linguistics
F. de Saussure said that in language "there is nothing but differences." Language is written and spoken. The material of written and oral speech is different. However, it is one language. This means that communication is verbally

Paradigmatics and syntagmatics of language
The founder of the doctrine of paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations between units of language F. de Saussure wrote: “On the one hand, words in speech, connecting with each other, enter among themselves in

The main features of written speech. Types of writing
Compared to the spoken language, writing is relatively young. Its appearance is caused by the increased need of people to communicate at a distance, space and time. The oldest types of writing are on

Graphics systems
The history of writing is not only the history of the outline of letters, but at the same time the history of the formation of modern alphabets, graphics, spelling of languages ​​that have alphabetic writing. The term

Spelling and its principles
Spelling - spelling. It is a collection of rules for the normative spelling of words and their parts. Spelling also establishes the continuous / separate spelling of words, hyphenation rules, abbreviations with

Phonetics and Phonology. Three aspects of sound
Phonetics (Greek, concerning sounds, I make a sound) studies the sound structure of a language, i.e. sounds of speech and the rules for their combination in the word and the flow of speech, inventory of sounds of the language, their system, sound laws. except

Phonetic processes
The sounds of speech, used in the composition of a syllable, words, phrases, influence each other, undergoing changes. These modifications of sounds in the speech chain are called phonetic (sound) process

Lecture plan
1. The concept of a word. Semantic structure of the word. 2. Classifications of the word. Vocabulary as a system. 3. Non-discrete units of vocabulary. Word concept

Non-discrete units of vocabulary
A separate word expressing a separate concept through a separate meaning forms a discrete unit of the vocabulary of a given language. But it also happens that one sl

Lecture plan
1. General concept of grammar. 2. The concept of morpheme. Types of morphemes. 3. Word formation. General concept of grammar The term "gram"

The concept of morpheme. Types of morphemes
A morpheme is the smallest significant unit of language. Unlike words and sentences, which can be used independently, the morpheme acts as an independent part of the word and pho

Word formation
The owl form and derivational form (model) are the most important forms of the language. Being filled with specific lexical material, they generate word forms and derived words

Lecture plan
1. Grammatical meanings. Grammatical categories 2. Parts of speech and principles of their allocation Grammatical meanings. Grammar ka

Syntax concept
Syntax  grammatical teaching about coherent speech, about a unit higher than words. Syntax begins where we go beyond the lexical unit  of a word or a stable co

Collocation as a linguistic object
A word combination is a syntactic construction of two or more (significant) words expressing a single, but dismembered concept, semantically and grammatically related and representing a complex

Sentences in language and speech
There are more than a thousand definitions of a sentence in the world, each of which emphasizes one or another of its features. Definition of a sentence as minimal, grammatically organized

Indian, etc.
In turn, each family is divided into branches (groups), and then subgroups. Indo-European. Modern Indo-European languages ​​are divided into 17 branches or groups

Indian (Indo-Aryan) group
Ancient period: Vedic language, Sanskrit Present tense: 1. Center. group  Hindi 2.Vost. group  bihari, Bengali, Assamese, Oriya 3. South. group

Romance group
Common origin from Latin, Romance from Lat. romanus ("relating to Rome", later "to the Roman Empire.") There is no consensus in science about the number of Romance languages. Usually 12 rum is allocated. I am

Slavic group
East Slavic subgr. - Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian West.-Slavic subgr. - Polish, Czech, Slovak South Slavic subgr. - Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian

Language functions.
Linguistics, linguistics, linguistics as a science that studies languages ​​(existed, existing, may exist in the future), and thus language in general. Practical knowledge

Literary language.
There are two independent problems: the problem of the origin of a language in general and the problem of the emergence of certain individual languages. The main theories of the origin of language: logosic, doctrine

About artificial languages.
The concept of the sign. The structure of the sign. Types of signs. Signs-signs, signs-signals, signs-symbols, language signs. Properties of a linguistic sign: arbitrariness and linearity. The main functions of the signs in relation

Syntagmatics and paradigmatics in language and speech.
A unit of language and speech. Levels / tiers / language: phonemic, morphemic, word level, phrase level, sentence level. Distinctive features of levels / tiers / language. Definitions

