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

A 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 collective; the second is a kind of speech characterized by certain stylistic features ( Kazakh language, colloquial).

Language as the main means of human communication is arranged in such a way as to adequately perform various functions to the intentions and desires of an individual linguistic personality and the tasks of the human community. In the very general view language functions are understood as the use of potential properties of language means in speech for various purposes.

Language is not a natural phenomenon, and, therefore, does not obey biological laws. Language is not inherited, not passed on from older to younger. It originates in society. Arises spontaneously, gradually turns into a self-organizing system, which is designed to fulfill certain functions.

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. The cognitive function connects language with human mental activity.

Without language, human communication is impossible, 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 the transmission from one person to another of a message for one purpose or another. Communicating with each other, people convey their thoughts, feelings, influence each other, achieve mutual understanding. The language gives them the opportunity to understand each other and to work together in all spheres of human activity.

The third main function is emotional and motivating. 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 evaluation, intonation, exclamation, interjections.

Other language features:

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

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

– phatic (contact-setting) function-
tion - the function of creating and maintaining contact between interlocutors (greeting formulas at a meeting and parting, exchange of remarks about the weather, etc.). The content and form of phatic communication depend on gender, age, social status, interlocutor relationships, but in general they are standard and minimally informative. Phatic communication helps to overcome lack of communication skills, disunity;

– conative function - the function of assimilation of information by the addressee, associated with empathy ( Magic power spells or curses in an archaic society or advertising texts in a modern one);

– appellative function - the function of an appeal, an inducement to certain actions (forms of the imperative mood, incentive sentences, etc.);

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

– metalinguistic function (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 the language - in lessons and lectures, in dictionaries, educational and scientific literature about the language.

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

SPEECH is one of the types communication activities person i.e. using language to communicate with others

Kinds speech activity:

speaking

listening

The main functions of the language are:

communicative (function of communication);

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

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

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

Communicative function lies in 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. Language also has special means of establishing and maintaining contact between the 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 speech understanding.

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

This means that the word singles out and shapes 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, not lagging behind language, should follow from one of its elements to another and find in 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, must correspond with its structure to internal organization thinking" (ibid.).

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

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 situation of communication. Language expresses not only thoughts, but also emotions of a person. The expressive function involves the emotional brightness of speech within the framework of etiquette accepted in society.

Artificial languages ​​do not have an expressive function.

aesthetic the function is to ensure 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 her - both journalistic and scientific speech, and everyday 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 Greek. systema - something made up of parts). And if this is so, then all its constituent parts should not be a random set of elements, but some sort of ordered set of them.

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

Usually there are the following levels of the language system: phonemic, morphemic, lexical And syntactic. Let us name and characterize the language units corresponding to them.

Phoneme- the simplest unit, indivisible and insignificant, serving to distinguish between minimal meaningful units (morphemes and words). For example: P ort - b ort, st about 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(named) unit language, consisting of morphemes.

The syntactic level corresponds to two language units: a phrase and a sentence.

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

Sentence- the main syntactic unit that contains a message about something, a question or a prompt. This unit is characterized by semantic formality and completeness. In contrast to the word - the nominative unit - it is communicative unit, as it serves to convey information in the process of communication.

Between the units of the language system, certain relations. 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 syntagmatic line, where units of the same level are combined (from the Greek. syntagma - something connected). At the same time, units are more low level serve building material for higher level units.

An example of syntagmatic relations is the compatibility of sounds: [high Moscow]; grammatical compatibility of words and morphemes: play football, play the violin; blue ball, blue notebook, under+windows+nickname; lexical compatibility: desk, work at the table, mahogany table -"piece of furniture" plentiful table, dietary table - food, food, passport office, information desk"department in the institution" and other types of relations of language units.

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

The simplest example paradigmatic relations is a paradigm (sample) of the declension or conjugation of the word: house, ~ but, ~ at ...; I'm coming, ~eat, ~et... Paradigms form interrelated meanings of the same polysemantic word ( table– 1. piece of furniture; 2. food, nutrition; 3. department in the institution); synonymous rows (cold-blooded, restrained, imperturbable, balanced, calm); antonymic pairs (wide - narrow, open - close); units of the same class (verbs of movement, kinship designations, tree names, etc.), etc.

