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 at the same time 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, the history of the speakers of this language are 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 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.
The cognitive, or, as some scientists call it, the 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 the bearing basis 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's name two such functions: emotional (expresses the inner state of the speaker, his feelings) and voluntative (the function of influencing listeners).
In addition to the above-named main and additional functions the magical function of language is also highlighted. This is due to the idea that some words and expressions have magical powers, are capable of changing the course of events, influencing a person's 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 material and form artistic creation, then 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 popular among modern domestic linguists and semiotic-Jacobsonian classification of language functions. 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 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 function, 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, it is an orientation towards 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.
The function of natural human language is its purpose, role in human society. The idea of the functions of language changes historically in accordance with changes in views on the nature of language, on its relationship with being, consciousness:
Initially, language was seen as a means of designating things;
Then, as a means of expression and transmission of universal thought;
As a means of forming ideas;
As a means of dividing and perceiving life, and each nation has its own [Zubkova 2003, p.19].
At present, all scientists are unanimous in recognizing the polyfunctionality of the language, but they are unanimous in the question of which functions to highlight. The functions of language are understood as all types of functioning of linguistic phenomena.
Understanding the function as the purpose of the object used by the subject, many researchers distinguish between:
Functions of language as a social phenomenon;
Functions of language as a system of signs;
Private functions in specific communication situations.
We will proceed from the fact that the functions of the national (ethnic) language (Language) or its variants (dialects, sociolects, etc.) and the functions of the signs of the linguistic system are phenomena of different order. So, for any ethnic language, important functions are:
Ethnic, which consists in the formation of ethnic identity,
National-cultural (accumulative, fixation and transfer of cultural experience).
We can talk about the functioning of this or that ethnic language as a means of international, interethnic communication, about the performance of the function of the state language by the language, about the functioning of languages in various spheres of human activity - scientific, everyday, etc., as well as in private situations of communication - in situations of appeals, requests, promises, etc.
The study of the essence of natural human language is impossible without considering its functions, because it is in the functioning that the nature of such a complex phenomenon as human language is manifested. The functions of the human language are basic, essential universal functions inherent in any ethnic language.
Language is a necessary condition for the formation and development human society and the person himself, therefore Edward Sapir (1884 - 1939) named the creative function as the main function of language.
The basic functions of the human language and specific ethnic languages usually include the following functions:
Communicative (to be a means of communication, exchange of information),
Thinking (serve as a means of forming and expressing thoughts, activities of consciousness);
Expressive (express feelings, emotions).
Basic functions find their expression in private functions.
The main purpose of the human language as a means of communication is the transmission of information in space and time. People communicate, interact in all types of activities - practical, cognitive, spiritual. Communication is a social process. It serves the formation of society, performs a connecting function. Communication activity is the most important aspect of human social behavior. In communication, socialization, mastery of experience, language is carried out. Thanks to the language, the continuity of human culture is carried out, the accumulation and assimilation of the experience developed by previous generations takes place.
Specific manifestations of the communicative function are particular functions. Private functions of the language include following functions:
Fatic (contact-making),
Appellate (appeal),
Voluntative (expression of will),
Directive (impact function),
Suggestive (impact on the psyche of another person),
Regulatory (creation, maintenance and regulation of relations in the human microcollective),
Interactive (the use of linguistic means in the linguistic interaction of communicants in order to influence each other);
Magical (incantatory), the use of linguistic means in the practice of shamans, psychics, etc.
Other private communicative functions can also be distinguished.
The mental function of language is associated with the formation, expression and transmission of mental content. Language is not just a form, a shell for thought, but also a person's way of thinking.
Cognitive (cognitive) function consists in the use of linguistic expressions for processing and storing knowledge in the memory of an individual and society, to form a picture of the world.
The language has an interpretative (interpretive) function, which consists in revealing the deep meaning of the perceived linguistic utterances (texts).
There is also an aesthetic (poetic) function, which is realized mainly in artistic creation, in the creation of works of art.
The metalinguistic (meta-verbal) function consists in the transmission of messages about the facts of the language and speech acts in it.
In addition to the above-mentioned functions of the language, the functions of linguistic units as components of the linguistic system can be distinguished. So, the main function of the word is the nominative function, the function of naming objects of the objective and spiritual world. Cognitive function is associated with a generalizing, classifying function of nominative units.
A.A. Leontiev distinguishes between the functions of language and the functions of speech.
Regulatory (communicative), any communication can be viewed as an attempt to regulate the behavior of others. There are three variants of the regulatory function: individual-regulatory, collective-regulatory and self-regulatory.
Cognitive, which has two aspects - individual (a means of mastering social and historical experience and social (construction, accumulation and organization of the social and historical experience of mankind);
National and cultural function, language captures the realities specific to a given culture.
The functions of speech, according to A.A. Leontiev, include:
Magic function;
Diacritical, associated with reduction, compression of a message in a certain communicative situation;
Emotional and aesthetic function. Emotional and aesthetic experiences are evoked in the addressee not at the vocabulary level, but due to the combination of these means in a speech work.
3. FROM THE HISTORY OF LANGUAGE
General linguistic problems are realized gradually. The centers of interest in linguistic thought are changing.
Linguistics, like any other science, stands on a foundation laid in the distant past. In the history of linguistics, one can find examples of correct guesses about language that laid the foundations of modern linguistics.