Graphics systems.
3. Spelling and its principles. Letter. The main stages of the development of writing. Writing. Pictography and pictogram. Ideography and ideogram. Phonography and phonogram. Consonat-

Phonetic processes.
Sound as a natural phenomenon. Acoustic signs of speech sounds. Articulation of speech sounds. Articulation bases of languages. Three aspects of speech sounds. Phoneme, phoneme functions. Phonetics, funkts

Non-discrete units of vocabulary.
The word is the basic unit of language. Definition of the word: V.V. Vinogradov / 1953 /: The word is an internal and constructive unity of lexical and grammatical

Word formation.
Definition of the term "grammar" in two meanings: grammar as the doctrine of the structure of the language, and as a synonym for the expression "structure of the language". Three parts in ka grammar

Parts of speech and principles of their selection.
Grammatical meaning as a generalized, abstract linguistic meaning inherent in a number of words, word forms, syntactic constructions and finding its regular (standard) language in the language

Principles of highlighting parts of speech
Classification of parts of speech / N.A. Kondrashov et al., / A. Independent parts of speech: - nominal: 1. noun, 2, adjective

Semantic syntactic relations.
Syntax. Definition of a phrase. Function and structure of the phrase. Classification of phrases. Definition of a proposal. Function and structure of sentences, Types of sentences. Simple

A) agreement
b) control c) adjoining 7. Among the phrases with control as a subordinate link, indicate the phrase with another subordinate link: a) a girl with a picture

A) put on a dress
b) go on vacation c) think over the decision d) wait for brother e) sing for the listeners f) work on the machine 12. Among the phrases whose components are connected

A) They are only waiting for her arrival
b) It happened a long time ago c) Will your father come tomorrow? d) there is no such proposal 14. Indicate the non-circulated proposal: a) Several cars passed. b) Life

A) Indo-European
b) Semitic-Hamitic c) Turkic d) Caucasian e) Finno-Ugric e) Niger-Kordafan 5. To which family of languages ​​does the Bashkir language belong? a) ki

The system for assessing the level of preparation of the tested students for compliance with the requirements of the State Educational Standard
Assessment of the level of training of students is carried out through the assessment of the assimilation of sections (didactic units) of the discipline "Introduction to Linguistics"

TEST 11
1.d 11.b 2.f 12.c 3.b 13.a 4.e 14.b 5.c 15.a 6.e 16.b 7.c 17.d 8.b 18.c 9. at 19 at 10 and at 20 at

GENERAL TEST 2
1.b 2.a 3.b 4.a 5.a 6.c 7.d 8.c 9.b 10.b 11.b 12.a 13.c 14.c 15.b 16.b 17. at 18.a 19.g 20.b 21.c 22.c 23.b 24. c 25.a 26.b 27.b 28.a

Language is a harmonious system of signs in which sound, spelling and semantic content are related.

The study of language directly is engaged in a science called linguistics or linguistics. The features of signs are studied by semiotics. How it affects thinking is established by psycholinguistics.

The language of any community is a very heterogeneous, extremely complex, multifunctional phenomenon. Everyone has heard about the communicative function of language, but besides it, there is a long series of other purposes. Let's try to consider them.

  • The communicative function implies that language is necessary for communication, transmission of information.
  • Thought-forming (thinking, cognitive) function is closely related to communication. It is the communicative purpose that underlies the mental function of language, determines it. B. Norman gives a very precise example of the cognitive role of language. He quotes a little girl saying she doesn't know what she's thinking until she says it out loud.
  • The accumulative or cognitive function helps to accumulate knowledge and then pass it on to other people and generations. Many people have never been to the moon, but thanks to the knowledge of the people who have been there, we have a good idea of ​​the lunar landscapes and the peculiarities of movement in this place.

In addition, the cognitive function forms the inner world of a person, helps to create and assimilate concepts that are formed as a result of his practical activity.