It follows from the foregoing that linguistic units are stored in our linguistic consciousness not in isolation, but as interconnected elements of a kind of "blocks" - paradigms. The use of these units in speech is determined by their internal properties, by the place this or that unit occupies among other units of this class. Such storage of "linguistic material" is convenient and economical. IN Everyday life we usually don't notice any paradigms. Nevertheless, they are one of the foundations of knowledge of the language. 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, to form desired shape, clarify the meaning, choose the most appropriate word from the synonymous series, in other words, refer to the paradigm.

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

Similar information.

F. i. represent a manifestation of its essence, its purpose and action in society, its nature, i.e. they are its characteristics, without which the language cannot be itself. The two most important, basic F. I. are: communicative - to be "the most important means of human communication" (V. I. Lenin), and cognitive(cognitive, epistemological, sometimes called expressive, that is, expressions of the activity of consciousness) - to be "the direct reality of thought" (K. Marx). They are also added as base emotional F. i. - to be one of the means of expressing feelings and emotions, and metalinguistic (metalinguistic) Ph. i. - be a means of research and description of the language in terms of the language itself. Basic F. I. mutually condition each other when using the language, but in individual acts of speech and in texts they are revealed to varying degrees. With the basic, as primary, private, as derivatives, F. i. The communication function is contact-setting(phatic), conative(assimilation), voluntarily(impact) and function storage and transmission national self-consciousness, traditions of culture and history of the people and some others. Functions are combined with the cognitive function: tools for cognition and mastering socio-historical experience and knowledge, evaluation (axiological), as well as denotations (nominations), references, predications and some others. The modal function is associated with the emotional function and the expression of creative potentials is correlated, which in various scientific fields is combined with the cognitive function, but is most fully realized in fiction, especially in poetry ( poetic function).

Implementation of the communicative function in different areas human activity determines public F. i. Yu. D. Desheriev distinguishes languages ​​with the maximum scope of public functions - international and interethnic communication, then there are groups of languages, the scope of public functions of which is narrowing: languages ​​of nationalities and nationalities that exist in written (literary) and spoken forms, including territorial and social dialects, then tribal spoken languages ​​(some of them in developing countries acquire the status of official written languages) and languages ​​with a minimum amount of public philosophies. - the so-called one-aul non-written languages. The nature of the relationships between linguistic and social structures is studied by sociolinguistics.

Interest in establishing F. I. emerged in the 20th century. Prior to this, the word "function" was used non-terminologically (for example, by G. Paul, A. A. Potebnya) to denote the role of units in syntax (subject function, complement function) and in morphology (form function, inflection function). Later, the function began to be understood as the meaning of form, construction (O. Jespersen), as a position in the construction (L. Bloomfield). All this led to the emergence of a particular scientific interpretation of the function as a grammatical meaning, role (L. Tenier), the use of language units (see Functional grammar, Functional linguistics).

In The Theses of the Prague Linguistic Circle (1929), the definition of language as a functional system was substantiated and two functions of speech activity were described: communication and poetic. In the light of the semiological principle, the German psychologist K. Buhler singled out three F. I. as manifested in any act of speech: the function of expression (expressive), correlated with the speaker, the function of address (appellative), correlated with the listener, and the function of the message (representative), correlated with the subject in question. The question of the quantity and nature of F. I. was repeatedly discussed, and were separated by F. i. and functions of language units. A. Martinet postulates the presence of three Ph. I.: the main one - communicative, expressive (expressive) and aesthetic, closely related to the first two. R. O. Jacobson, taking into account the postulates of the theory of communication, to the three participants in the act of speech - the speaker (sender, addresser), listener (recipient, addressee) and the subject of speech (context, referent) - added three more: contact (communication channel), code and message, and accordingly singled out six Ph. I.: expressive (expressions, emotive), conative (assimilation), referent (communicative, denotative, cognitive), phatic (contact-establishing), metalinguistic and poetic (understanding the latter as a form of message in general). Critics of this theory note that all functions are essentially varieties of the communicative one and act as one-order functions.