In antiquity, there were three so-called "traditions": Greco-Roman, Indian and Chinese. European science has as its origins the first tradition, ideas ancient greek philosophers... Those ancient sources that have survived make it possible to trace the development of the teaching of language, starting from Plato (428-348 BC). One of the most important questions of Greek philosophy was the question of whether language was arranged "by nature" or "according to custom." Arranged "by nature" were considered those phenomena, the essence of which, eternal and unchanging, lies outside of man. Arranged "according to custom" were considered those phenomena that are accepted by virtue of certain customs and traditions, i.e. by virtue of an implied agreement between members of the community. As applied to language, the antinomy "by nature" vs. "According to custom" was reduced to the question of the nature of the name, of whether there is a connection between the thing denoted by the word and the sound form of the word. Adherents of the "natural" view of language argued the existence of such a connection. The existence of various ways of "natural" communication was recognized: imitation of the sounds of animals, natural phenomena, etc. It was believed that certain sounds express certain properties of objects and phenomena. Among the sounds, gentle, harsh, liquid, courageous, etc. stood out. So, the sound [p] was considered harsh, therefore, the presence of [p] in words such as cut, rip, roar, roar and others, naturally (by nature) is explained (motivated) by those phenomena that are indicated by these words. Motivated names were considered "correct names" because they supposedly reflected signs inherent in things. The correct names were given by the Gods, and the Gods could not give the wrong names, because they knew the essence of the thing called. And if the name was given by people ("by appointment"), then these were random names that did not reflect the nature of the thing named.
In the II century. BC. there was an argument about how "regular" the language was. In a language, while changes in most words follow regular rules, or patterns, there are numerous exceptions. Regularity (compare: table–tables, pillar - pillars) the Greeks called analogy, and irregularity (cf. man - people, child - children) Is an anomaly. Analogists focused their efforts on identifying different models by which you can classify words. Anomalists, without denying certain regularities in the formation of words, pointed to numerous examples of irregular word forms.
The teachings of the Greeks were based on written texts. Oral speech was considered dependent on writing. It was believed that literate people preserve the purity of the language, and the illiterate spoil the language. This idea of the language lasted more than 2 thousand years.
In addition to the Greco-Latin tradition, the Indian tradition arose in antiquity. It also studied classical texts, compiled dictionaries of obsolete words, comments on texts. Ancient Indian grammarians studied ancient sacred texts - Vedic hymns, written in Sanskrit. Scientists paid great attention to the study of phonetics, since it was necessary to create rules for the accurate oral reproduction of Vedic hymns. The ancient Indian classification of speech sounds is more developed and accurate than all the classifications known to us, which were proposed in Europe until the 18th century. Panini's grammar (IV century BC), according to Lyons, in its completeness, consistency, laconicism, far surpasses all grammars written up to the present time. This grammar is generative. Following the rules of grammar in established order, it was possible to generate certain speech works.
The Romans in all fields of science, art, literature were strongly influenced Greek culture... Latin grammarians adopted Greek patterns almost entirely. The similarity between the Greek and Latin languages confirmed the point of view, according to which the grammatical categories, by the ancient Greeks, are universal for the language in general. The Latin grammars of Donatus and Priscianus were used as Latin textbooks until the 17th century.
In medieval Europe, Latin played an extremely important role in education. A good knowledge of Latin was essential for both secular and church life. Latin was not only the language of Holy Scripture and the Catholic Church, but also the international language of diplomacy, science, and culture.
The Renaissance is characterized by an interest in national languages and literature. The literature of classical antiquity was considered as the source of all cultural values of civilization. During this period, grammars of national languages appeared. Classical teaching was carried over to new European languages.
Scientific linguistics of modern times seeks to explain in a rational way the laws of the construction of language. In 1660, the "General Rational Grammar" (Grammar of Port-Royal) by A. Arno and C. Lansloh appeared in France. The purpose of this grammar is to prove that the structure of a language is based on logical foundations, and different languages are variants of one logical rational system.
It is sometimes believed that the scientific study of language originated only in the 19th century. Only in XIX century. the facts have become the subject of careful and objective scrutiny [Lyons 1978]. Scientific hypotheses began to be based on carefully selected facts. A special method of researching facts was developed - the comparative historical method.
The emphasis on historical grounds was characteristic at that time not only for linguistics, but also for other sciences, both natural and humanitarian.
At the end of the XVIII century. it has been proven that Sanskrit, the sacred language of India, is related to ancient Greek, Latin and other languages. In 1786 W. Jones noted that Sanskrit reveals such similarities in roots and grammatical forms with the named languages, which cannot be explained by chance coincidence. This similarity is so striking that one cannot help but conclude that these languages have a common source, which may no longer exist. This discovery required a scientific explanation. Reliable methodological principles were needed to identify the kinship of languages.
Kindred languages come from one common base language and are part of the same family of languages. The further we go into antiquity, the less differences are found between the compared languages.
Comparativists relied primarily on grammatical correspondences. We considered the words of the main vocabulary fund, since "cultural" words are often borrowed. Languages that are in geographical or cultural contact easily borrow words from each other. Often, certain realities or concepts adopted by one people from another retain their original names.
Comparative scholars study not just the similarities of linguistic elements, but regular correspondences. Regular correspondences between the sounds of words with similar meanings in different languages are formulated in the form of sound laws.
The development of linguistic science took place in close connection with the general cognitive work of a person. The formation of the subject of the science of language went through myths, philosophy, grammar, rational grammar. Milestones in the history of linguistic thought are the concepts of W. von Humboldt, F. de Saussure.
V. von Humboldt (1767 - 1835) is sometimes recognized as the founder of general linguistics, the creator of the philosophy of language of the XIX century. The concept of Humboldt is a turning point in the development of the theory of linguistics. On the basis of Humboldt's ideas, many subsequent concepts were developed in the twentieth century. Humboldt put forward fruitful ideas in many areas of theoretical linguistics: language and people, language and thinking, language and languages, etc. He warned against the absolutization of his ideas, but descendants did not always take this into account.
