Language is traditionally viewed as a tool and means of cognizing reality. Due to its complexity and versatility, the theme "Language and Cognition" is being developed from different points of view in modern areas of linguistics and philosophy.
W. Humboldt was the first to express the idea that language is the main instrument for reflecting and cognizing reality: "A person surrounds himself with a world of sounds in order to reflect and process the world of objects."
In Russian linguistics, he was engaged in the problem of language and cognition. A.A. Potebnya... He revealed the deep, inherent in language, constantly operating mechanism of cognitive processes occurring in verbal thinking. A number of questions raised by Potebney about the anthropomorphism of cognition, the subjective and objective in cognition, the influence of cognitive means on the results of cognition, and the cognitive role of verbal thinking were reflected in heated discussions in 20th century science.
The acquisition and consolidation of new knowledge occurs in the practical activity of a person, which includes speech activity. Consequently, the cognitive role of language must be considered in unity with the practical activity of a person. As a tool of knowledge and a natural sign system, language fixes the results of knowledge in any area of human activity. But the subject of linguistics cannot be intellectual achievements in certain areas of knowledge.
Linguistics is interested in the study of that side of the language, which ensures the reflection and consolidation in the signs of the results of the activity of the speaking collective.
In linguistics, the opinion has spread that the meanings of words in a common language are "naive concepts", and the semantics of a language is a "naive picture of the world." Meanwhile, the concepts fixed in the language and the linguistic picture of the world are far from being naive; many scientists have written about this. In the semantics of the common language, the result of the development of the thought and speech of the people was deposited.
The first classification of objects and phenomena of the world is in language. Common language concepts reach a high degree of distraction and elaboration. The meanings of common words do not break semantic ties with the corresponding scientific categories: time, space, consciousness, thinking, reason, movement, conscience, pressure. Formation of categories such as subject, substance, object, object goes into common language.
Language is arranged in such a way that its entire mechanism serves to reflect and cognize reality.
Cognition of reality with the help of language is carried out in the process of everyday speech activity of people exchanging new information with each other in various works of literature.Researchers point to the language's own heuristic capabilities. With the help of language, a person can understand and assimilate new content, new concepts, create ideas about such phenomena and objects that he has never seen before, about which he has not heard or knew anything. Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote: "The sentence should in the old expressions give us a new meaning."
Man as a subject of knowledge is opposed to the surrounding world. A person can penetrate into this world and know it only by subjective means. Language is a subjective means of reflection and cognition of reality. This does not exclude the presence of objective content in it. Abstraction formed with the help of language is not divorced from reality. The material for abstractions are sensory forms of reflection of reality, directly connected with it.
The subjectivity of language is manifested in the nature of the reflection of reality... With its separate signs, language dismembers that which in reality and in sensory perception exists as a unity. Offer " White bird flies», Consisting of three words, corresponds to one subject. In reality, and in sensory perception, signs are not separated from objects. Language and our thinking isolate its features from an object and thereby make them separate, independent entities. This isolation allows one to operate with them in various connections and relationships with many other objects and phenomena. Conversely, a word can represent many different objects and phenomena as a whole: forest, country, people, population, crowd, aggregate. With the help of language, the analysis and synthesis of reflected objects and phenomena of reality is carried out, and this is a necessary way to cognize their essence.
Subjectivism manifests itself in the formation of the word.
The choice of the attribute taken in the name is due to the person's approach to the designated object, interest in it, specific social, cultural, and living conditions. But this subjectivity is corrected by the meaning of the word, which contains many features of the designated object. Collective cognition moves between these poles - from a separate feature taken as the basis of the name to a multitude of cognizable features.The form of language plays a primary role in the cognition of reality. It is in the form that two opposing worlds - subjective and objective - “meet” and interact.
Genetically, the elements of the form of language reflect the established relationship between man and reality. Because of this, they cannot but be isomorphic to reality itself. The form itself is subjective, but thanks to it, elements of objective content can be alienated and assimilated from the stream of thought. Form allows you to penetrate into the objective world and know it.
Cognition of reality is an endless movement on the subjective path to the objective state of affairs.
The expression of subjectivity is humanity, the anthropomorphism of cognition. A person's methods of cognition of reality cannot but be humanoid, the language is permeated with humanoid elements.
The sentence is constructed as a connection, the identity of the subject and the predicate. AA Potebnya noted: “We call the subject a thing as cognizing and acting, that is, first of all, our I, then any thing that is similar to our I in this respect. We can express the action of the subject, that is, imagine, only in a human-like manner: it rains like a person walks. Every subject is a semblance of our self, every action is a semblance of our action. "
In modern linguistics, the question of the influence of the national language on the knowledge of the world remains controversial. Some scholars believe that the quality of thought depends on the means of its creation and expression. Therefore, the nature of thought, its depth, the possibilities of reflection and cognition of reality directly depend on the language. Since there is no language at all, but there are national languages and their varieties, the knowledge and reflection of reality in the language is national. Each language has its own organization and division of the world. For related languages, segmentation and organization will be more similar.
Thinking and language
A person's thought is always expressed in language, which in a broad sense is called any sign system that performs the functions of forming, storing and transmitting information and serving as a means of communication between people. Outside the language can only be conveyed by means of facial expressions or gestures unclear motives, volitional impulses, which, although important, are incomparable with speech, revealing the intentions, feelings and experiences of a person. However, the connection between language and thinking is quite complex.