Considering speech activity as a unity of communication and generalization, A. A. Leontiev separated F. I., manifested in any situation of communication, from the functions of speech as optional, arising in special situations. In the field of communication with F. I. communicative, and in the sphere of generalization - the function of an instrument of thinking, the function of the existence of socio-historical experience and the national-cultural function; all of them can be duplicated by non-linguistic means (mnemonics, counting tools, plans, maps, diagrams, etc.). The functions of speech include: magical (taboos, euphemisms), diacritical (compression of speech, for example in telegrams), expressive (expression of emotions), aesthetic (poetic) and some others. V. A. Avrorin is among F. Ya. named four: communicative, expressive (expressions of thought), constructive (thought formation) and accumulative (accumulation of social experience and knowledge), and among the functions of speech - six: nominative, emotive-voluntative, signal, poetic, magical and ethnic. Some researchers allocate over 25 F. I. and functions of language units.

In the 70-80s. 20th century there was a desire to connect F. I. with the apparatus for their implementation in the system and structure of the language (M. A. K. Halliday). Yu. S. Stepanov, on the basis of the semiotic principle, deduced three F. I.: nominative, syntactic and pragmatic, as universal properties of the language, corresponding to three aspects of general semiotics: semantics - nomination, syntactic - predication and pragmatics - location. Characterizing signs (nominal and verbal classes of words) act as the primary apparatus of nomination, predications are elementary syntactic contact phrases, locations are the deixis of the communication situation (“I am here and now”), and the secondary apparatus is formed on the basis of the transposition of signs. These F. I., according to this theory, underlie all the possibilities of using the language as a means of communication, cognition and influence.

Problem F. I. is of particular interest in connection with the expansion of the scope of language learning in action, the features of colloquial speech, functional styles, text linguistics, etc. Researchers are faced with the task of establishing how and what means of the system and structure of the language serve primarily to identify one or another Ph. I.

• Martin A., Fundamentals of General Linguistics, trans. from French, in the book: New in linguistics, v. 3, M., 1963;
• Buhler K., Theory of language (extracts), in the book: Zvegintsev V. A., History of linguistics of the XIX-XX centuries in essays and extracts, part 2, M., 1965;
• Leontiev A. A., Language, speech, speech activity, M., 1969;
• Stepanov Yu. S., Semiotic structure of language (three functions and three formal apparatuses of language), Izv. USSR Academy of Sciences, ser. LiYA, 1973, v. 32, c. 4;
• Syrovatkin S. N., The meaning of the statement and the function of language in the semiotic interpretation, "Problems of Linguistics", 1973, No. 5;
• Avrorin V. A., Problems of studying the functional side of the language, L., 1975;
• Jacobson R., Linguistics and poetics, in the book: Structuralism: "for" and "against", M., 1975;
• Torsueva I. G., Theory of utterance and intonation, "Issues of Linguistics", 1976, No. 2;
• Desheriev Yu. D., Social Linguistics, M., 1977;
• Halliday M. A. K., The place of the “functional perspective of the proposal” (FPP) in the system of linguistic description, trans. from English, in book: New in foreign linguistics, in. 8, Moscow, 1978;
• Slyusareva NA, Methodological aspect of the concept of language functions, Izv. USSR Academy of Sciences, ser. LiYA, 1979, v. 38, c. 2;
• tenier L., Fundamentals of structural syntax, trans. from French, M., 1988.

The question of the functions of language is closely connected with the problem of the origin of language. What reasons, what living conditions of people contributed to its origin, its formation? What is the purpose of language in the life of society? These questions were answered not only by linguists, but also by philosophers, logicians, and psychologists.

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

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

Language also serves as a means of consciousness, promotes the activity of consciousness and reflects its result. Language is involved in the formation of the thinking of the individual (individual consciousness) and the thinking of society (social 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; the improvement of the language entails the improvement of thinking.

Language, in addition, helps to save (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, the history of native speakers of a given language is recorded. 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 domestic and professional. The desire to avoid obscure (unusual) terms and expressions is therefore the norm in those areas of human interaction where main goal communication is the exchange of necessary information. The language stamps of everyday word usage, as well as formalized languages ​​and terminological systems in scientific and professional communities are a kind of personification of this conscious attitude towards unification. means of expression.