Humboldt noted that the sound language played a decisive role in the formation of man as a new biological species and as a thinking social being. The creation of a language is due to the inner need of humanity. Language is not only an external means of communication between people, but it is embedded in the very nature of man [Humboldt 1984, p. 51]. Language is not just a passive tool for representing thought, but it participates in the formation of thought itself. The representation converted into a word ceases to be the exclusive property of one subject. Passing on to others, it becomes the property of the entire human race. According to Humboldt, the structure of languages in the human race is different, because the spiritual characteristics of peoples are different. Language, according to Humboldt, turns into a special world lying between the world of external phenomena and the inner world of a person. We are talking about a system of meanings fixed in the language. Humboldt emphasizes the unity of all languages, the existence general laws from development and actual functioning. This unity is due to the influence of the universal characteristics of thinking. Humboldt's idea of the universality of human languages is complemented by the idea of their ethnic determinism.
According to Humboldt, thinking is not just dependent on language, it is, to a certain extent, conditioned by each individual language. Each language describes around the people to which it belongs, from where it is given to a person to come out only insofar as he enters the circle of another language in the same place, p. 80]. Learning a foreign language could be likened to gaining a new position in the old vision of the world.
Revealing the essential characteristics of language, Humboldt used a dialectical way of representing them in the form of antinomies. Antinomy is a contradiction between two mutually exclusive objects or qualities, the regularity of each of which is rationally provable. Such a complex phenomenon as language cannot be described without resorting to this method. So, when describing a language, the following antinomies are established: objective and subjective, individual and collective, social and psychological, activity and static, understanding and misunderstanding, etc.
In the XIX - XX centuries. linguistics was dominated by the scientistic model, introduced natural sciences in linguistic comparativism, structuralism, generativism.
For most linguistic theories of the twentieth century. the principle of the priority of the synchronous description of the language is characteristic, which assumes that historical considerations are not essential for the study of a certain state of the language. This approach to the analysis of language was proclaimed by F. de Saussure (1857-1913). Saussure draws an analogy with the game of chess. In a chess game, the positions on the board are constantly changing. However, at any given moment in time, the position is fully described by indicating the places occupied by the chess pieces. How the participants in the game arrived at a given position (specific moves, their number, order, etc.) is completely unimportant for describing the position itself. It can be described synchronously, without referring to previous moves. The same, according to Saussure, is true of language.
All languages are constantly changing, but the states of the language can be described independently of each other. Each state of language can and should be described by itself, regardless of what it has developed from or what can develop from it.
The concept of the historical development of a language (linguistic change) is most fruitfully used on a macroscopic scale, i.e. when comparing temporal states that are sufficiently distant from each other [Lyons 1978]. On a microscopic scale, i.e. when comparing two sufficiently close linguistic states of the language, it is impossible to draw a clear line between diachronic and synchronic variability.
F. de Saussure drew the attention of linguists to the systematic nature of the language. Each language is a collection of interconnected subsystems that form a language system, a system of relations. Elements of the language system - sounds, words, etc. - are significant only insofar as they are with each other in a relationship of equivalence and opposition. Saussure contrasted language and speech and urged linguists to first describe language as the most stable in linguistic activity. This was done within the framework of the system-structural paradigm in the twentieth century.
Linguistics, starting from Saussure, set the task of choosing something stable and orderly from a fluid linguistic experience. Systemic-structural linguistics sought to reveal the integrity and discreteness of its object. The task of the study was considered to be the extraction of virtual linguistic units (phonemes, morphemes, etc.) from the text based on the method of opposition and accounting for distribution (environment, context).
In the second half of the twentieth century, there is an expansion of ideas and approaches of American linguistics, primarily the idea of generativism, developed under the influence of the ideas of Noam Chomsky. N. Chomsky included a description of the linguistic intuition of a native speaker in the circle of the linguist's research. Linguistic theory began to be understood as the study of the work of human thinking and its connection with language. The idea of innate grammar, deep and surface structures was put forward, a method of generative grammar was developed.
In the last decades of the last century, the interests of linguists have increasingly concentrated on the study of the role of a person in language, on the use of language by a person (pragmalinguistic aspect).
Recent postmodern science fundamentally rejects any objective criteria, proclaiming the unlimited subjectivity of each act of linguistic interpretation, unlimited reading of the same text. In a fluid continuum, one must look for a pattern. The aspirations to cast aside tradition and build a “different linguistics” often lack a foundation. The analysis of language forces us to turn to positivism. Linguistics continues to go its own way. Individual "fluid" associations remained outside the linguistic analysis, because it is not known by what methods to study them.
§ 12. Language as a social phenomenon, as the most important means of human communication, performs in the life of people whole line public functions.
The word "function" (from lat ... functio- "execution") is ambiguous. V common use it can denote such concepts: meaning, purpose, role; duty, scope of responsibilities; work, type of activity; a certain phenomenon, depending on another, the main phenomenon and serving as a form of its manifestation, implementation. This word is used in various ways as a scientific term, i.e. has a number of special meanings. As a linguistic concept, it is also used ambiguously. According to some linguists, recently in the science of language this term (along with the term "structure") has become the most ambiguous and stereotyped.