  • The nominative function can also be called "a person's faith in names." This means that when we hear the word "table", we imagine different objects. However, all of them will have essential features that will allow the item to be categorized as "table", not "wardrobe" or any other. This ability to isolate the general and name objects is closely related to
  • The emotionally expressive purpose of the language allows you to convey your emotions using words. This ability is called the "emotive function of language." Its goal is the implementation of emotional communication of people. Compare the coloration of words that mean "big": huge, healthy, giant. This function uses special semantics, separate interjections that can convey momentary emotions.
  • The phatic function of the language is very important. It is inextricably linked with its aimed at creating, developing and regulating relations in microcollections. With the help of the phatic function, the interlocutor establishes contact, draws attention to himself, and then, using the regulatory function, continues the contact. Next to them is a conative function, with the help of which the language is oriented towards the addressee.
  • With the help of the voluntary function of language, one person can influence another.
  • The ideological function helps to influence ideology with the help of language as a system. For example, it is used not for communication, but to maintain its statehood, acting as a symbol.
  • With the help of the metalanguage function, language as a system and phenomenon are analyzed by means of the language itself.
  • Using the representative function, people convey information.
  • The sphere of creativity allows you to realize the aesthetic orientation of the language.
  • means that with the help of language a person is able to create value judgments, to separate the concepts of "bad" and "good".
  • The referential function of language means that it is a means of accumulating human experience.
  • The omadative function helps to create and control reality.

All functions of the language are connected and intertwined with each other, interdependent and inseparable.

The functioning and development of language represent two aspects of language learning - descriptive and historical - that modern linguistics often defines as independent fields of study. Are there any grounds for this? Is this distinction not due to the nature of the object of research itself?

Descriptive and historical study of the language has long been applied in the practice of linguistic research and just as long found a corresponding theoretical justification. But the problem of these different approaches to the study of language has come to the fore since the time when F. de Saussure formulated his famous antinomy of diachronic and synchronic linguistics. This antinomy is logically deduced from the main Saussure opposition - language and speech - and is consistently combined with other distinctions made by Saussure: synchronous linguistics is at the same time internal, static (i.e., freed from the temporal factor) and systemic, and diachronic linguistics - external , evolutionary (dynamic), and devoid of consistency.

In the further development of linguistics, the opposition of diachronic and synchronic linguistics turned not only into one of the most acute and controversial problems, which gave rise to a huge literature, but began to be used as an essential feature separating entire linguistic schools and trends (compare, for example, diachronic phonology and glossematic phonemics or descriptive linguistics).

It is extremely important to note that in the process of the ever-deepening study of the problem of the relationship between diachronic and synchronic linguistics (or the proof of the absence of any relationship), an identification gradually occurred, which Saussure himself may not have assumed: diachronic and synchronous study of language as different operations or working methods used for certain purposes and by no means mutually exclusive, began to correlate with the very object of study - language, derived from its very nature. In the words of E. Coceriu, it was not taken into account that the difference between synchrony and diachrony refers not to the theory of language, but to the theory of linguistics.

The language itself does not know such distinctions, since it is always in development (which, by the way, Saussure also recognized), which is carried out not as a mechanical change of layers or synchronous layers, replacing each other like sentries (expression by I.A. Baudouin de Courtenet) , but as a sequential, causal and uninterrupted process. This means that everything that is considered in a language outside of diachrony is not a real state of the language, but just a synchronic description of it. Thus, the problem of synchronicity and diachrony is really a problem of working methods and not of the nature and essence of language.

In accordance with the foregoing, if you study a language from two angles of view, such a study should be aimed at identifying how in the process of language activity occurs the emergence of phenomena that relate to the development of the language.

The necessity, as well as, to a certain extent, and the direction of such a study are prompted by the well-known paradox of Sh. Bally: “First of all, languages ​​are constantly changing, but they can only function without changing. At any moment of their existence, they are a product of temporary equilibrium. Consequently, this balance is the result of two opposing forces: on the one hand, tradition, which delays change, which is incompatible with the normal use of the language, and on the other, active tendencies pushing this language in a certain direction. "

"Temporary balance" of language is, of course, a conventional concept, although it acts as a prerequisite for the implementation of the communication process. Many lines pass through the point of this balance, which with one side go into the past, into the history of the language, and the other side rush forward, into the further development of the language. “The mechanism of language,” IL Baudouin de Courtenet formulates extremely accurately, “and in general its structure and composition at a given time represent the result of all the history that preceded it, of all the development that preceded it, and vice versa, this mechanism at a certain time determines the further development of language ".

Consequently, when we want to penetrate the secrets of the development of language, we cannot decompose it into planes independent of each other; such a decomposition, justified by the particular objectives of the research and admissible also from the point of view of the object of research, i.e. language will not give the results that we are striving for in this case. But we will certainly achieve them if we set the goal of our research on the interaction of the processes of functioning and development of a language. It is in this plan that further presentation will be carried out.

In the process of language development, there is a change in its structure, its quality, which is why it seems possible to assert that the laws of language development are the laws of gradual qualitative changes occurring in it. On the other hand, the functioning of a language is its activity according to certain rules. This activity is carried out on the basis of those structural features that are inherent in a given language system. Since, therefore, in the functioning of a language we are talking about certain norms, about certain rules for using the language system, so the rules of its functioning cannot be identified with the laws of language development.

But at the same time, the formation of new structural elements of the language occurs in the activity of the latter.The functioning of the language, which serves as a means of communication for members of a given society, establishes new needs that society presents to language, and thereby pushes it towards further and continuous development and improvement. And as the language develops, as its structure changes, new rules for the functioning of the language are established, the norms in accordance with which the activity of the language is carried out are revised.

Thus, the functioning and development of the language, although separate, at the same time interdependent and interdependent phenomena. In the process of language functioning as a communication tool, the language changes. The change in the structure of the language in the process of its development establishes new rules for the functioning of the language. The interrelation of the historical and normative aspects of language is reflected in the interpretation of the relationship of the laws of development to these aspects. If the historical development of a language is carried out on the basis of the rules of functioning, then the corresponding state of the language, which represents a certain stage in this natural historical development, reflects the living, active laws of the development of language in the rules and norms of its functioning.

V.A. Zvegintsev. Essays on General Linguistics - Moscow, 1962

Language is usually defined in two aspects: the first is a system of phonetic, lexical, grammatical means, which are a tool for expressing thoughts, feelings, expressions of will, serving as the most important means of communication between people, i.e. language is a social phenomenon associated in its origin and development with the human community; the second is a type of speech characterized by certain stylistic features (Kazakh language, spoken language).

Language as the main means of human communication is arranged in such a way as to fulfill various functions in accordance with the intentions and desires of an individual linguistic personality and the tasks of the human community. In its most general form, language functions are understood as the use of potential properties of language means in speech for different purposes.

Language is not a natural phenomenon, and, therefore, does not obey biological laws. The language is not inherited, not passed down from senior to junior. It arises precisely in society. It arises spontaneously, gradually turns into a self-organizing system, which is designed to fulfill certain function.

The first main function of language is cognitive(i.e. cognitive), meaning that language is the most important means of obtaining new knowledge about reality. Cognitive function connects language with human mental activity.

Human communication is impossible without language, and without communication there can be no society, there cannot be a full-fledged personality (for example, Mowgli).

The second main function of language is communicative, which means that language is the most important means of human communication, i.e. communication, or transmission from one person to another of any message for one purpose or another. Communicating with each other, people convey their thoughts, feelings, influence each other, achieve mutual understanding. Language gives them the opportunity to understand each other and to establish joint work in all spheres of human activity.

The third main function is emotional and motivational... It is designed not only to express the attitude of the author of the speech to its content, but also to influence the listener, reader, interlocutor. It is realized in the means of assessment, intonation, exclamation, interjections.

Other language features:

thought-forming, since language not only conveys thought, but also shapes it;

accumulative Is the function of storing and transmitting knowledge about reality. In written monuments, oral folk art, the life of the people, the nation, the history of the speakers of the language is recorded;

phatic (contact-establishing) func-
ttion - the function of creating and maintaining contact between interlocutors (formulas for greeting when meeting and saying goodbye, exchange of remarks about the weather, etc.). The content and form of phatic communication depend on gender, age, social status, relationships of interlocutors, however, in general, they are standard and minimally informative. Fatal communication helps to overcome lack of communication, disunity;

conative function - 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);

appellate function - the function of calling, prompting for certain actions (forms of imperative mood, incentive sentences, etc.);

aesthetic function - a function of aesthetic influence, manifested in the fact that the reader or listener begins to notice the text itself, its sound and verbal texture. A single word, turnover, phrase begins to be liked or disliked. Speech can be perceived as something beautiful or ugly, i.e. as an aesthetic object;

metalanguage function (speech commentary) - the function of interpreting linguistic facts. The use of language in the metalanguage 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 metalanguage function is realized in all oral and written statements about the language - in lessons and lectures, in dictionaries, educational and scientific literature about the language.