Cognitive, or, as some scholars call it, intellectual function of language is necessarily associated with the attitude towards 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 is to show the previously invisible, the unusual. Such a creative dialogue with language enriches all its participants, including, of course, language itself as load-bearing base semantic interaction. The embodiment of the co-creative dialogue with the language is the 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 hand, such an updated and enriched with new creative facets language is able to expand and enrich the spiritual life of the nation as a whole.

Additional functions are manifested in speech and are determined by the structure of the speech act, i.e. the presence of the addresser, the addressee (participants of communication) and the subject of the conversation. Let's name two such functions: emotional (expresses the internal state of the speaker, his feelings) and volitional (the function of influencing listeners).

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

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

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

For example, R.I. Pavilenis, in addition to “coding” (in our definition, communicative) and “generative” (cognitive), identifies a “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 the language, the meaning of which is in the expression of the speaker's feelings. However, noting its "secondary character", 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. Lotman, in addition to the "informational" and "creative" functions, singles out the "memory function", meaning by it the ability of a text to retain 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 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 the language, but only in different aspects (modes) of its manifestation - in the spiritual and utilitarian. This is also the case with the popular among modern domestic linguists and semiotics-Jacobson classification of language functions. Each of the six functions identified by R. Jacobson corresponds to one particular element of speech interaction, accentuated depending on the context of the expression, 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 people etc.; but it can also appear in a "pure" form, for example, in poetic and philosophical creativity.

It is also wrong to assert the greater or lesser significance of one of the selected 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 for individuals and for the nation as a whole. Among them, it is difficult to single out the most significant, because the criteria for significance in this case are different. In one case, such properties of speech as general accessibility, simplicity and informativeness (actualization of an unambiguous meaning) are criterial, in the other, on the contrary, they are focused on the individual experience of understanding, semantic ambiguity (complexity) of expressive means and the presence of many potential semantic dimensions.

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

The main object of linguistics is the natural human language, in contrast to the artificial language or the language of animals.

Two closely distinguish related concepts- 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.

The American philosopher and logician Charles Pierce (1839-1914), the founder of pragmatism as a philosophical trend and semiotics as a science, defined a sign as something, knowing which, we learn something more. Every thought is a sign and every sign is a thought.

Semiotics(from gr. σημειον - sign, sign) - the science of signs. The most significant division of signs is the division into iconic signs, indices and symbols.

1. Iconic sign (icon from gr. εικων image) is a relationship of similarity or similarity between a sign and its object. The iconic sign is built on the association by similarity. These are metaphors, images (paintings, photos, sculpture) and schemes (drawings, diagrams).
2. Index(from lat. index- scammer, index finger, heading) is a sign that refers to the designated object due to the fact that the object actually affects it. However, there is no significant resemblance to the subject. The index is built on association by adjacency. Examples: bullet hole in glass, alphabetic characters in algebra.
3. Symbol(from gr. Συμβολον - conventional sign, signal) is the only true sign, since it does not depend on similarity or connection. Its connection with the object is conditional, as it exists due to the agreement. Most words in a language are symbols.

The German logician Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) proposed his understanding of the relation of a sign to the object it denotes. He introduced the distinction between the denotation ( Bedeutung) expression and its meaning ( sinn). Denotat (referent) is the object or phenomenon to which the sign refers.

Venus is the morning star.

Venus is the morning star.

In both expressions, the same denotation is the planet Venus, but a different meaning, since Venus is represented in the language in different ways.

Ferdinand de Saussure (1957-1913), the great Swiss linguist who had a huge impact on the linguistics of the 20th century, proposed his sign theory of language. Below are the main provisions of this doctrine.

Language is a system of signs expressing concepts.

Language can be compared with other systems of signs, such as the alphabet for the deaf and dumb, military signals, forms of courtesy, symbolic rites, male plumage, smells, and so on. Language is only the most important of these systems.

Semiology- a science that studies the system of signs in the life of society.

Linguistics is part of this general science.

Semiotics- a synonymous term for the Saussurean word semiology, more commonly used in modern linguistics.

The American semiotician Charles Morris (1901-1979), a follower of Charles Peirce, distinguished three sections of semiotics:

• Semantics(from gr. σημα - sign) - the relationship between the sign and the object denoted by it.
• Syntactics(from gr. συνταξις - system, connection) - the relationship between signs.
• Pragmatics(from gr. πραγμα - business, action) - the relationship between signs and those who use these signs (subjects and addressees of speech).