Language and thinking form a unity: without thinking there can be no language, and thinking without language is impossible. There are two main aspects of this unity:
· Genetic, which is expressed in the fact that the emergence of language was closely associated with the emergence of thinking, and vice versa;
· Functional - languages of thinking in today's, developed state, represent such a unity, the sides of which mutually presuppose each other.
However, this does not mean at all that language and thinking are identical to each other. There are also certain differences between them.
Firstly, the relationship between thinking and language in the process of human reflection of the world cannot be represented in the form of a simple correspondence of mental and linguistic structures. Possessing relative independence, language in a specific way fixes the content of mental images in its forms. The specificity of linguistic reflection lies in the fact that the abstractive work of thinking is not directly and directly reproduced in the forms of language, but is fixed in them in a special way. Therefore, language is often called a secondary, indirect form of reflection, since thinking reflects, cognizes objects and phenomena of objective reality, and language designates and expresses them in thought, i.e. they differ in their function.
Secondly, the difference also exists in the structure of language and thinking. The basic units of thinking are concepts, judgments and inferences. The constituent parts of the language are: phoneme, morpheme, lexeme, sentence (in speech), allophone (sound) and others.
Thirdly, in the forms of thinking and language, the actual processes receive a simplified reflection in a certain sense, but in each case this happens in a different way. Thinking captures the contradictory moments of any movement. Developing itself, it reproduces in ideal images with varying degrees of depth and detail, gradually approaching the full coverage of objects and their definiteness, to comprehending the essence. And where the consolidation begins, the language comes into its own. Language as a form of reflection of the world, like mental images, can represent reality more or less fully, approximately correctly. By fixing the content of mental images in its forms, language highlights and emphasizes in them what was previously done by thinking. However, he does this with the help of his own means specially developed for this, as a result of which an adequate reproduction of the characteristics of objective reality is achieved in the forms of language.
Fourth, language develops under the influence of objective activity and the traditions of the culture of society, and thinking is associated with the mastery of the laws of logic by the subject, with his cognitive abilities.
Therefore, mastering the language, grammatical forms, vocabulary is a prerequisite for the formation of thinking. It is no coincidence that the well-known Russian psychologist L.S. Vygotsky emphasized that thought is never equal to the direct meaning of a word, but it is impossible without words. Language and thinking, being in such a contradictory unity, have a mutual influence on each other. On the one hand: thinking represents a substantive basis for language, for speech expressions; thinking controls the use of linguistic means in speech activity, speech activity itself, controls the use of language in communication; in its forms, thinking ensures the development and growth of knowledge of the language and the experience of its use; thinking determines the level of language culture; enrichment of thinking leads to enrichment of language.
On the other hand: language is a means of forming and formulating thoughts in inner speech; language acts in relation to thinking as the main means of calling the partner's thought, its expression in external speech, thereby making the thought available to other people; language is a means of thinking for modeling thought; language presents thinking with the ability to control thought, as it forms thought, gives it a form in which thought is easier to process, rebuild, develop; language in relation to thinking acts as a means of influencing reality, a means of direct, and most often indirect transformation of reality through the practical activity of people, controlled by thinking with the help of language; language acts as a means of training, honing, improving thinking.
Thus, the relationship between language and thinking is diverse and essential. The main thing in this relationship: just as language is necessary for thinking, thinking is necessary for language.
Human consciousness is organically linked to tongue as a way of being. Animals have the first signaling system, on the basis of which conditioned reflexes are formed in them. In addition to the first signaling system, a person develops second signaling system - speech, language, specifically human system of communication, communication, information transfer. In comparison with the sound and gesture ability of animals to transmit information, a distinctive feature of the language is manifested in the fact that the processing of signs (for example, the speed of reading, speaking, writing, etc.) is not inherited, but is acquired in the process of human socialization. As a way of existence of consciousness, speech is in a complex functional relationship with it. They do not exist without each other: consciousness reflects reality, and language designates and expresses the essential in this reflection. The language combines the ideal basis (information) and the way of its transmission through material carrier. The development of consciousness, the enrichment of its informational richness develops speech, but, on the other hand, the development of speech as an improving way of existence of consciousness develops consciousness. Language affects the style of thinking, its manner, techniques and methods.
Language is more conservative than consciousness: the same linguistic shell, word, concept can express different content of thought, which inhibits its development, gives it some compulsion. By improving his language, a person also improves his consciousness, and, conversely, neglecting the operation of linguistic symbols, using a limited vocabulary, we conserve thinking, limit it to the available intellect.
There are different types of speech: oral, written and internal. The thought process is always carried out through this or that type of speech, even if this speech does not find an immediate, sensually observable expression. Complex neurophysiological processes of mutually coordinated activity of the brain and speech apparatus work here. Each nerve impulse entering the speech apparatus from the brain reproduces in it a concept adequate to the signal or a corresponding series of concepts. It is concepts that are the primary elements of speech, and since concepts are formed as a result of certain generalizations, then thinking, consciousness is always a process of generalized reflection of reality. That is, thinking is always conceptual and this is what fundamentally differs from earlier forms of reflection, including complex psychological forms. It is language as a way of existence of consciousness, as "the immediate reality of thought" that characterizes the special quality of consciousness as the highest form of reflection of reality, irreducible to its preconscious forms.