LANGUAGE - social processed, a historically changeable system of signs, serving as the main means of communication and representation of different forms of existence, each of which has at least one of the forms of implementation - oral or written.

SPEECH - this is one of the types of human communication, i.e. using language to communicate with other people

Types of speech activity:

Speaking

Listening

The main functions of the language are:

communicative (communication function);

thought-forming (function of embodiment and expression of thought);

expressive (the function of expressing the internal state of the speaker);

aesthetic (the function of creating beauty by means of language).

Communicative function is the ability of language to serve as a means of communication between people. The language has the units necessary for constructing messages, the rules for their organization, and ensures the emergence of similar images in the minds of the participants in communication. The language also has special means of establishing and maintaining contact between participants in communication.

From the point of view of the culture of speech, the communicative function involves the installation of participants in speech communication on the fruitfulness and mutual usefulness of communication, as well as a general focus on the adequacy of understanding of speech.

Thought-forming function lies in the fact that language serves as a means of forming and expressing thoughts. The structure of language is organically linked to the categories of thinking. "A word, which alone is capable of making a concept an independent unit in the world of thoughts, adds to it much of itself," wrote the founder of linguistics, Wilhelm von Humboldt (V. Humboldt, Selected Works on Linguistics. - M., 1984, p. 318).

This means that the word singles out and formalizes the concept, and at the same time a relationship is established between the units of thinking and the sign units of the language. That is why W. Humboldt believed that "language should accompany thought. Thought should, keeping up with language, follow from one of its elements to another and find in the language a designation for everything that makes it coherent" (Ibid, p. 345) ... According to Humboldt, "in order to correspond to thinking, language, as far as possible, its structure must correspond to the internal organization of thinking" (Ibid.).

The speech of an educated person is distinguished by the clarity of expressing his own thoughts, the accuracy of retelling other people's thoughts, consistency and informational content.

Expressive the function allows the language to serve as a means of expressing the internal state of the speaker, not only to communicate some information, but also to express the speaker's attitude to the content of the message, to the interlocutor, to the communication situation. Language expresses not only thoughts, but also human emotions. The expressive function presupposes the emotional brightness of speech within the framework of social etiquette.

Artificial languages ​​have no expressive function.

Aesthetic the function is to establish that the message in its form in unity with the content satisfies the aesthetic sense of the addressee. The aesthetic function is characteristic primarily for poetic speech (works of folklore, fiction), but not only for it - journalistic and scientific speech, and ordinary colloquial speech can be aesthetically perfect.

The aesthetic function presupposes the richness and expressiveness of speech, its correspondence to the aesthetic tastes of the educated part of society.

language is system(from the Greek. systema - something whole made up of parts). And if this is so, then all its constituent parts should not represent a random set of elements, but some ordered set of them.

What is the systematic nature of the language manifested in? First of all, the fact that the language has a hierarchical organization, in other words, different levels(from lowest to highest), each of which corresponds to a certain language unit.

The following are usually highlighted levels of the language system: phonemic, morphemic, lexical and syntactic... Let us name and characterize the linguistic units corresponding to them.

Phoneme- the simplest unit, indivisible and insignificant, serving to distinguish between the minimum significant units (morphemes and words). For example: NS ort - b ort, st O l - st at l.

Morpheme- the minimum significant unit that is not used independently (prefix, root, suffix, ending).

Word (lexeme)- a unit that serves to name objects, processes, phenomena, signs or points to them. This is the minimum nominative(name) unit language, consisting of morphemes.

Two linguistic units correspond to the syntactic level: a phrase and a sentence.