Some sign systems

According to F. de Saussure, a linguistic sign is not a connection between a thing and its name, but a combination of a concept and an acoustic image.

concept is a generalized, schematic image of an object in our minds, the most important and character traits of the given object, as it were, the definition of the subject. For example, a chair is a seat with a support (legs or leg) and a back.

acoustic image is the sonic ideal equivalent of sound in our minds. When we say a word to ourselves without moving our lips or tongue, we reproduce an acoustic image of a real sound.

Both of these sides of the sign have a psychic essence, i.e. ideal and exist only in our minds.

The acoustic image in relation to the concept is to some extent material, since it is associated with real sound.

The argument in favor of the ideality of the sign is that we can talk to ourselves without moving our lips or tongue, make sounds to ourselves.

Thus, the sign is a two-sided psychic entity, consisting of the signified and the signifier.

concept- signified (fr. signify)

acoustic image- meaning (fr. signifiant).

The sign theory assumes 4 components of the designation process.

In the following example, the following components are involved:

1. The real, material, real tree itself, which we want to designate with a sign;
2. An ideal (mental) concept as part of a sign (denoted);
3. Ideal (mental) acoustic image as part of a sign (denoting);
4. material embodiment perfect sign: spoken word sounds wood, letters denoting the word wood.

Trees can be different, there are no two absolutely identical birches, we pronounce the word wood we, too, are all different (different tone, with different timbre, loud, whisper, etc.), we also write differently (with a pen, pencil, chalk, different handwriting, on a typewriter, computer), but a two-sided sign in our minds everyone has the same, because it is perfect.

English linguists Charles Ogden (1889-1957), Ivor Richards(1893-1979) in 1923 in The Meaning of Meaning ( The Meaning of Meaning) visually represented the sign relationship in the form of a semantic triangle (triangle of reference):

• Sign (symbol), i.e. a word in a natural language;
• Referent (Referent), i.e. the subject to which the sign refers;
• Attitude, or reference ( reference), i.e. thought as an intermediary between a symbol and a referent, between a word and an object.

The base of the triangle is shown dashed line. This means that the connection between the word and the subject is not obligatory, conditional, and it is impossible without a connection with thought and concept.

However, the sign relationship can also be expressed in the form of a square, if we take into account that the second member of the triangle - thought - can consist of a concept and a connotation. The concept is common to all native speakers of a given language, and connotation, or connotation (lat. connotation- "conscience") - an associative meaning, individual for each person.

For example, a “brick” for a bricklayer may be associated with his work, and for an injured passerby, with an injury.

The main functions of the language are as follows:

Communicative function

Language as a means of communication between people. This is the main function of the language.

Thought-forming function

Language is used as a means of thinking in the form of words.

Cognitive (epistemological) function

Language as a means of knowing the world, accumulating and transferring knowledge to other people and subsequent generations (in the form of oral traditions, written sources, audio recordings).

Along with the functions of language, there are also functions of speech. Roman Osipovich Yakobson (1896-1982), a Russian and American linguist (Mayakovsky wrote about him in a poem about Netta, a steamboat and a man: ... "talked all the time about Romko Yakobson and sweated funny, learning poetry ...") proposed a scheme that describes the factors (components) of the act of communication, which correspond to the individual speech functions of the language.

An example of an act of communication is the beginning of the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin", if the lecturer recites it to students: "My uncle is the most honest rules when I fell seriously ill ... "

Sender: Pushkin, Onegin, lecturer.

Recipient: reader, students.

Message: verse size (iambic tetrameter).

Context: message about illness.

The code: Russian language.

Corresponds context, which is understood as the subject of the message, otherwise called referent. This is a function of transmitting a message, focusing on the context of the message. In the process of communication, it is the most important, as it conveys information about the subject. In the text, this function is emphasized, for example, by the phrases: “as mentioned above”, “attention, the microphone is on” and various stage directions in the plays.

Corresponds sender, i.e. reflects the speaker's attitude to what is being said, a direct expression of the sender's feelings. When using the expressive function, it is not the message itself that is important, but the attitude towards it.

The emotive layer of the language is represented by interjections, which are the equivalents of sentences (“ah”, “oh”, “alas”). The most important means of conveying emotions are intonation and gestures.