But the information circulating at the level of consciousness functions not only with the help of oral or written speech, i.e. natural language. Consciousness also realizes itself in other sign systems, in various artificial and symbolic languages (musical, mathematical, Esperanto, cybernetic, dances, colors, gestures, etc.).
Signs – these are material objects, processes and actions that play the role of a "substitute" for real things and phenomena. They are used to acquire, store, transform and transmit information . A sign system can be called human language if it meets the following requirements:
It must have semantics and grammar, contain meaningful elements and rules for their meaningful connection;
It must constantly develop, and not only under the influence of improving human activity, but also as a result of self-development, i.e. to expand consciousness according to certain rules on the basis of finite semantic units to create an unlimited number of informative messages;
Messages formed in a particular language should not depend on the presence of the designated objects.
Sign systems have arisen and are developing as a special material form in which thinking is carried out and information processes are recorded in social life, for example, in science and technology.
Natural language is the most common sign system. Among non-linguistic signs, there are: copy signs; signs-signs; signs-signals; signs-symbols. Sign systems of artificial languages have become widespread at the modern level of development of consciousness: code systems, formulas, schemes, diagrams, etc. Moreover, any sign has meaning and significance only in one system or another.
The special intensification and information density of the modern development of society not only gives rise to new languages and sign systems, but also the sciences about them. In the last century, a new scientific discipline has been formed about the principles of the structure and functioning of sign systems - semiotics.
A reflection of the ultimate intensification of information links in the functioning of society and the need to master new forms and methods of obtaining, processing, storing and transferring it was the emergence of a scientific direction - informatics. But, in any case, the system of concepts of natural language, which has been forming for millions of years, remains the key measure of the existence of consciousness.
Concepts not only designate phenomena, but also express the idea of objectively existing objects, their connections and relationships. The word is the carrier of our knowledge about the world, and the "mediator" between thought and object. Hence, concretizing the special role of language in consciousness and its relative independence, it is possible to single out a number of basic functions of language.
1. Denoting. By its content, a word is always associated with an object. Only in the presence of this connection can it serve as a means of coordinating actions in the process of cognition and practice. It is with the help of words that ideal images are differentiated, concepts are formed. It becomes possible to distract from specific things, their properties and relationships by operating with concepts and words. The word, in fact, "replaces" the object in the mind.
2. Cumulative. The language makes it possible to "condense", "condensed" ideal reproduction of reality, as well as storage, transmission and practical use of the information contained in it. The word in a condensed form reflects the essential in the phenomenon. In this generalizing function, language acts as an accumulator of knowledge and consolidates (materializes) the social memory of mankind.
3. Communicative. In this function, language acts as a means of communication between people. Information can be used by society only in the form of language (natural or artificial). The communicative function of language in the history of society has qualitatively changed twice, and in each case this led to a more effective consolidation of social experience, activation of activity and material and spiritual culture. The first such qualitative leap was the invention of writing. The second is taking place before our eyes on the basis of the rapid development of computer technology, informatics, and cybernetics.
4. Expressive. Everything reflected in a person's consciousness by means of language is, to one degree or another, related to his interests and needs. Hence, inevitably, his definite emotional and sensory attitude to the surrounding phenomena, which cannot be expressed otherwise than with the help of language.
5. Interactive.. This function is connected with the fact that with the help of language a person always turns to himself or to another person, and explicitly or implicitly in his speech there is a question, proposal, request, complaint, order, threat, etc., that is, speech always provides a certain impact on the listener, prompts one or another action.
Language is the most common way of social functioning of consciousness. Animals can also use the signs of the second signaling system, but sounds and gestures denoting various phenomena and states and used by animals to convey information to their relatives do not form a language in the proper sense of the word. Taking into account that a person is surrounded by things and phenomena, as a rule, created or transformed by him, then they can also be considered as certain signs or thoughts that act as an objectified form of being ideal.
So the world of man is the world meanings, often hidden from a person and inaccessible to his direct perception. The task of consciousness consists in disclosing meanings, in disclosing the content and meaning of signs coming from the outside world, in transforming them into a meaningful, informational image. As a result of this process, a person's thought ceases to be his subjective, individual property and begins to live according to its own laws, acquires relative independence. Characterizing the relative independence of consciousness, it should be noted: 1) Consciousness does not develop as a mirror image of the material world, it is a transformed reflection that includes all previous experience. 2) Consciousness, existing through concepts, goes beyond the framework of concrete-sensory images. Within the framework of consciousness, reflection moves from sensations and perceptions to concepts, judgments and inferences, which are characterized by creative reflection, analysis and synthesis of sensually given material. 3) The relative independence of consciousness is also manifested in the fact that it reveals a certain conservatism in relation to the developing social practice. First, consciousness in materialized ideal forms (monuments of literature, architecture, art) preserves the memory of the spiritual culture of past generations. Secondly, in the minds they find the consolidation, reproduction and storage of certain ideas, beliefs, ideological and ethical preferences, etc., which have ceased to correspond to the changed reality. On the other hand, especially in scientific thinking, consciousness is able to anticipate and anticipate real events, to form, on the basis of creativity, fundamentally new combinations of the interconnections of reality, which mobilize human activity and are realized in it.