The compound linguistic term "language function", or "language function", denotes the purpose, purpose, or "purpose, potential orientation of the language system to meet the needs of communication (communication) and needs mental activity". Following VA Avrorin, the concept of the function of language can be defined as" a practical manifestation of the essence of language, the implementation of its purpose in the system of social phenomena, the specific action of language, conditioned by its very nature, something without which language cannot exist, if not there is matter without motion. "
When we talk about linguistic functions in general theoretical terms, we mean, first of all, the functions of language in general, language as a universal phenomenon, i.e. functions specific to different languages. They should not be confused with the specific functions of individual languages associated with special conditions their functioning. One can compare such functions of the Russian language as, for example: to be a means of interethnic communication between the peoples of Russia or the Soviet peoples (in the former USSR), to act as one of the international languages and others. In general linguistics, including in the course "Introduction to Linguistics", the functions that are manifested in any language, are carried out or can be carried out by each language are usually considered.
Sometimes language functions are considered to be varieties of language that serve different areas activities of people, i.e. speaks about the performance of the language of the functions of the national spoken language, oral form literary language, the language of science and technology, the language of culture, art, the language of social and political life, or the function of the language used in various spheres of social and political life, the function of the language of instruction in primary, secondary schools and universities, etc. In such cases, it was more correct to speak not about the functions of the language, but about the spheres of its application.
Speaking about linguistic functions, one should distinguish between such functions of language as a means of human communication, as an integral system, and the functions of elements of this system - different linguistic units, their types, for example, the functions of a word, sentence, speech sound, word stress, etc. Here we will only talk about the proper language functions.
The main, most important function of language is considered to be communication function, or communicative(from lat. communicatio- "communication, message"). This function is understood as the purpose, the purpose of the language to serve as a means of communication between people, their transmission of messages, exchange of information. In the process of communicating with the help of language, people transmit to each other their thoughts, feelings, desires, moods, emotional experiences, etc.
The presence of a language of a communicative function is due to the very nature of the language; this function finds its expression in the generally accepted understanding of language as the most important means of human communication. The communicative function is "the original, primary, for the sake of which the human language appeared"; this idea is also expressed in the above statement by K. Marx and F. Engels that "language arises only from a need, from the urgent need to communicate with other people."
Language exists, functions insofar as it realizes its purpose - to serve as a means of communication between people. If, due to certain conditions, the language ceases to fulfill this purpose, it ceases to exist or (in the presence of writing) is preserved in the form of a dead language, as mentioned above.
In order to exchange information, thoughts about the reality around us, about specific objects and phenomena, it is necessary to create, form, construct the corresponding thoughts that do not exist in a finished form, but appear only as a result of a person's mental activity, carried out (mainly or only) with language help, as discussed in the previous section. Recall that units of thinking (concepts, judgments) are expressed by linguistic means (words and sentences). On this basis, a special function of the language is distinguished - thought-forming function, thought-forming, or constructive(from lat. constructio -"construction"), sometimes called mental, or the function of the tool of thinking. This function of the language, in contrast to the communicative one, is not recognized by all linguists. According to some linguists, the constructive function belongs not to language, but to thinking.
Usually thoughts are formed, constructed by a person with the aim of transmitting to others, and this is possible only if they have a material expression, a sound shell, i.e. expressed by linguistic means. "In order for ... a thought to be transmitted to another, it is necessary to express this thought in a form that is accessible to perception, it is necessary for the thought to receive material embodiment. The most important tool for this ... and human language is. "It is language, being closely related to abstract thinking, provides the opportunity" to convey any information, including general judgments, generalizations about objects that are not present in the situation of speech, about the past and the future , about fantastic or simply untrue situations. "Thus, it should be recognized that, along with the functions discussed above, the language also performs thought expression function, or, more simply, expressive function, which is also called expressive(from lat. expressio- "expression"), or explicative(from lat. explicatio- "explanation, deployment").
Expressing his thoughts, judgments about the world around him, about various objects and phenomena of reality, the speaker can simultaneously express his attitude to the content of speech, to the reported facts, events, etc., his feelings, emotions, experiences or empathy in connection with the information being reported. ... This is most clearly manifested in artistic, poetic speech and is comprehended through special selection, purposeful use different means a common language, "a specific artistic organization of linguistic material." For these purposes, such linguistic means are used as, for example: introductory words and phrases, modal particles, interjections, significant words with emotional, expressive, stylistic coloring, figurative meanings of words, derivational affixes with evaluative meaning, word order in a sentence, intonation (for example, intonation of joy, admiration, anger, etc.). In this regard, a special function of language stands out - the function of expressing emotions, feelings, experiences and moods, or, more simply, "the function of expressing the feelings and will of the speaker", which in special literature is usually called artistic, poetic, aesthetic, emotional, or emotive. This function of language can be defined as "the ability of language to act as a form of art, to become the embodiment of an artistic intention", "to serve as a means of embodying an artistic intention, a means of creating a work of art"; its essence lies in the fact that "language, acting as a form of verbal art, becomes the embodiment of artistic intention, a means of figurative reflection of reality, refracted in the mind of the artist."
Language is not only a means of reflecting reality, objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, a means of expressing human thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc., but also the main means and essential source knowledge of the world, processes and phenomena occurring in it. In other words, the language performs cognitive function, or, otherwise, gnostic, epistemological(from the Greek. gnosis -"knowledge, knowledge" and logos- "word, teaching"), cognitive(Wed lat. cognoscere- "learn, learn", cognitum- "to learn, to know").
The simplest way to cognize the external world is sensory perception, however, not all objects, their signs, properties, etc. are perceived and cognized by the senses. In particular, abstract concepts such as space, movement, speed, etc. are completely inaccessible to sensory perception. Yes, and with the help of the senses, you can get only a very superficial idea about specific objects. Deep and comprehensive knowledge of the surrounding world is possible only with the help of language.
The participation of language in the knowledge of reality manifests itself, as is known, in the process of thinking, in the formation of concepts and judgments, which are expressed in words and sentences. Without the participation of language, linguistic means, the scientific, research activity of people is unthinkable, as a result of which our knowledge is constantly enriched with new information, new information about the world around us, about the phenomena being studied.