K.S. Stanislavsky, the great Russian director, when teaching actors, asked them to send up to 40 messages, saying only one phrase, for example, "Tonight", "Fire", etc. so that the audience can guess what the situation is.

F.M. Dostoevsky in his "Diary of a Writer" describes a case when five artisans had a meaningful conversation, uttering the same obscene phrase in turn with different intonations.

This function is noticeable in a joke where the father complains about the impoliteness of his son in a letter: “They say, he wrote:“ Dad, money came out. ”No,“ Dad, money came out ”( with a pleading tone)».

The sender and sender may not always be the same. For example, among the Chinook Indian tribe, the words of the leader in front of the people are repeated by a specially assigned minister.

Poetic (aesthetic) function

Corresponds message, i.e. the main role is played by the focus on the message as such, outside of its content. The main thing is the form of the message. Attention is directed to the message for its own sake. As the name implies, this function is used primarily in poetry, where stops, rhymes, alliteration, etc. play a big role. important role in his perception, and the information is often secondary, and often the content of the poem is not clear to us, but we like it in form.

Similar poems were written by K. Balmont, V. Khlebnikov, O. Mandelstam, B. Pasternak and many other poets.

The aesthetic function is often used in fiction as well as in colloquial speech. Speech in such cases is perceived as an aesthetic object. Words are accepted as something either beautiful or ugly.

Dolokhov in the novel "War and Peace" with obvious pleasure pronounces the word "on the spot" about the murdered man, not because he is a sadist, but simply because he likes the form of the word.

In Chekhov’s story “Men”, Olga read the Gospel, and did not understand much, but the holy words moved her to tears, and she uttered the words “asche” and “until” with sweet bated breath.

The following dialogue is a typical case of aesthetic function in conversation:

“Why do you always say Joan and Marjorie and not Marjorie and Joan? Do you love Joan more? “Not at all, it just sounds better that way.”

Corresponds recipient a message that the speaker is guided by, trying in one way or another to influence the addressee, to cause his reaction. Grammatically, this is often expressed by the imperative mood of verbs (Speak!), as well as the vocative case in archaic texts (man, son), for example, in a prayer in Church Slavonic: " Father ours, who are in heaven ... our daily bread give me us today."

Corresponds contact, i.e. the purpose of the message with this function is to establish, continue or interrupt communication, to check if the communication channel is working. “Hello, can you hear me? -»

For this purpose, the language has a large number of cliche phrases that are used for congratulations, at the beginning and end of the letter, and they, as a rule, do not carry literal information.

"Dear Sir! I consider you a scoundrel and a scoundrel, and from now on I break with you completely and completely.
Sincerely, Your Mr. Pumpkin."

Often, when we don’t know what to talk about with a person, but it’s simply indecent to be silent, we talk about the weather, about any events, although we may not be interested in them.

A fellow villager with a fishing rod walks past us to the river. We will definitely tell him, although it is obvious: “What, fishing?”

All these phrases are easily predictable, but their standardity and ease of use make it possible to establish contact and overcome disunity.

The American writer Dorothy Parker, during a boring party, when casual acquaintances asked her how she was doing, answered them in a tone of sweet small talk: “I just killed my husband, and everything is fine with me.”. People walked away, satisfied with the conversation, not paying attention to the meaning of what was said.

In one of her stories there is an excellent example of a phatic conversation between two lovers who practically do not need words.

"- Okay! - said the young man. - Okay! - she said.
- Okay. So it is, he said.
“So it is,” she said, “why not?”
- I think, therefore, so, he said, - something! So, so be it.
Okay, she said. All right, he said, all right.

The least talkative in this regard are the Chinook Indians. An Indian could come to a friend's house, sit there and leave without a word. The mere fact that he had bothered to come was a sufficient element of communication. It is not necessary to talk if there is no need to communicate something. There is a lack of phatic communication.

Children's speech up to three years is usually phatic, children often cannot understand what they are told, they do not know what to say, but they try to babble in order to maintain communication. Children learn this function first. The desire to initiate and maintain communication is characteristic of talking birds. The phatic function in language is the only function common to animals and humans.