A comparative analysis of the qualitative characteristics of human consciousness and the psyche of animals confirms the thesis about the socio-historical, socially transforming nature of consciousness and language in both the genetic and functional aspects. Human consciousness can neither arise nor function outside of society. Known to science cases of the discovery of human babies, by chance isolated from society and "raised" in the environment of animals, testify to the impossibility of forming consciousness outside of society, outside of communication and the exchange of social information.
Thus, the system within which consciousness arises and develops is the practical activity of people aimed at transforming reality. To regulate relations between people in the course of work and in other types of interaction, it took means created by people themselves, not given to them by nature: traditions and customs, norms-imperatives and norms-taboos, forms of social inheritance and family regulation, expressed through language. Thus, people create a "second nature", a special social environment of life - the means of production, social relations, spiritual culture. The experience of this creative activity is reflected in consciousness, causing its consistent development along with the historical enrichment of this very experience.
Since people carry out their activities jointly, each new generation assimilates the ideas, concepts, views, etc. already established in society. It is with the emergence of consciousness that humanity acquires a means of consolidating and developing its historical and individual experience, while in animals, species experience is transmitted hereditarily, and individual experience is lost for subsequent generations. Consciousness thus turns out to be a universal, necessary and universal way of organizing and expressing a person's relationship to the world, to another person and to himself.
Consciousness not only arises historically as a social phenomenon, but also becomes possible only as a product of joint labor activity. The intertwining of the actions of each individual person into joint collective activity at each historical stage of the development of society leads to the fact that the consciousness of the individual acquires a transpersonal, supraindividual character. Formed public consciousness- a set of ideas, concepts, teachings, mass psychological processes that have their own logic of functioning and development, different from individual consciousness.
Introduction
1. About the concepts of "language" and "national language"
Language as a reflection of national thinking
1 The relationship between language and thinking
2 Language and way of thinking of the people
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
Language is the beginning of all beginnings. When we get down to a business, we first comprehend it with a word. The beginning of the XXI century is characterized in linguistics by significant changes and new directions in the study of language at various levels.
In particular, the problem of the relationship between culture, language and consciousness is being comprehensively discussed: all kinds of studies of the linguistic picture of the world among speakers of a particular language are being carried out, associative dictionaries of different languages are created, which provide rich material for studying the peculiarities of the perception of reality within a particular culture, a linguocultural direction in the study is formed. language as an expression of a special national mentality.
The problem of the correlation and interconnection of language, culture, ethnos is an interdisciplinary problem, the solution of which is possible only through the efforts of several sciences - from philosophy and sociology to ethnolinguistics and cultural linguistics.
For example, questions of ethnic linguistic thinking are the prerogative of linguistic philosophy; the specifics of ethnic, social or group communication in the linguistic aspect is studied by psycholinguistics, etc.
A characteristic feature of the development of modern humanities is the turn of the problems of fundamental research towards anthropocentrism, which manifests itself, in particular, in the growing interest in the problems of the relationship between language and thinking, including the national language and national thinking.
In a word, the idea expressed at the beginning of the last century by L.V. Shcherboi that “the world that is given to us in our direct experience, remaining the same everywhere, is comprehended in different ways in different languages, even in those spoken peoples representing a certain unity ... ". In this work, we will consider language as a reflection of national thinking.
1. About the concepts of "language" and "national language"
First of all, let's consider what a "language" and a "national language" are.
Language,spontaneously arising in human society and developing system of discrete (articulate) sound signs, intended for communication purposes and capable of expressing the entire totality of human knowledge and ideas about the world.
The sign of the spontaneity of origin and development, as well as the infinity of the field of application and the possibilities of expression, distinguishes languagefrom the so-called artificial, or formalized languages that are used in other branches of knowledge (for example, information languages, programming language, information retrieval language), and from various signaling systems created on the basis of language(for example, Morse code, traffic signs, etc.).
On the basis of the ability to express abstract forms thinking(concept, judgment) and the property of discreteness (internal segmentation of the message) associated with this ability languagequalitatively different from the so-called. animal language, which is a set of signals that transmit responses to situations and regulate the behavior of animals under certain conditions.
Language is an integral and most important part of any national culture, full acquaintance with which necessarily implies not only the study of the material component of this culture, not only knowledge of its historical, geographical, economic and other determinants, but also an attempt to penetrate the way of thinking of the nation, an attempt to look at the world through the eyes of the carriers of this culture, from their "point of view".
It is the language that is the main unifying feature of the nation, since no common ideas, cultural values and common economy can exist without a common understanding of the verbal signs used in communication.
Language arises simultaneously with the nation, is its creation, as well as the organ of the original thinking of the nation. As the founder of linguistics W. Humboldt wrote, "language is the breath, the very soul of the nation."
Most of the circumstances accompanying the life of a nation - habitats, climate, religion, government, laws and customs - can be separated from the nation itself to a certain extent. And only the language exists as a living, native language only in the consciousness of the nation. It is in the language that the entire national character is imprinted, in it, as a means of communication of a given people, individualities disappear and the general is manifested.
The presence of a single national language provides society with the convenience of communication in a wide variety of areas of activity - from everyday life to production.
The national language first of all creates convenience for the everyday life of every person. No matter what city a person finds himself in, he can easily ask any question and understand the answer without resorting to knowledge of other languages, without experiencing difficulties due to differences in pronunciation or meaning of words, which would be inevitable when communicating in a dialect.
The national literary language has uniform standards for all speakers of it, no matter in what area they live. The presence of a single national language creates great convenience for the official business correspondence of institutions and enterprises, ensures the clarity of interaction between central and local authorities.
A single language is necessary for the rapid dissemination of technical achievements, the development of production, and the economic integrity of the country. The highest level of uniformity of terminology is required from technical documents, therefore it is fixed by special standards. A correct and deep understanding of literary works is impossible without a good knowledge of the national language.
The national language is a means of development of all types of art, its unity is of great importance for education, for the media, in a word, for the entire life of the nation.
Summarizing what has been said, we note that in relation to the nation, language plays a consolidating role, i.e. maintains its unity, serves as a means of creating a national culture and its transmission to future generations.
2. Language as a reflection of national thinking
The language of a people is the most important component of its national culture, which is formed along with the formation of an ethnos, being a prerequisite and condition. The sheer number of languages that exist in the world reflects the endless variety of ways of thinking.
.1 Relationship of language and thinking
language thinking sound communication
Acquaintance with any culture, its study will always be incomplete, if in the field of vision of a person who turns to this culture, there is no such fundamental component as the mentality of the nation, the national logic of world perception and world outlook.
Each person belongs to a certain national culture, including national traditions, language, history, literature. As E. Sapir wrote, "Language is a guidebook, which is gaining more and more importance as a guiding principle in the scientific study of culture."
Language is closely related to the thinking and consciousness of a person as a whole. Thinking, which, although it can take place in a figurative or intuitive form, has a verbal and linguistic form as its highest and universal form.
By virtue of necessity, thinking is always associated with units of language, without them thought cannot achieve distinctness and clarity, representation cannot become a concept. The word arises on the basis of the subjective perception of objects of the external world by a person; it is not an imprint of the object in itself, but of its image created by this object in our consciousness.
The thought perceived by language becomes an object for our soul and therefore influences it from the outside. Thought, having become a word, comes into contact with the outside world. Thus, language connects a person's outer world with the inner one in both directions.
Language is one of those phenomena that stimulate human spiritual strength to constant activity. The need of thinking for a concept and the resulting striving to clarify it must precede the word, which is an expression of the complete clarity of the concept. Therefore, the rules of verbal communication recommend that a person first clearly understand his thought, make sure that the chosen words are accurate, and only then speak out loud. You should not take part in the discussion of topics on which the person does not have sufficient knowledge. Also, you should not use words in your speech, in the exact meaning of which a person is not sure.
Thinking develops and renews itself much faster than language, but without language thinking is only a "thing for itself", and a thought not expressed in language is not that clear, distinct thought that helps a person to comprehend the phenomena of reality, it is rather a foresight, and not knowledge itself.
If thinking cannot do without language, then language is impossible without thinking. We speak and write thinking, we try to express our thoughts more accurately and clearly in speech. Even a reciter reading someone's work, or an announcer reading the latest news, do not just utter sounds like parrots, but speak. The same applies to quotations, the use of proverbs and aphorisms in ordinary speech, they are not invented by the speaker, but their choice, the meaning embedded in them is a trace and consequence of the speaker's thought.
The thinking of a person (both an individual person and the entire human race) is in constant development, reveals all new aspects of the world around him. The increasing complexity of knowledge about the world requires from the language more and more flexibility in designating new concepts about objects, properties of objects, phenomena and relations.
In order to provide thinking with the proper linguistic means, the language has to improve its vocabulary and grammar. Therefore, new meanings of words are formed in the language, new words are created, words that are similar in sound are delimited in meaning, and stylistic differentiation of vocabulary is consolidated. In grammar, a language can give new meanings to syntactic constructions, fix some phrases as stable phrases, turning them into phraseological units or analytical forms of expressing morphological meanings.
The success of all speech-thinking activity depends on how quickly, flexibly and successfully the language responds to the new needs of thinking.
The success of a person's verbal thinking depends on how much this person speaks his native language, how well he understands the meaning of words and grammatical structures. The individual always has a good opportunity to develop his linguistic ability, turning to the collective experience of the nation through penetration into the depth of the meanings of words, into the wealth of the native language.
The success of a nation's verbal thinking depends on the level of culture in a given society, on the degree of processing of the literary language and the degree of prevalence of the literary language in the speech of individual members of the linguistic community, on the level of mutual understanding of the intelligentsia and other social groups.
A language that quickly responds to the needs of thinking contributes to an even greater flowering of thought, makes it possible to make major intellectual discoveries and spread high culture in wide public circles. If the language fails to find convenient and generally understandable ways of expressing more complex thoughts, it becomes a brake on the path of understanding the world and spreading knowledge in this society. It is not the language that is to blame for this, of course, but the attitude of the speakers towards it, disrespect for the classical literary tradition, philological science and the humanities in general, indifference to issues of speech culture, cultivation of idle, aimless chatter, lightweight, thoughtless attitude to the word. Thus, thinking is the source of the development of language, and language, in turn, influences the course of development of thinking. This is the thought-forming role of language.