In the process of cognition, communication between people plays an extremely important role in order to exchange information and experience. Such an exchange is possible not only with direct communication orally, but also when reading books, newspapers, magazines, while listening to radio broadcasts, watching television, films, theatrical performances, etc. The process of cognition is especially intensive during study, in training sessions. All this is possible with the participation of the language.
As noted above, language is not only a means, but also a source of knowledge about the world around us. "The language itself carries the information contained in its signs." This or that information contains all the significant units of the language - morphemes, words, phrases, sentences. "The content side of the significant units of the language, ie the meaning of words and word components, the meaning of phrases, the semantics of propositional structures, is a picture of the world processed by human thought (in each language in a slightly different way), formed as a result of a long-term analytical, cognitive activities of many previous generations ".
The source of human knowledge is not only specific language units, but also certain linguistic categories, in particular grammatical ones. So, for example, a noun as a part of speech denotes an object (in a broad sense), or objectivity, an adjective is a sign of an object, a numeral is a number, a number of objects, a verb is an action, a process. The same can be said about the lexical and grammatical categories of nouns, adjectives and other parts of speech, about the categories of number, gender, animation, degree of comparison, time, mood, etc.
It should be noted that the cognitive function of language (as well as the constructive function) is not recognized by all scientists. Some linguists believe that "this function is inherent in human thinking, and language is only a tool that is used in the process of its implementation," that language does not perform a cognitive function, but only a function of a means of cognition. It seems, however, that this difference is not fundamental. After all, language is not only cognitive means but also a means of communication. It is generally accepted that language performs the function of communication, or a communicative function, precisely because it is means communication of people; it can equally be argued that language as a means of cognition performs a cognitive function.
Closely related to the cognitive function of language accumulative function(Wed lat. accumulatio- "accumulation, dumping in a heap"), i.e. the function of accumulating, consolidating and transferring social experience, or "a means of consolidating and transferring the achievements of human thinking, human knowledge." The essence of this function is that "the language in in a certain sense accumulates in itself the social experience of mankind and the knowledge acquired in the process of life "which" are deposited primarily in significant vocabulary, to a certain extent also in grammar, reflecting, to a greater or lesser extent indirectly, the connections and relations of reality. " and experience spreads between people, becomes the property of different peoples, is passed from generation to generation, which ensures the accumulation and constant enrichment of experience and knowledge, the development of science, technology, etc. "If language did not make such transfer of knowledge possible, then each a generation would have to start in the development of knowledge from an empty space, and then there would be no progress in science, technology, or culture. "
Some linguists, along with the named functions of the language, distinguish and describe such functions as regulatory, i.e. "a function that regulates relations between people in the process of communication"; phatic (or contact, contact-establishing), nominative (name) and some others, which, in our opinion, are not of particular interest.
- Cm.: Jacobson R. Development of a target language model in European linguistics in the period between the two wars // New in linguistics. 1965. no. 4, p. 377.
- L. A. Kiseleva Communicative linguistic functions and the semantic structure of verbal meaning // Problems of semantics. M., 1974.S. 67.
- V. A. Avrorin Language functions. P. 354; Its the same. O the subject of sociolinguistics. P. 34.
- Cm.: V. G. Kostomarov The problem of social functions of language and the concept of "world language" // Sociolinguistic problems developing countries... M., 1975.S. 241–242.
The function of language as a scientific concept is a practical manifestation of the essence of language, the realization of its purpose in the system of social phenomena, the specific action of language, conditioned by its very nature, something without which language cannot exist, just as matter does not exist without motion.
The communicative and cognitive functions are basic. They are almost always present in speech activity, therefore, they are sometimes called the functions of the language, in contrast to the other, not so obligatory, functions of speech.
Austrian psychologist, philosopher and linguist Karl Buhler, describing in his book "Theory of Language" the various directions of language signs, defines 3 main functions of the language:
) The function of expression, or expressive function, when the state of the speaker is expressed.
) The function of calling, addressing the listener, or appellative function. 3) The function of presentation, or representative, when one says or tells something to another.
Functions of the language according to the Reformed. There are other points of view on the functions performed by the language, for example, as A.A. Reformatsky understood them. 1) Nominative, that is, the words of the language can name things and phenomena of reality. 2) Communicative; suggestions serve this purpose. 3) Expressive, thanks to her expressed emotional condition speaker. Within the framework of the expressive function, one can also single out the deictic (pointing) function, which combines some elements of the language with gestures.
Communicative function language is connected with the fact that language is primarily a means of communication between people. It allows one individual - the speaker - to express their thoughts, and the other - the perceiver - to understand them, that is, to somehow react, take note, and accordingly change their behavior or their mental attitudes. The act of communication would not be possible without language.
Communication means communication, exchange of information. In other words, language arose and exists primarily to enable people to communicate.
The communicative function of the language is carried out due to the fact that the language itself is a system of signs: there is simply no other way to communicate. And signs, in turn, are intended to convey information from person to person.
Linguistic scientists, following the prominent researcher of the Russian language, Academician Viktor Vladimirovich Vinogradov (1895-1969), sometimes define the main functions of the language in a slightly different way. They highlight: - a message, that is, a statement of some thought or information; - impact, that is, an attempt to change the behavior of the perceiving person with the help of verbal persuasion;
communication, that is, messaging.
Communication and impact refer to monologue speech, and communication - to dialogical speech. Strictly speaking, these are, indeed, the functions of speech. If we talk about the functions of the language, then the message, and the impact, and communication are the implementation of the communicative function of the language. The communicative function of language is more comprehensive in relation to these functions of speech.