Collocation Is a combination of two or more words between which there is a semantic and / or grammatical connection. A word combination, like a word, is a nominative unit.

Offer- the main syntactic unit that contains a message about something, a question or an urge. This unit is characterized by semantic design and completeness. Unlike a word - a nominative unit - it is communicative unit, since it serves to transfer information in the process of communication.

Between the units of the language system, certain relationship... Let's talk about them in more detail. The "mechanism" of the language is based on the fact that each language unit is included in two intersecting rows. One row, linear, horizontal, we directly observe in the text: this is syntagmatic series, where units of the same level are combined (from the Greek. syntagma - something connected). In this case, the units of the lower level serve as the building material for the units of the higher level.

An example of syntagmatic relationships is the combination of sounds: [gurt mlskvá]; grammatical compatibility of words and morphemes: play football, play the violin; blue ball, blue notebook, under + windows + nickname; lexical collocation: writing desk, work at the desk, mahogany table -"Piece of furniture" plentiful table, dietary table -"Food", "food", passport office, information desk -"Branch in the institution" and other types of relations of linguistic units.

The second row is non-linear, vertical, not given in direct observation. it paradigmatic series, i.e. this unit and other units of the same level associated with it by one or another association - formal, meaningful similarity, opposition and other relations (from the Greek. paradeigma - example, sample).

The simplest example of a paradigmatic relationship is a paradigm (pattern) of declension or conjugation of a word: house, ~ a, ~ at ...; I'm coming, ~ eat, ~ em ... Paradigms form interrelated meanings of the same polysemous word ( table- 1. piece of furniture; 2. food, nutrition; 3. branch in the institution); synonymous series (cold-blooded, restrained, imperturbable, balanced, calm); antonymic pairs (wide - narrow, open - close); units of the same class (verbs of motion, designations of kinship, names of trees, etc.), etc.

It follows from the above that linguistic units are stored in our linguistic consciousness not in isolation, but as interrelated elements of a kind of "blocks" - paradigms. The use of these units in speech is determined by their internal properties, by what place this or that unit occupies among other units of a given class. Such storage of "language material" is convenient and economical. In everyday life, we usually do not notice any paradigms. Nevertheless, they are one of the foundations of language knowledge. After all, it is no coincidence that when a student makes a mistake, the teacher asks him to decline or conjugate this or that word, form the desired form, clarify the meaning, choose the most suitable word from the synonymous series, in other words, turn to the paradigm.

So, the consistency of a language is manifested in its level organization, the existence of various linguistic units that are in certain relationships with each other.


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The question of the functions of a language is closely related to the problem of the origin of the language. What are the reasons, what living conditions of people contributed to its origin, its formation? What is the purpose of language in the life of society? Not only linguists were looking for answers to these questions, but also philosophers, logicians, psychologists.

The emergence of language is closely related to the formation of man as a thinking being. Language arose naturally and is a system that is necessary simultaneously for an individual (individual) and society (collective). As a result, the language is inherently multifunctional.

First of all, it serves as a means of communication, allows the speaker (individual) to express their thoughts, and to another individual to perceive them and, in turn, respond accordingly (take note, agree, object). Thus, the language helps people share experience, transfer their knowledge, organize any work, build and discuss plans for joint activities.

Language also serves as a means of consciousness, contributes to the activity of consciousness and reflects its result. Language participates in the formation of the thinking of the individual (individual consciousness) and the thinking of society (public consciousness).

The development of language and thinking is an interdependent process. The development of thinking contributes to the enrichment of the language, new concepts require new names; perfection of language entails perfection of thinking.

Language, in addition, helps to preserve (accumulate) and transmit information, which is important both for an individual and for the whole society. In written monuments (chronicles, documents, memoirs, fiction, newspapers), in oral folk art, the life of the nation is recorded, the history of the speakers of this language. In this regard, there are three main functions of the language:

Communicative;

Cognitive (cognitive, epistemological);

Accumulative (epistemic).

In the communicative functioning of the language, the main task of which is to ensure mutual understanding of the parties united by specific goals and common interests, there is no need to use the creative potential of the language. On the contrary, their use can significantly complicate communication, both everyday and professional. The desire to avoid unclear (unusual) terms and expressions is, therefore, the norm in those areas of human interaction where the main purpose of communication is the exchange of necessary information. Language cliches of everyday usage, as well as formalized languages ​​and terminological systems in scientific and professional communities are a kind of personification of this conscious attitude towards the unification of expressive means.

Cognitive, or, as some scientists call it, intellectual, function of language is necessarily associated with the installation on the spiritual and cultural growth of the communicating parties (thinking subjects) in the process of their co-creative dialogue with each other, with the world and with language. To say here means to show the previously invisible, unusual. Such a creative dialogue with the language enriches all its participants, including, of course, the language itself as a carrier of semantic interaction. The embodiment of a co-creative dialogue with language is national literature (including philosophy). Here, on the one hand, the language itself is enriched with new meanings under the creative influence of the human spirit, on the other, such a renewed and enriched with new creative facets language is able to expand and enrich the spiritual life of the nation as a whole.

Additional functions appear in speech and are determined by the structure of the speech act, i.e. the presence of the addressee, addressee (communication participants) and the subject of the conversation. Let us name two such functions: emotional (expresses the speaker's inner state, his feelings) and voluntary (the function of influencing the audience).

In addition to the above-mentioned basic and additional functions, the magic function of the language is also highlighted. This is due to the idea that some words, expressions have magical powers, are able to change the course of events, to influence human behavior, his fate. In the religious and mythological consciousness, such power is primarily possessed by the formulas of prayers, spells, conspiracies, divination, curses.

Since language serves as a material and form of artistic creation, it is legitimate to talk about the poetic function of language.

In the scientific and philosophical literature, in addition to the above functions, at least one more is usually distinguished, and it is always different for different thinkers.

For example, R.I. Pavilenis, in addition to the “coding” (in our definition, communicative) and “generative” (cognitive), highlights the “manipulative” function, which, in our opinion, is one of the functional manifestations (modalities) of the communicative function.

A.A. Vetrov in the book "Semiotics and its main problems" highlights the "expressive" function of language, the meaning of which is in the expression of the speaker's feelings. However, noting its "secondary nature", since most linguists do not attribute the expression of emotions to an essential aspect of language, he himself recognizes its redundancy.

The ideological inspirer of the Tartu-Moscow semiotic school Yu.M. In addition to "informational" and "creative" functions, Lotman singles out the "function of memory", implying by it the ability of a text to retain the memory of its previous contexts. The text creates around itself a kind of "semantic space", only in it gaining meaning. In our opinion, knowledge of the cultural context, which is necessary for an adequate understanding of a historical monument, as well as knowledge of the social contexts of everyday communication, refers to the communicative function of language, but only in different aspects (modes) of its manifestation - in the spiritual and utilitarian. The same is the case with the semiotic Jakobsonian classification of language functions, which is popular among modern Russian linguists. Each of the six functions highlighted by R. Jacobson corresponds to some one - emphasized depending on the context of expression - a specific element of speech interaction, but all together they express various aspects of the communicative function of the language.

It should be noted that the functions we have identified are in close dialectical interaction, which can sometimes create a deceptive appearance of their identity. Indeed, the cognitive function can almost coincide with the communicative one, for example, in the field of interpersonal interactions within the scientific community (especially in the virtual computer interaction we mentioned), in situations of intercultural dialogue, in an existentially significant conversation between two creative personalities, etc.; but it can also appear in a "pure" form, for example, in poetry and philosophical creativity.

It is also incorrect to assert the greater or lesser importance of one of the distinguished functions of the language, for example, communicative due to its direct connection with the everyday existence of people, or, conversely, cognitive due to its pronounced, creative nature. All functions of the language are equally important for the normal existence and development of linguistic consciousness, both of individual individuals and the nation as a whole. It is difficult to single out the most significant among them, because the criteria of significance in this case are different. In one case, such properties of speech as general accessibility, simplicity and information content (actualization of an unambiguous meaning) are criterion, in the other, on the contrary, an orientation towards an individual experience of understanding, semantic ambiguity (complexity) of expressive means and the presence of a multitude of potential semantic dimensions.

Thus, the language performs a wide variety of functions, which is explained by its use in all spheres of life and activities of a person and society.

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