.2 Language and way of thinking the people
Proceeding from the fact that every language is a means of thinking, and these means are different for people speaking different languages, then we can assume that the "picture of the world", ie the mentality of representatives of different human communities is different: the greater the difference in linguistic systems, the more in the "pictures of the world."
If we talk about language as a way of national worldview, then it should be noted that a word is not an image of a thing, it is distinguished by the ability to represent a thing from different points of view by having its own sensual image... This quality of the word makes the language not just a sign system, but a special, universal for a certain nation, form of worldview.
Language reflects the life and characteristics of the character of the people, their thinking. Here's a simple example. In the minds of most Russians, life in Europe is a fairy tale. In Europe, paradise on earth and everyone lives there like Hollywood stars - in pleasure and luxury. Therefore, girls from Russia willingly marry Europeans. But very often a joint life with a foreigner does not work out. Why? It seems that I went to courses and mastered a foreign language. She studied a foreign language, but she did it, guided only by the desire to master new communicative capabilities, not knowing about the connection of the language with the culture and character of the people. Language is the life and culture of a person, his style of behavior. Yes, Europe has a high standard of living, but nevertheless, Europeans are alien to luxury, unjustified expenses, the desire for idleness. They live in abundance, but economically. In an international family, it is much more difficult to achieve mutual understanding: very often cultural differences, stereotypes of behavior and thinking, the lack of a common language stand up as an insurmountable wall.
Language plays a special role in the development of personality. A person, his spiritual world, is largely determined by the language in which he grew up. The American Indian language researcher Benjamin Wharf put forward a hypothesis according to which a person dismembers and learns nature in the direction suggested by his native language. Indeed, how do we, the inhabitants of the middle lane, designate the types of ice? Strong and weak. But in the language of the Sami, who live on the Kola Peninsula, there are about 20 names for ice and 10 for cold!
Undoubtedly, the language reflects both the way of life and the way of thinking of the people. A Russian wife sees the world differently than a French husband, because she thinks in Russian. The language we speak not only expresses our thoughts, but also largely determines their course. Language affects the content of human thinking. Two people of different nationalities can become eyewitnesses of the same phenomenon, but what they see is only a kaleidoscope of impressions until consciousness puts it in order. The ordering happens with the help of the language. Therefore, observing the same phenomenon, the Russian and the French see different things, give different assessments.
People who speak different languages see the world with different eyes. A Frenchman cannot perceive and feel the world in the same way as a Russian, because he has other linguistic means. As the Russian writer Sergei Dovlatov said, “90% of a person's personality consists of language,” and one cannot but agree with this.
In the era of active interethnic communication, the problem of the relationship between language and thinking, language and culture, the spirit of the people becomes especially acute. Issues such as the essence of language, its functional palette, historical purpose and fate are closely intertwined with the fate of the people. Unfortunately, until now, studies of linguistic phenomena in linguistics are, as a rule, very narrow. In general, the language continues to be seen only as a tool for the exchange of information. Aspects of the relationship between language and thinking, language and national culture have not yet become the subject of study of our linguists. The complexity of the problem of language is caused by its breadth - it has, as we see, not only linguistic, but also cognitive aspects, and through them moral and political. The problem of language is not limited to issues of linguistics and goes to philosophy and politics, since language is organically linked with national culture, psychology and spirituality; language is an expression of the worldview or mentality of the people, their system of values, traditions, customs.
Since the meanings of words are associated with concepts, a certain mental content is fixed in the language, which turns into a hidden (internal) part of the meaning of words, which speakers do not pay attention to due to the automatism of using the language. Language could not serve as a means of communication if the meaning of each word in each case of its use became the subject of controversy. At the same time, language is a public means of communication, and does not reflect the worldview of any social group, but the general features of the perception of the world by all speaking collective, i.e. nation. Thus, the languages of different peoples reflect their national culture, national view of the world.
W. Humboldt wrote that "different languages are the organs of their original thinking and perception for nations" and that "a large number of objects are created by words denoting them and only in them finds its being." Those. objects of the real world do not become objects of thought themselves, they cannot get inside thought, they appear to thinking as a language that, although it develops itself by the power of thought, inevitably has a form and represents the world in a certain form. The perception and understanding not only of abstract phenomena, but also of concrete objects depends on which of the many possible ways their language has designated.
Language always acts as a mediator between the world and a person, draws a person a certain linguistic picture of the world. All this does not mean at all that a person is a prisoner of the national language. Above the linguistic worldview, the social worldview of social groups, the individual worldview of a person is built up. The linguistic picture of the world is complemented by a cultural, religious, philosophical, scientific picture of the world. However, the creation of these pictures requires intellectual efforts from a person. "The path from the real world to the concept and further to verbal expression is different for different peoples, which is due to differences in history, geography, the peculiarities of the life of these peoples and, accordingly, differences in the development of their social consciousness." It turns out that language reflects reality not directly, but through two stages: from the real world to thinking and from thinking to language. And although thinking was ahead of language, its results, taking shape in language, are somewhat modified (thought cannot be fully reflected in a word). Therefore, language becomes a separate participant in communication and the further development of thinking, it cannot be a simple foundry form for thought, it can simultaneously hide a part of thought and supplement thought with linguistic associations.
Thus, the language of a people is the most important component of its national culture, which is formed along with the formation of an ethnos, being a prerequisite and condition for its existence.
The above is of practical importance.
First, it is necessary to take care of the native language, which preserves the national cultural tradition, transfers the moral values of the people to new generations.
Secondly, only knowing well the richness of the native language can you easily navigate the new information constantly coming to a person, distinguish between words and the content behind them. Sometimes outwardly brilliant, attractive words carry emptiness or even advice that is harmful to a person. On the other hand, seemingly simple, ordinary words can be filled with deep and reasonable meaning.
Conclusion
Thus, the language is an integral part of the national culture. Language is closely related to the thinking and consciousness of a person as a whole.
National peculiarities of thinking and behavior are recorded in the signs of the language and thus are reflected in it. The language, in turn, affects the understanding of the world and in the process of organizing the process of teaching, upbringing, development, it is necessary to rely on these characteristics of the trainees.
Being connected with the thinking and psychology of a person, his life and social consciousness, the history of peoples and their customs, reflecting the national specifics and culture of peoples, being a form of expression for literature and folklore as art forms, being the main source of knowledge about the inner world of people, possessing a certain sensual perceived form languageis a source of indirect data for the humanities and natural sciences: philosophy, logic, history, ethnography, sociology, jurisprudence, psychology and psychiatry, literary criticism, computer science, semiotics, mass communication theory, brain physiology, acoustics, etc.
Bibliography
1.Bogus, M.B. Language and mentality in the educational process / M.B. Bogus // Fundamental research. - 2008. - No. 1 - S. 86-88.
.Ilyenkov, E.V. On the relationship between thinking and language / E.V. Ilyenkov // Almanac "East". - 2003. - No. 9.
.Kornilov, O.A. Language pictures of the world as derivatives of national mentality / O.A. Kornilov. - M .: KDU, 2002 .-- 350 p.
.Maslova, V.A. Introduction to cognitive linguistics / V.A. Maslova. - M .: Flinta, 2007 .-- 296 p.
.Melnikova, A.A. Language and national character. The relationship between the structure of language and mentality / A.A. Melnikov. - SPb: Rech, 2003 - 237p.
.Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary - Ed. E.F. Gubsky. - Moscow: Tsifra Publishing House, 2002. - P.263.
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/ Kasevich V.B. "Elements of General Linguistics"
§ 1. Language is the most important means of transmitting and storing information: the bulk of information circulating in society exists precisely in linguistic form.
The transmission of information is one of the most essential types and aspects of communication between people, therefore, according to VI Lenin, “language is the most important means of human communication” (Complete Works. Vol. 25, p. 258). It follows, in turn, that the central function of language is the function of communication, or communicative.
§ 2. It is known that there is another characteristic of language as the immediate reality of thought, which was pointed out by K. Marx. Another function of the language is emphasized here, namely reflective: thinking, that is, a person's reflection of the world around him, is carried out mainly in linguistic form. Otherwise, we can say that the function of language is to generate (form) information. How are these two functions of the language related?
It can be argued that the communicative function, or the function of communication, is primary, and the function of reflection is secondary, while both functions are closely related. Indeed, the reflection of the external world in itself does not require a linguistic form: animals already have relatively developed forms of reflection of the external world; the need for a linguistic form for the "products" of reflection arises precisely because these results of reflection of mental activity need to be communicated, transmitted to other members of the human collective. The exchange of individual experience, the coordination of actions become possible thanks to the language, which is precisely the tool that allows the results of individual mental activity to be “cast” into universally significant forms.
The foregoing at the same time means that the very reflective function of the language is called to life by its communication / 5 // 6 / tive function: if there was no need for communication, generally speaking, there would be no need for a linguistic form of a person's reflection of the external world.
§ 3. Since the reflection of the external world at some high levels always acts as a generalization in relation to objects of reality and their properties, it can be said, following LSVygotsky, that in language there is “the unity of communication and generalization”. This means that, on the one hand, language provides communication; on the other hand, the results of mental activity, activity on the generalization of the properties of reality, are developed and fixed precisely in the linguistic form. "Every word generalizes" (V. I. Lenin, Complete Works. Vol. 29, p. 246), in other words, every word is the result of the abstractive work of thought (word wood means "tree in general"), and, conversely, an abstract concept common to all members of a given collective requires the presence of a word for its existence.
We can say that language, together with labor, created man: “First labor, and then articulate speech with it, were the two most important stimuli, under the influence of which the monkey's brain turned into a human brain” (F. Engels. Dialectics of Nature. - K. Marx, F. Engels. Works. Publishing 2. Vol. 20, p. 490).
Communication is impossible without language, - therefore, the existence of society is impossible, and hence the formation of a human personality, the formation of which is conceivable only in a social collective. Outside the language there are no generally valid concepts and, of course, the existence of developed forms of generalization, abstraction is difficult, i.e., again, the formation of a human personality is virtually impossible.
§ 4. The communicative function of language presupposes a semiotic aspect of its consideration, which will be discussed further below. The study of the reflective function of language is closely related to the problem of "language and thinking". This problem is not specifically considered here (see the chapter "On Psycholinguistics"), however, some remarks in this regard must be made.
§ 4.1. The first remark refers to the so-called Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, according to which a person's thinking is determined by the language in which he speaks, and cannot go beyond this language, since all human ideas about the world are expressed through his native language. Opponents / 6 // 7 / ki of this hypothesis indicate that both human thinking and, indirectly, his language are determined by reality, the external world, therefore, to assign to language the role of a determining factor in the formation of thinking is idealism.
The determining role of external reality in the formation of human thinking, of course, is not subject to discussion, it is indisputable. In this case, however, one should take into account the activity of the processes of reflection of reality by a person: a person by no means passively captures the material that the external world "supplies" to him - this material is organized in a certain way, is structured by the perceiving subject; a person, as they say, "models" the external world, reflecting it by means of his psyche. One way or another of modeling is determined by human needs, primarily social, industrial. It is quite natural that these needs associated with the conditions of existence may be different for different historically formed communities of people. To some extent, the ways of modeling reality also differ accordingly. This is manifested primarily in the language. Consequently, the specificity of language here - contrary to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis - is rather secondary, in any case it is not primary: it cannot be said that the specificity of language determines the specificity of thinking.
This is the case in phylogenesis, that is, in the history of the formation and development of man (and his language). However, in ontogeny, that is, in the individual development of a person, the situation is somewhat different. Each person acquires knowledge about the world, about external reality - reflects external reality to a very large extent not directly, but "through" the language. A textbook example: the spectrum of emission and absorption of light waves, which determines color, of course, is the same everywhere, and the physiological abilities of representatives of different ethnic groups to color perception do not differ; however, it is known that some peoples differ, for example, three colors, while others have seven, and so on. primary colors, no more and no less? Obviously, because in his language there are names for these three colors. Here, therefore, language acts as a ready-made tool for one or another structuring of reality when it is displayed by a person.
Thus, when the question arises as to why, in general, in a given language there are so many names of flowers, types of snow, etc., the answer to it is that the Russians, French, Indians, Nenets, etc., for their In practical activity during the previous centuries (perhaps millennia), roughly speaking, it was “necessary” to distinguish precisely the different / 7 // 8 / visibility of the corresponding objects, which was reflected in the language. Another question is: why does each representative of the linguistic community distinguish so many colors, etc., etc.? Here the answer is that this or that way of perceiving external reality is to a certain extent "imposed" on a specific individual by his language, which in this respect is nothing more than a crystallized social experience of a given collective, people. From this point of view, therefore, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is quite reasonable.
The above, of course, does not mean in any way that a person is generally incapable of knowing what is not indicated in his language. The entire experience of the development of various peoples and their languages shows that when the production and cognitive evolution of society creates the need for the introduction of a new concept, then the language never interferes with this - to designate a new concept, either an already existing word is used with a certain change in semantics, or a new one is formed according to the laws of the given language. Without this, in particular, it would be impossible to imagine the development of science.
§ 4.2. The second remark that needs to be made in connection with the problem of "language and thinking", even with the most concise consideration of it, concerns the question of how close, how indissoluble the connection between language and thinking is.
First of all, it must be said that in ontogeny (in a child) the development of speech and intellectual development are initially carried out "in parallel", according to their own laws, while the development of speech turns out to be more connected with the emotional sphere, with the establishment of "pragmatic" and emotional contact with others. Only later, by the age of two, the lines of speech and intellectual development "intersect", enriching each other: the process begins, as a result of which thought receives a linguistic form and the ability to join through language to the experience accumulated by society; now language begins to serve not only the needs of elementary contact, but also, with the development of the individual, complex forms of self-expression, etc.
Consequently, there is a certain autonomy of language and thinking from a genetic point of view (that is, from the point of view of their origin and development), and at the same time their closest relationship. / 8 // 9 /
From our own experience, everyone knows that thinking does not always take place in an expanded speech form. Does this mean that we have before us evidence (albeit intuitive) of the independence of thinking from language? This is a difficult question, and so far only a preliminary answer can be given.
Much depends on how we interpret the concept of "thinking". If this term for us means not only abstract thinking, but also the so-called thinking in images, then it is quite natural that this last - figurative thinking - should not necessarily be verbal, verbal. In this sense, non-verbal thinking is obviously quite possible.
Another aspect of the same problem is associated with the existence of such types of thinking where the speech form is used, but appears as if reduced: only some of the most important elements remain from it, and everything that "goes without saying" does not receive speech design. This process of "compressing" linguistic means resembles common practice in dialogues, especially in a well-known situation where much that is taken as known is omitted. This is all the more natural in mental monologues, or "monologues for oneself," that is, when there is no need to worry about achieving understanding on the part of the interlocutor.
Such curtailed speech that shapes thinking is called internal speech. It is important to emphasize that inner speech is still a reduced "ordinary" speech, arises on its basis and is impossible without it (inner speech is absent in a child who has not yet mastered the language sufficiently).
LITERATURE
K. Marx, F. Engels and V. I. Lenin on the problems of language. - V.A.Zvegintsev. History of linguistics of the XIX-XX centuries. in essays and extracts. Part 2, M., 1960.
Vygotsky L. S. Thinking and speech. M., 1934.
General linguistics. Forms of existence, functions, history of language. Ed. B. A. Serebrennikov. M., 1970 (Ch. V)./9//10/