Linguistic scholars also emphasize sometimes, and not without reason, the emotional function of language. In other words, the signs, sounds of the language often serve people to convey emotions, feelings, states. As a matter of fact, it was with this function that the human language most likely began. Moreover, in many social or herd animals, it is the transmission of emotions or states (anxiety, fear, pacification) that is the main signaling method. With emotionally colored sounds and exclamations, animals notify their fellow tribesmen about the found food or the approaching danger. In this case, it is not information about food or danger that is transmitted, but the emotional state of the animal, corresponding to satisfaction or fright. And even we understand this emotional language of animals - we can quite understand the alarmed barking of a dog or the rumbling of a satisfied cat.
Of course, the emotional function of the human language is much more complex, emotions are conveyed not so much by sounds as by the meaning of words and sentences. Nevertheless, this most ancient function of language probably goes back to the pre-symbolic state of human language, when sounds did not symbolize, did not replace emotions, but were their direct manifestation.
However, any manifestation of feelings, direct or symbolic, also serves to communicate, transmit it to fellow tribesmen. In this sense, the emotional function of the language is also one of the ways to implement the more comprehensive communicative function of the language. So, different types of implementation of the communicative function of language are message, impact, communication, as well as the expression of feelings, emotions, states.
Cognitive, or cognitive, the function of language (from the Latin cognition - knowledge, cognition) is connected with the fact that the human consciousness is realized or fixed in the signs of the language. Language is an instrument of consciousness, reflects the results of a person's mental activity.
Scientists have not yet come to an unambiguous conclusion about what is primary - language or thinking. Perhaps the very formulation of the question is incorrect. After all, words not only express our thoughts, but the thoughts themselves exist in the form of words, verbal formulations, even before they are spoken orally. At least, no one has yet succeeded in fixing the literal, pre-linguistic form of consciousness. Any images and concepts of our consciousness are realized by ourselves and those around us only when they are clothed in a linguistic form. Hence the idea of the inextricable connection between thinking and language.
The connection between language and thinking has been established even with the help of physiometric evidence. The person being tested was asked to think over some difficult task, and while he was thinking, special sensors took data from the speech apparatus of a silent person (from the larynx, tongue) and detected the nervous activity of the speech apparatus. That is, the mental work of the subjects "out of habit" was reinforced by the activity of the speech apparatus.
Interesting evidence is provided by observations of the mental activity of polyglots - people who can speak well in many languages. They admit that in each specific case they "think" in one language or another. An illustrative example is the scout Stirlitz from the famous movie - after years working in Germany, he found himself "thinking in German."
Cognitive function language not only allows you to record the results of mental activity and use them, for example, in communication. It also helps to explore the world. A person's thinking develops in the categories of language: realizing new concepts, things and phenomena, a person calls them. And thus he puts his world in order. This function of language is called nominative (naming objects, concepts, phenomena).
Nominative the function of language is directly derived from the cognitive. The cognized must be named, given a name. The nominative function is associated with the ability of the signs of a language to symbolically designate things. The ability of words to symbolically replace objects helps us create our second world - separate from the first, physical world. The physical world does not lend itself well to our manipulations. You can't move mountains with your hands. But the second, symbolic world - it is completely ours. We take it with us wherever we want and do whatever we want with it.
There is an important difference between the world of physical realities and our symbolic world, which reflected the physical world in the words of the language. The world, symbolically reflected in words, is a cognized, mastered world. The world is known and mastered only when it is named. The world without our names is alien, like a distant unknown planet, there is no man in it, human life is impossible in it.
The name allows you to fix what has already been learned. Without a name, any known fact of reality, any thing would remain in our minds as a one-time accident. By naming words, we create our own - understandable and convenient picture of the world. Language gives us canvas and paint. It is worth noting, however, that not everything even in the known world has a name. For example, our body - we “encounter” it every day. Every part of our body has a name. And what is the name of the part of the face between the lip and the nose, if there is no mustache? No way. There is no such name. What is the name of the top of the pear? What is the name of the pin on the belt buckle that fixes the length of the belt? Many objects or phenomena seem to have been mastered by us, used by us, but do not have names. Why is the nominative function of the language not implemented in these cases?
This is the wrong question. The nominative function of the language is still implemented, just in a more sophisticated way - through description, not naming. In words, we can describe anything we want, even if there are no separate words for it. Well, those things or phenomena that do not have their own names, simply do not deserve such names. This means that such things or phenomena are not so significant in everyday life for the people that they were given their own name (like the same collet pencil). In order for an object to receive a name, it is necessary for it to enter public use, to step over a certain "threshold of significance." Until some time, it was still possible to get by with a random or descriptive name, but from then on it is no longer possible - you need a separate name. The act of naming is of great importance in a person's life. When we meet with something, we first of all call it. Otherwise, we can neither comprehend what we have encountered ourselves, nor convey a message about it to other people. It was with inventing names that the biblical Adam began. Robinson Crusoe first of all called the rescued savage Friday. Travelers, botanists, zoologists of the times of great discoveries were looking for something new and gave this new name and description. An innovative manager does about the same by his occupation. On the other hand, the name also determines the fate of the named thing.
Accumulative the function of language is associated with the most important purpose of language - to collect and store information, evidence of human cultural activity. A language lives much longer than a person, and sometimes even longer than entire nations. There are so-called dead languages that survived the peoples who spoke these languages. No one speaks these languages, except for the specialists who study them. The most famous "dead" language is Latin. Due to the fact that for a long time it was the language of science (and earlier it was the language of a great culture), Latin is well preserved and quite widespread - even a person with secondary education knows several Latin sayings. Living or dead languages keep the memory of many generations of people, testimonies of centuries. Even when the oral tradition is forgotten, archaeologists can discover ancient writings and use them to reconstruct the events of bygone days. Over the centuries and millennia of mankind, a huge amount of information has been accumulated, produced and recorded by man on different languages the world.
All the gigantic volumes of information produced by humanity exist in linguistic form. In other words, any piece of this information can in principle be uttered and perceived by both contemporaries and descendants. This is the accumulative function of language, with the help of which mankind accumulates and transmits information both in modern times and in the historical perspective - along the baton of generations.
Various researchers identify many more important functions of the language. For example, language plays an interesting role in establishing or maintaining contacts between people. Returning after work with a neighbor in the elevator, you can tell him: "Something has started to stir out of season today, eh, Arkady Petrovich?" In fact, both you and Arkady Petrovich have just been outside and are well aware of the state of the weather. Therefore, your question has absolutely no information content, it is informationally empty. It performs a completely different function - phatic, that is, contact-establishing. With this rhetorical question, you actually once again confirm to Arkady Petrovich the good-neighborly status of your relations and your intention to preserve this status. If you write down all your remarks for the day, then you will see that a considerable part of them are pronounced precisely for this purpose - not to convey information, but to certify the nature of your relationship with the interlocutor. And what words are spoken at the same time is the second thing. This is the most important function of the language - to certify the mutual status of interlocutors, to maintain certain relations between them. For a person, a social being, the phatic function of language is very important - it not only stabilizes the attitude of people towards the speaker, but also allows the speaker himself to feel “his own” in society. It is very interesting and revealing to analyze the implementation of the main functions of language on the example of such a specific type of human activity as innovation.
Of course, innovative activity is impossible without the implementation of the communicative function of the language. Setting research tasks, working in a team, checking research results, setting implementation tasks and monitoring their implementation, simple communication in order to coordinate the actions of participants in the creative and work process - all these actions are unthinkable without the communicative function of the language. And it is in these actions that it is realized.
The cognitive function of language is of particular importance for innovation. Thinking work, highlighting key concepts, abstraction of technological principles, analysis of oppositions and contiguity phenomena, fixation and analysis of an experiment, translation of engineering tasks into a technological and implementation plane - all these intellectual actions are impossible without the participation of language, without the implementation of its cognitive function.
And the language solves special problems when it comes to fundamentally new technologies that have no precedent, that is, do not have, respectively, operational, conceptual names. In this case, the innovator acts as the Demiurge, the mythical creator of the Universe, who establishes connections between objects and comes up with completely new names for both objects and connections. In this work, the nominative function of the language is realized. And the future life of his innovations depends on how literate and skillful the innovator will be. Will his followers and implementers understand or not? If new names and descriptions of new technologies do not take root, then it is highly likely that the technologies themselves will not take root. No less important is the accumulative function of the language, which ensures the work of the innovator twice: firstly, it provides him with the knowledge and information accumulated by his predecessors, and secondly, it accumulates his own results in the form of knowledge, experience and information. Actually, in a global sense, the accumulative function of language ensures the scientific, technical and cultural progress of mankind, since it is thanks to it that every new knowledge, every bit of information is firmly established on a broad foundation of knowledge gained by its predecessors. And this grandiose process does not stop for a minute.
language communication cognitive dialogical
The subject of phonetics. Aspects of studying the sounds of speech and sound units of the language. Phonology. Phonetics (from other Greek. Phone sound, voice) is the science of the sound material of a language, of the use of this material in the meaningful units of language and speech, of history. changes in this material and in the techniques for using it. Sounds and other sound units (syllables) and phenomena (stress, intonation) are studied by phonetics from different aspects: 1) with "." their physical (acoustic) features 2) with "." work, manuf. a man uttered them. and auditory perception, i.e. in the biological aspect 3) with "." their use. in the language, their role in ensuring the functioning of the language as a means of communication.
The last aspect, the cat. can be called functional, stood out in a special region-t-phonology, cat. yavl. inseparable part and organizing core of phonetics.
^ 10. Acoustic. aspect of studying the sounds of speech.
Every sound spoken in speech is oscillatory motion transmitted through elastic. environment (air) and perceived. hearing. This is hesitant. movement is characterized by def. acoustic cv-you, consider. cat. and is acoustic. aspect.
If the oscillations are uniform, periodic, then the sound is called tone, if unequal, non-periodic, then noise. Vowel-tones, deaf. acc. to noises, in sonanatas the tone prevails over the noise in the bell. noisy - noise above the tone.
Sounds character. height, hovered. on the frequency of vibrations (the more vibrations, the higher the sound), and the force, depending on the amplitude of the vibrations. Naib. important for the language yavl. difference in timbre, i.e. their specific color. It is the timbre that distinguishes it from a, etc. the timbre of each sound is created by resonance characteristics. Spectrum - decomposition of sound into tones with the allocation of frequency concentration bands (formants)
^ 11. The biological aspect of the study of speech sounds. The device of the speech apparatus and the functions of its parts.
The biological aspect is subdivided into pronouncing and perceptual.
Pronouncing- to pronounce this or that sound it is necessary: 1) def. an impulse sent from the motor speech center (Broca's zone) head. brain, find. in the third frontal gyrus of the left hemisphere 2) the transmission of this impulse along the nerves to the organs, perform. 3) given command in large. cases - the difficult work of the respiratory apparatus (lungs, bronchi and trachea) + the diaphragm and the entire chest. cells 4) complex. work of the pronunciation organs in narrow. sense (ligaments, tongue, lips, palatine curtain, pharyngeal walls, movement of the lower jaw) - articulation.
^ Pronunciation functions. organs ( divided by the asset. and passive.)
2) the supraglottic cavities (the cavity of the pharynx, mouth, nose) perform functions. a movable resanator that creates resanator tones. an obstacle arises (gap, bow).
3) the language is capable of taking different positions. Changes the degree of lift, is pulled back, compressed into a lump in the back. parts, fed by the whole mass forward, approaches the decomp. passive organs (palate, alvioli), forming either a bow or a gap. The tongue creates the phenomenon of palatalization.
4) lips (especially the lower one) - protruding forward and rounding lengthen the total. the volume of the cavity, change its shape, creating labialized sounds; when pronouncing labial consent. create an obstacle (labial-labial occlusive and slotted, labial-dental slotted).
5) the palatine curtain - takes the raised position, closing the passage to the nasal cavity, or, conversely, lowers, connecting the nasal cavity.
6) tongue - when pronouncing a burnt consonant
7) the back wall of the pharynx - when pronouncing. pharyngeal acc. (eng h).
^ 12. Articular (anatomical and physiological) classification of speech sounds (vowels and consonants).
1. vowels and consonants. ch. there are no obstacles for air, they have no def. places of education, typical obshch. the tension of the muscles is pronounced. apparatus and relative. weak air jet. acc.-there is an obstacle, def. place image., muscle tension at place image. obstacles and stronger air. jet.
2. vowels for the work of the language-row (front, back, mixed + more fractional divisions), the degree of elevation of the tongue (open and closed ch.) Vowels for the work of the lips - ogubl. and unadulterated. For work, palatine curtains, nasal, nasal
Long and short in longitude.
4. Acc. by the way arr. noise, by the nature of the obstacle-stop (explosive (n, t), affricates (s), implosive (there is no explosion, no transition to the gap, the pronunciation ends with a bow (m, n))), slotted, trembling.
5. Acc. according to the actively articulating org.-labial (both lips, only the lower one), anterior lingual (active part of the anterior part of the tongue), middle language, posterior language, uvular, pharyngeal, laryngeal.
6.Dr. signs acc. - palatalization, velarization, labilization.
Phonemes
–these are the minimum units of the sound structure of a language that perform in a given language specific function: serve for folding and distinguishing the material shells of significant units of the language - morphemes, words.
Already in the definition, some functions of phonemes are named. In addition, scientists name several more functions. So to the main functions of the phoneme
include the following:
1. constitutive (building) function;
2. distinctive (significative, distinctive) function;
3. perceptual function (identification, that is, the function of perception);
4. delimitation function (delimiting, that is, capable of separating the beginnings and ends of morphemes and words).
As already mentioned, phonemes are one-sided units with a plan of expression (exponential - according to Maslov), while they are not meaningful, although, according to L.V.Bondarko, phonemes are potentially associated with meaning: they refer to sense discerning. It should be borne in mind that there are single-phonemic words or morphemes, for example, prepositions, endings, etc.
For the first time the concept of phoneme in linguistics was led by the Russian scientist I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay. Using the term used by the French. linguist L. Ave in the meaning of "sound of speech", he connects the concept of a phoneme with its function in a morpheme. The doctrine of the phoneme is further developed in the works of N. V. Krushevsky, a student of I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay. A great contribution to the development of this issue was made by N. S. Trubetskoy, a St. Petersburg scientist, in the 20s of the twentieth century. emigrated abroad.
Language is not only a system of signs that symbolically mediates the human world, but also the most important instrument of human activity.
The following language functions are distinguished:
1) communicative;
2) cognitive (cognitive);
3) nominative;
4) accumulative.
The communicative function of language is associated with the fact that language, first of all, is a means of communication between people. It allows one individual - the speaker - to express their thoughts, and the other - the perceiver - to understand them, that is, to somehow react, take note, and accordingly change their behavior or their mental attitudes. The act of communication would not be possible without language.
The cognitive, or cognitive, functions of the language (from the Latin cognition - knowledge, cognition) is associated with the fact that in the signs of the language the consciousness of a person is realized or fixed. Language is an instrument of consciousness, reflects the results of a person's mental activity.
Any images and concepts of our consciousness are realized by ourselves and those around us only when they are clothed in a linguistic form. Hence the idea of the inextricable connection between thinking and language.
The nominative function of language is directly derived from the cognitive one. The cognized must be named, given a name. The nominative function is associated with the ability of the signs of a language to symbolically designate things.
The world is known and mastered only when it is named. The world without our names is alien, like a distant unknown planet, there is no man in it, human life is impossible in it.
The name allows you to fix what has already been learned. Without a name, any known fact of reality, any thing would remain in our minds as a one-time accident. By naming words, we create our own - understandable and convenient picture of the world. Language gives us canvas and paint.
The accumulative function of language is associated with the most important purpose of language - to collect and store information, evidence of human cultural activity. A language lives much longer than a person, and sometimes even longer than entire nations. There are so-called dead languages that survived the peoples who spoke these languages. No one speaks these languages, except for the specialists who study them.
The overwhelming majority of the gigantic volumes of information produced and produced by mankind exist in linguistic form. In other words, any piece of this information can in principle be uttered and perceived by both contemporaries and descendants. This is the accumulative function of language, with the help of which mankind accumulates and transmits information both in modern times and in the historical perspective - along the baton of generations.
Summing up this section, you can derive such a formula for memorizing the main functions of the language.
The communication function provides social connections, life in society.
Cognitive function provides thinking, cognition and orientation in the world.
The nominative function helps to name objects and phenomena.
The accumulative function ensures the accumulation, continuity of knowledge and the existence of a person in history.