Linguistics (linguistics, linguistics) is the science of language. The object of linguistics is language and speech in all their manifestations. Other sciences explore only selected aspects of these phenomena, for example, anatomy considers the structure of the speech apparatus, philosophy is interested in the relationship between human consciousness and language, etc. The subject of linguistics is human language in its various aspects, namely: language as sign system, as a reflection of thinking, as an obligatory sign of society (the origin of the language, its development and functioning in society), language and speech. Language is a multifunctional phenomenon. All functions of language are manifested in communication. There are the following functions language:

1) communicative (or communication function) - the main function of the language, the use of language to convey information;

2) constructive (or mental) - the formation of the thinking of the individual and society;

3) cognitive (or accumulative function) - the transfer of information and its storage;

4) emotional-expressive - expression of feelings, emotions;

5) voluntarily (or invocative-incentive function) - the function of influence;

6) metalinguistic (metalinguistic) - explanations by means of the language of the language itself; In relation to all sign systems, language is an instrument of explanation and organization. It's about that the metalanguage of any code is formed in words.

7) phatic (or contact-setting);

8) ideological function - the use of a particular language or type of writing to express ideological preferences. For example, the Irish language is used mainly not for communication, but as a symbol of Irish statehood. The use of traditional writing systems is often perceived as cultural continuity, and the transition to the Latin script as modernizing.

9) omadative (or formative reality) - the creation of realities and their control;

10) nominative - a person's faith in the name

11) denotative, representative - information transfer, presentation

12) conative - orientation to the addressee;

13) aesthetic - the sphere of creativity;

14) axiological - value judgment(good bad).

15) referent (or reflective) - the function of language, in which language is a means of accumulating human experience.

First of all, linguistics is one of the social sciences. It is closely related to such social sciences as history, economical geography, psychology, pedagogy. Linguistics is connected with history because. the history of a language is part of the history of a people. With the history of society, the vocabulary of the language, and the scope of its activity, and the nature of its functioning also change. Linguistics is associated, in particular, with such historical disciplines, as archeology, which studies history from material sources - tools, weapons, jewelry, utensils and ethnography - the science of the life and culture of peoples. Language as a product of the speech activity of an individual is the subject of study of psychology and linguistics.

Linguistics is also connected with pedagogy. We are talking here primarily about the existence of such a discipline as the methodology of language teaching. Modern technique covers not only teaching methods mother tongue but also teaching methods foreign language. Of the natural sciences, linguistics comes into contact mainly with human physiology and anthropology. The vocal apparatus and the production of speech sounds have physiological basis, since the sense organs, the muscular apparatus and nervous system person. The interests of linguists and anthropologists converge in the classification of races and languages ​​and in the study of the question of the origin of speech, which will be reported later. Of course, the connection of linguistics with the social sciences is stronger and closer than with the biological and medical sciences. This once again emphasizes that, despite the physiological basis of articulate speech, language is a social phenomenon. Linguistics, like other sciences, is connected with the philosophical sciences. No wonder in Lately such a science as the philosophy of language is developing, the focus of which is the idea of ​​language as the key to understanding thinking and knowledge. Linguistics is even associated with exact sciences Keywords: cybernetics, informatics, mathematical logic. From the point of view of cybernetics, language is a constant "carrier" of information, it participates in management processes, and it itself is a controlled and self-regulating system. Cybernetics tries to understand language as one of the controlling and controlled systems. Informatics studies language as a means of storing, processing and issuing information about documents - information carriers. Mathematical logic uses language as a natural sign system from which material can be drawn, for example, to solve formal logic problems. There is a close connection between linguistics and semiotics, which studies the general structure and functioning of various sign systems that store and transmit information. Since language is the main, most complex and, so to speak, classical sign system, semiotics has language in front of it as an object of direct observation and interest, however, semiotics has its own aspect of vision and understanding of language, which does not coincide with linguistic: semiotics in language is of interest general properties signs. However, linguistics is most closely associated with literary criticism, which sees in language a means of forming and expressing and a form of existence of the artistic content of works of literature. Literary criticism and linguistics constitute a common science - philology, the subject of which is the text. Linguistics analyzes language tools in speech, text style. Thus, linguistics is associated with many sciences. Even recently, many new sciences have appeared that combine the features of linguistics and other areas - for example, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics.