What is a language system and its structure? Language as a system of systems is the beginning.

Language is a means of expressing people's thoughts and desires. People also use language to express their feelings. The exchange of such information between people is called communication.

Language- this is “a system of discrete (articulate) sound signs that spontaneously arose in human society and is developing, intended for communication purposes and capable of expressing the entire body of human knowledge and ideas about the world.”

Simply put, language is a special system of signs that serves as a means of communication between people.

Central to this definition is the combination “special system of signs,” which requires detailed explanation. What is a sign? We encounter the concept of a sign not only in language, but also in everyday life. For example, seeing smoke coming from the chimney of a house, we conclude that the stove in the house is being heated. When we hear the sound of a gunshot in the forest, we conclude that someone is hunting. Smoke is a visual sign, a sign of fire; the sound of a shot is an auditory sign, a sign of a shot. Even these two simplest examples show that a sign has a visible or audible form and a certain content that lies behind this form (“they heat the stove,” “they shoot”).

A linguistic sign is also two-sided: it has a form (or signifier) ​​and content (or signified). For example, the word table has a written or sound form consisting of four letters (sounds), and the meaning is “a type of furniture: a slab of wood or other material, mounted on legs.”

A linguistic sign is conventional: in a given society of people, this or that object has such and such a name (for example, table), and in other national groups it may be called differently ( der Tisch– in German, la table- in French, a table- in English).

The words of a language actually replace other objects in the process of communication. Such “substitutes” for other objects are usually called signs, but what is denoted with the help of verbal signs is not always objects of reality. Words of language can act as signs not only of objects of reality, but also of actions, signs, as well as various kinds of mental images that arise in the human mind.

In addition to words, an important component of language is the ways of forming words and constructing sentences from these words. All units of language do not exist in isolation and in disorder. They are interconnected and form a single whole - a language system.

A system is a combination of elements that are in relationships and connections that form integrity and unity. Therefore, each system has certain characteristics:

– consists of many elements;

– its elements are in connection with each other;

– these elements form a unity, one whole.

Why is language defined as a special system of signs? There are several reasons for this definition. Firstly, language is many times more complex than any other sign system. Secondly, the signs of the linguistic system themselves vary in complexity, some are simple, others consist of a number of simple ones: for example, window– a simple sign, and the word derived from it windowsill– a complex sign containing a prefix under- and suffix -Nick, which are also simple signs. Thirdly, although the relationship between the signifier and the signified in a linguistic sign is unmotivated and conditional, in each specific case the connection between these two sides of the linguistic sign is stable, fixed by tradition and speech practice and cannot change at the will of an individual: we cannot table name home or window- each of these words serves as a designation of “its” subject.

And finally, the main reason why language is called a special sign system is that language serves as a means of communication between people. We can express any content, any thought using language, and this is its universality. No other sign systems capable of serving as means of communication have this property.

Thus, language is a special system of signs and methods of connecting them, which serves as a tool for expressing thoughts, feelings and will of people and is the most important means of human communication.

Language functions

In linguistics, the word “function” is usually used in the sense of “work performed,” “purpose,” “role.” The primary function of language is communicative, because its purpose is to serve as an instrument of communication, that is, primarily the exchange of thoughts. But language is not only a means of transmitting “ready-made thoughts”. It is also a means of thought formation itself. As the outstanding Soviet psychologist L. S. Vygotsky (1896-1934) said, a thought is not just expressed in a word, but is also accomplished in a word. Inextricably linked with the communicative function of language is its second central function - thought-forming. With this function in mind, the largest linguist-thinker of the first half of the 19th century. Wilhelm Humboldt (1767-1835) called language “the formative organ of thought.”

As for the communicative function of language, science distinguishes its individual aspects, in other words, a number of more specific functions: informational, propaganda and emotive.

Thus, when expressing a message, language acts primarily in informational functions.

In a sentence " Summer has come" contains a specific message: the speaker informs the listener (or reader) about the onset of summer. This is where the information function of language is realized. In a sentence " Come visit us in the summer!” it also contains certain information - that the speaker invites the listener to come to him in the summer. However, unlike, say, the sentence “ He invited us to come to him in the summer.", statement “Come visit us in the summer!” has the form of an incentive, a call, and is itself an invitation. This statement implements another function of language - propaganda.

In a sentence “Oh, how nice it is in your summer!” another function of the language is implemented - emotive. This is the use of language that serves to directly express feelings, emotions (compare with the sentence “He said you’re doing well in the summer.”, where there is no such immediacy of expression of feelings).

Informational, propaganda and emotive are the main functions of language. In addition to them, there are also metalanguage function, which means the use of language for the purpose of explanation or to identify an object (it is realized in statements like Viper is a type of poisonous snake or This device is called a corkscrew); phatic function – the use of languages ​​as a means of establishing contact between participants in communication (for example, in statements like Well how are you? What's new?, which are rarely understood in their literal sense, it is precisely this phatic function of language that is realized).

The various functions of language rarely appear in our speech in their pure form. Much more common is a combination of different functions (with a predominance of one or the other) within one type of speech. For example, in a scientific report or in a newspaper article, the information function predominates; but there may also be elements of propaganda, metalinguistic functions. In various genres of informal oral speech, the emotive function can be combined with informational, propaganda, and phatic.

Language also acts as a means of cognition - it performs the function epistemological(cognitive, cognitive). This function of language connects it with human mental activity; the structure and dynamics of thought are materialized in units of language; derivatives of this function: axiological function (i.e. evaluation function); nominative function (i.e. naming function); Closely related to this function is the generalization function, which allows us to express complex concepts using language. By generalizing and highlighting the individual, unique, the word has the ability to “replace” objects and phenomena of the external world. Cognizing reality, a person constructs it in different ways, which is expressed in language (for example, in the Eskimo language there are more than twenty names for ice, in which a variety of characteristics of the object are actualized). Also stands out predicative function (i.e., the function of correlating information with reality).

At this level, the smallest indivisible unit of language is distinguished - the phoneme. This is the very first brick from which all subsequent levels proceed. The phoneme is studied by such branches of linguistics as phonology and phonetics. Phonetics studies how sounds are formed and their articulatory features. Phonology, associated with the name of the linguist Trubetskoy, studies the behavior of sounds in various words and morphemes. It is in phonology that such differentiating characteristics of sounds as hardness-softness, deafness-voicedness are distinguished. Each phoneme includes an individual set of features.

Morphology

At a higher level there is a unit of language called a morpheme. Unlike a phoneme, a morpheme is an elementary unit of language that carries a specific meaning. Despite the fact that morphemes are meaningful units of language, they can only be used in connection with other morphemes. Lexical meaning is created only by a set of interrelated morphemes, among which the main role is given to the root. Prefix, suffix, ending and postfix carry only additional semantics. A feature of morphemes is the alternation of individual sounds in them while maintaining the meaning. The science that studies the system of morphemes, their classifications and complex relationships is called morphemics.

Lexicology

A word, compared to a phoneme and a morpheme, is a more complex unit of language and has a certain independence. Its task is to name various objects, states, and processes. The building blocks of words are morphemes. Existing classifications of words have different bases: frequency of use in speech, expressiveness, stylization, etc.

Lexicology is a fairly extensive section of the system of linguistics. Thanks to word creation, the vocabulary of the language is constantly replenished with new words.

Syntax

At this level, the main elements are the phrase and the sentence. Here we are not talking about the lexical meaning of a single word, but about the semantic connection between several words and the general meaning that is born as a result of this connection.

Phrases are characterized by the presence of a main and subordinate words. They serve as building material for a more complex syntactic unit - a sentence characterized by information content. The sentence, as a unit of the highest level of the language system, has a communicative function.

A system is an ordered unity of interconnected and interdependent units.

Language is a system of signs. (Panini, B. De Courtenay, F. de Saussure)

The whole variety of systems is reduced to 2 classes

System and structure of the language

Trends in System and Structure Interpretation:

1. 
   Structure is part of the system // predominant. in the fatherland YAZ-ZN
2. 
   Structure = system // error, because This is interrelated, but different. Mon.
3. 
   The structure is considered regardless of the system. // error, because they are interconnected.

The system generates tiers - rows of elements located one above the other. Tier is a component of the system.

If the tiers are interconnected into a single whole, then the connections between the components are also included in the system.

These intercomponent connections are called structure.

The system consists of 3 components:

1. 
   elements,
2. 
   connections and relationships (=structure),
3. 
   tiers (=levels of language).

Relations in the language system

1. 
   paradigmatic rel. – ratio of units of one class, rel. vertically. // a set of pad forms of one word, all possible meanings of one word //
2. 
   syntagmatic rel. – rel. units of the same class, relative horizontally, for example, in a stream of speech. Understood as the ability of elements of the same type to combine //phoneme + phoneme//
3. 
   hierarchical rel. – relates structurally simpler units to more complex ones //phoneme is included in the morpheme, MM - in LMu//

The concept of language system tiers

In linguistics, there are component relations between tiers - the entry of one tier into another. A tier is a set of relatively homogeneous units. Each tier is qualitatively unique. They differ in the ratio of the plane of expression and the plane of content.

A property of language that links tiers into a single system

Tiers:

1. 
   main //tiers of minimal, then indivisible units//:

1. 
   intermediate //there are no such mines, indivisible units:
   • 
     morphonological
   • 
     derivational
   • 
     phraseological

Each tier is a language subsystem consisting of microsystems. The fewer units in a tier, the more cohesive it is (for example, the phonetic tier).

Systems → subsystems → subsystems...// phonet tier → system according to phonemes → subsystems according to the method of arr. etc. // The most strict organization of subsystems is in pairs.

Thus, the system has a certain organization, it can be more clear or less clear.

Conclusion:

The concept of a system presupposes the integrity of the elements;

Each element in it correlates with other elements;

The connection between them is not mechanical - it is a unity of interconnections. and interdependent elements

Structure – connections and relationships between elements.

2. Russian language as a national language: the concept of the Russian literary language and dialects.

Origin of the Russian language

1. 
   Throughout its development, RY has gone through many changes and has been constantly updated. The changes affected both its external, social aspects (functions, social significance, scope of use), and its linguistic essence - the internal structure of a certain sign system
2. 
   RY

1. 
   Origin:

Proto-Slavic language // Slavic group (Czechs, Poles...) →

1 thousand/l.e. languages ​​of individual Slavic groups are distinguished: for example, the language of the Eastern Slavs →

9-10th centuries – education of the Old Russian people + Old Russian language →

writing and, as a consequence, the formation of Russian Language Arts →

14-15 centuries – formation of the Great Russian people →

17th century - the Russian nation and the Russian national language are formed.

1. 
   The Russian language reflects the history, philosophy, ethical and aesthetic views of the Russian nation.
2. 
   Cultural approach
3. 
   The science that studies RN is Russian studies
4. 
   RL is the language of international communication in the near and far abroad. The purpose of the Institute of RYa named after. Pushkin - propaganda of the Republic of Armenia abroad.
5. 
   Modern:
   • 
     Traditional point of view - from Pushkin to the present day;
   • 
     Gorbachevich - since the late 30s of the 20th century, the composition of native speakers of the literary language has changed greatly.

1. 
   Characteristics of Literary Language

Literary language is an exemplary part of the national language. Language, language processed by masters.

Lit. language ≠ language of art

Its use involves many areas of life: media, politics, etc.

1. 
   Signs of a literary language :

2.Codification – reduction of norms into a code, into a system, reflection of norms in dictionaries, manuals, and in the speech of the intelligentsia.

3. Stylistic differentiation ; There are many means that allow you to express thoughts taking into account different conditions of communication (book, office; thin; colloquial; public).

RLYA = KLYA + RYA (RYA is the second hypostasis of RLYA).

RY norms differ significantly from KL norms

For example, RY with acute pain, sign in!

KLYA being in them.

4.Two forms of existence – oral and written.

1. 
   One of the signs of RFL is normalization.
2. 
   As a result of the interaction of RSL with the native languages ​​of representatives of related peoples, a common lexical and phraseological fund is formed, which also includes international vocabulary and phraseology.
3. 
   Dialects - this is a local or social dialect, dialect, territorial varieties of language.

3. Modern Russian language as a subject of scientific study

1. 
   RY- the national language of the Russian people.
2. 
   This - unity common Indo-European, common Slavic, common East Slavic and actually Russian features.
3. 
   Cultural approach to the language, the most relevant now is how exactly the language reflects the mentality of the nation //BdeK, Shakhmatov, Potebnya//.

RL is the language of international communication in the near and far abroad. The purpose of the Institute of RYa named after. Pushkin - propaganda of the Republic of Armenia abroad.

1. 
   Modern:

• 
  The traditional point of view is from Pushkin to the present day;
• 
  Gorbachevich - since the late 30s of the 20th century, the composition of native speakers of the literary language has changed greatly.

1. 
   Scope of the training course at the university and at school
   • 
     Lexicology:

Lexicography,

Phraseography.

• 
  Phonetics

Spelling.

• 
  Morphemics and derivatology (word/rev)
• 
  Morphology
• 
  Syntax and punctuation

The trend towards convergence of school and scientific Russian studies. At school, problems that have not been solved in science are not considered, scientific concepts are simplified.

2 t.z. to "modern":

1) From Pushkin to ours. days.

20th century.

Course SRLit.Ya. associated with prof. prepare teachers in Russian. language and letters Its contents - this is a description of the SRLYA system. It is built in this way to help students master the norms of letters. speech and linguistic analysis skills.

The SRLY course provides only a synchronous description of it in modern times. stage.

Course comp. from sections: 1) lexicology, covering vocabulary and phraseology, 2) phonetics and orthoepy, giving an idea of ​​the sound system of the language, 3) graphics and spelling, introducing the Russian alphabet and spelling system, 4) word formation, which describes morphemics and ways of forming words, and 5) grammar - the study of morphology and syntax.

In this course I studied. language, and not the various speech forms of its manifestation. It studies literature. language, i.e. the highest form of national. tongue, cat distinguishes from various dialects, argot and vernacular normativity and processing. It studies SRL, i.e. the language in cat. Russians and non-Russians speak now, at the moment, at the present time.

2 t.z. to "modern":

1) From Pushkin to ours. days.

2) Gorbachevich: from the late 30s - early. 40s. gg.

20th century.

5. The process of loss of reduced vowels and its consequences in the Russian language

1. 
   The Fall of the Reduced - one of the main phenomena in the history of the Old Russian language, which reconstructed its sound system and brought it closer to the modern state.
2. 
   Time – 2nd half of the 12th century (appeared in some dialects in the 11th century, ended by the middle of the 13th century)
3. 
   The essence – [ъ] and [ь] as independent phonemes ceased to exist.
4. 
   Ъ and ь at the time of loss were pronounced in weak position very briefly and turned into non-syllabic sounds.

The fate of reduced Y and I

Strong Y and I changed into O and E.

For example, in the form and p e h full adj m p *dobrъ + je →obscheslav dobrЎjь, where Ў was in a strong position →Russian – good.

Late 10th – early 11th century:

F developed after the fall of the reduced, initially as a voiceless variety of the phoneme B in the word-final position. Accordingly, conditions appeared for the development of a new independent consonant phoneme in the Russian language.

In the DRY there were no soft labials and, accordingly, relations of the type P – Pb, B – B, M – Mb, V – Bb.

There were no soft G, K, X, D, T.

In relation to hard labials B, P, M, hard posterior ulcers. G, K, X, and front-lingual D, T, Z, S, N, R, L DRY did not differ fundamentally from SRY.

So, the Old Russian phonological system knew hard consonant phonemes (14 pcs.) P, B, V, M, T, D, Z, S, N, R, L, K, G, X and soft consonant phonemes (12 - 10 + 2 merged) Shch, Shch, Ts', Ch', Z', S', N', R', L', J + merged Sh'Ch' and ZhD'.

All of the listed soft consonants are originally soft.

In the DRY, groups of consonants were not very common, but the possibilities of their compatibility with each other were quite wide, although limited: only certain groups of consonants could and did exist, more often two-phonemic combinations. NOISE + SONORN or V, SONORN + SONORN, SONORN + V (only in words of Old Slavic origin (gloom, young, power). But the combinations ML and VL are also in Old Russian (Common Slav) verb forms (break, catch).

Less often – NOISE + NOISE (sleeping, muttering, squealing, driving).

Often - S + DEEP NOISY and Z + CALL NOISY (homeless, dissolve

There were also three-phoneme combinations of consonants: , where the last element was sonorant or B (to suffer, defilement).

Hard consonants could appear before all vowels of the DRY, with the exception of TV s/yaz - G, K, X, which could only appear before non-front vowels. Other consonants in this position acquired semi-softness.

Soft consonants appeared before the vowels of the front zone, as well as before A and U.

The peculiarity of the DYN in relation to the category TV-soft - the opposition of consonants paired on this basis was carried out in different ways inside and at the junction of morphemes, being most clearly expressed in the second case.

The second feature is that the paired TV-soft consonants did not form a correlative series. This means that there were no positions in which the allophones of a paired hard and paired soft phoneme would coincide in one sound realization. This means that TV-softness was a constant sign of a consonant.

The paired voiceless-voiced ones in the DRY were P - B, T - D, S - Z, S' - Z', Sh' - Z', Sh'' - Z', G - K.

V, M, N, Нь, Р, Рь, Л, Ль, о – always voiced.

Ts', Ch', X - always deaf.

The contrast between voiceless and voiced consonants in the DRY was carried out in a position before the vowels. This was a means of distinguishing word forms: BOARD - TOSKA, SIX - TIN. There was no category of consonant correlation that exists now in the Russian language.

Soft consonant phonemes did not form any series that included their positional varieties; in any position, the soft consonant always appeared in one form inherent to it.

Positional varieties formed hard consonant phonemes (except G, K, X): in the position before the vowels of the front formation, hard consonants under their influence appeared in semi-soft allophones. Thus, rows arose: P - P., Z - Z., S - S., etc. These rows of positional exchange were parallel, non-intersecting.

11. Changes in morphemic composition and word structure in Russian

1. In the process of historical development of a language, various changes occur in the morphemic composition of a word, which in the scientific literature are classified as simplification, re-decomposition, complication, decorrelation, diffusion, substitution.

2. Simplification - a change in the morphological structure of a word in which the generating stems of the word, previously broken up into separate significant parts, turn into a non-generating indivisible part. The word loses the ability to be divided into morphemes (benefits, haze, pale). This process is inextricably linked with the loss of previous semantic connections. The word goes from motivated to unmotivated. Two main stages: -complete – loss of the ability of the bases of words to be divided into morphemes;

Incomplete - new non-derivative stems retain traces of their previous production.

1. semantic and semantic changes;

2. archaization of related words.

3. Re-decomposition – redistribution of morphemic material within a word while maintaining its derivative character. Words, while remaining compound, are divided differently. The process occurs at the junction of the formative stem and suffix, stem and ending.

Cause:

Complication – transformation of a previously non-derivative base into a derivative. The word, at the moment of its appearance in the Russian language, which had a non-derivative character, becomes divisible into morphemes.

Causes

4. Decorrelation – internal process; changes in the nature or meaning of morphemes and their relationships in a word. Does not lead to a change in the morphemic composition of the word. The word continues to be divided, but the morphemes that make up the word turn out to be different in meaning. Decorrelation plays an important role in the development of the word-formation system of the Russian language ( fishing ec, frost ki, love ov) are perceived as verbs, although they correspond to the formation of nouns (lov - catcher).

5. Diffusion – the interpenetration of morphemes while at the same time preserving their clear independence and specificity of significant parts of the word. As a result of the process, the generating stem essentially continues to be divided into the same morphemes, but the individuality of the morphemes identified in the word in a certain link of the word-formation chain is weakened due to the partial phonetic application of one morpheme to another.

various sound changes at the junction of the prefix and the non-producing stem, as well as the non-producing stem and ^ (I will come (SRYa) – Priide (DRYa))

6. Substitution – the word is divided differently over time. The result of replacing one morpheme with another. As a result of this process, the morphemic composition of the generating stem remains quantitatively the same; only one of the links in the word-formation chain changes.

Causes

Folk etymological convergence of words with different roots (witness - view; mediocre - without happiness).

13. Indeclinable nouns in modern Russian as a result of historical development

The vast majority of names in RY decline. The main category for all names is the category of case (PL refers to languages ​​of the inflectional type). Declensions were formed in the early era. All nouns are inflected according to a certain type. In the DRY by the 10th – 11th centuries there were 6 types of declination, which were based on the distribution according to the ^ stem. Since the time of the Proto-Slavic era, the language has undergone changes and nouns no longer differ in formal characteristics; their unification occurred due to the similarity of structure (type of inflection) and gender. This led to a change in the types of declination - instead of 6 there were 3 types. Associations: 1. according to the generic principle (f.r. with f.r., m.r. with m.r. according to the initial form of the singular I.p., if the forms coincide);

2. according to the structural principle (table, house).

The productive subordinated the unproductive.

1. 
   productive – feminine declension;
2. 
   productive – declension of nouns m.r. with stems in b and b (village, field) former 5th declension.

1. 
   incomplete declension in I (night, steppe) in school 3rd grade.

Path  version that it was not used in living speech, the old forms existed until the mid-18th century before Lomonosov.

The concept of a language system as a subject and object of linguistics is associated primarily with the definition of the openness and heterogeneity of this system.

Language is an open, dynamic system. Language as a system is opposed to a specific language. Just as the models of his units are opposed to the units themselves, which are generated by these model models. The system of a language is the internal organization of its units and parts. Each unit of language is included in the system as a part of the whole; it is connected with other units and parts of the language system directly or indirectly through linguistic categories. The language system is complex and multifaceted, this applies to both its structure and functioning, i.e. use and development.

The system of a language determines the ways of its development, but not its specific form, because in any language, its norm, systemic (structural) and asystemic (destructural) facts can be found. This arises both as a result of the failure to realize all the capabilities of the system, and as a result of the influence of other languages ​​and social factors. For example, nouns of the Russian language potentially have a 12-element declension paradigm, but not every noun has the entire set of word forms, and there are nouns that have a large number of word forms [cf.: about the forest and in the forest, when the prepositional case splits into explanatory and local]; indeclinable nouns in the Russian language are an asystemic phenomenon, an anomaly (outside the literary norm, the pressure of the system is easily detected when they say: “came to the meter”, “went to the meter”, etc. The unrealization of the system is manifested not only in the fact that some facts are not covered by the paradigm, are released from the system, but also in the structure of the paradigms themselves, in the presence of defective paradigms and model models.

Modern systems theories analyze various types and types of systems. For linguistics, systems that have the properties of optimality and openness are important. The sign of openness and dynamism is characteristic of language as a system. The dynamism of the system is manifested in the opposite of its linguistic tradition, enshrined in the literary language, and the stereotype of speech activity. Potentiality as a manifestation of the dynamism and openness of a language system does not contrast it with language with its categories and specific units.

Language system, language system- a set of language elements connected to each other by certain relationships, forming a certain unity and integrity. Each component of the language system exists in opposition to other elements, which gives it significance. The idea of ​​a language system includes the concepts of levels of language, units of language, paradigmatics and syntagmatics, linguistic sign, synchrony and diachrony.

The language system has a hierarchical structure: units of higher levels are combinations of units of lower levels. The language system differs dictionary as inventory of finished units and grammar as a mechanism for their combination.

At different areas and levels of language, the degree of systematicity is not the same; Thus, in phonology, where a significant change in one element entails transformations affecting other elements or the entire system as a whole, it is significantly higher than in vocabulary. In addition, in the language system and its individual subsystems, a center and a periphery are distinguished

Use of the term
The term “language system” can be used not only in relation to language as a whole as an organized set of subsystems, but also in relation to a separate subsystem- a naturally organized set of elements of the same level of language, connected by stable relationships, including oppositional ones. In the latter sense, they talk about the phonological, morphological, word-formation, syntactic, lexical, semantic system of a given language; in an even narrower understanding of the term, we can talk about systems (or subsystems) of individual parts of speech or grammatical categories].

There is also another meaning of the term "language subsystem", applied to dialectal, sociolectal and stylistic varieties of language.
System and structure

Along with the term “system”, another term is used "structure", and not all linguistic works use them synonymously. There are several interpretations of this terminological difference]:

· structure - parts of the text connected by syntagmatic connections, system - members of a class of linguistic units connected by paradigmatic relationships (London School);

· structure is the “framework” of a system made up of relationships between elements, a system is a set of structure and elements that performs a specific function (E. S. Kubryakova, G. P. Melnikov);

structure - a set of linguistic means of expressing significant oppositions, specified by the relationship of the plan of content (signified) to the plan of expression (signifier), system - a set of one-plane (related to the plan of expression or content plan) units connected by oppositional relations (N. D. Arutyunova).
History of views on the systematic nature of language

The definition of language as a system of signs, given not in direct observation, but in speech, goes back to F. de Saussure, but was prepared by a long tradition, including discussions of ancient grammarians about the relationship between anomaly and analogy in language, the works of V. von Humboldt, A. Schleicher, I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, who distinguished between statics and dynamics in language and identified the most general types of units of the language system, such as phoneme, morpheme, grapheme, syntagma. Since the time of Saussure, the term “linguistic system” often refers to language as the opposite of speech - “the individual side of speech activity”, however, in the works of some scientists, for example E. Coceru, the system is contrasted as Uzusu(speech) and normal.

The teachings of F. de Saussure were developed within the framework of several directions in structural linguistics, which chose as one of its tasks the identification and classification of linguistic units of an increasingly abstract degree and the establishment of types of relations between them. One of the schools, the Prague Linguistic Circle, defended the principle of systematic language in diachrony, rejected by Saussure, and drew attention to the mobility, dynamism of the language system, as well as its functional character is the property of serving a particular purpose, characteristic of both individual elements in the system and the language as a whole. At the same time, the representative of the Prague school N. S. Trubetskoy developed the theory of oppositions.

In the language models of the 1950s - 1970s, which include generative grammars, for example transformational grammar, and “transductive” grammars that make the transition from text To meaning and vice versa (in particular, the theory of “Meaning ↔ Text”) and often used in automatic translation systems, the language system appeared primarily not as a system of units and their relations, but as a system of rules for the formation, transformation and combination of units.

An important step in considering language as a system was the transfer of the method of component analysis (isolation of differential features) from phonology to lexical and grammatical semantics and the development of the theory of semantic fields.

Universal Grammar- a term that in a number of linguistic theories denotes the supposed set of rules or principles inherent in every human language. Such rules do not completely define the language: they allow significant variation, but limit it to a certain finite framework. In modern cognitive science, universal grammar is understood as knowledge about language built at the genetic level.

Arguments in favor of the existence of a universal grammar are:

· the presence of certain linguistic universals (such as, for example, parts of speech, vowels and consonants, etc.) present in all languages;

· data from studies of language acquisition;

· arguments for the existence of a separate language module - an independent cognitive system within the human mind designed to process language.

· Historically, the idea of ​​a universal grammar dates back to the ideas of philosophers such as Roger Bacon and René Descartes, but in a modern context it is almost always associated with the theories of the American linguist Noam Chomsky. Chomsky hypothesized that children have an innate language acquisition mechanism. Language Acquisition Device), valid for a certain critical period (up to approximately 12 years). Chomsky's main argument was the “poverty of stimulus”: the child does not receive information about which language constructions are impossible (since parents, by definition, never provide examples of such constructions), which makes the process of language acquisition impossible without the presence of some predetermined information.

· Universal grammar limits the number of hypotheses, otherwise the child will have to choose from an infinite number of possibilities. Chomsky saw the main task of linguistics in the formal description of universal grammar; for this purpose he proposed a transformational generative grammar, based primarily on syntax.

· Chomsky's theory was the first attempt to describe language within the cognitive paradigm: behaviorism rejected the existence of internal mental states and relied on the study of behavior. Chomsky demonstrated the inconsistency of the behaviorist approach to language and focused the attention of science on the study capabilities person to linguistic activity (linguistic competence), and not on this activity itself (linguistic performance). Chomsky's theory gained enormous popularity in American linguistics and became the foundation for a number of other generative theories of language.

The definition of language as a system of systems, most fully developed by the Prague School of Functional Linguistics, is undoubtedly justified, but it should not be given the absolute character that we observe in this case. Individual “circles or tiers of linguistic structure” appear in A. A. Reformatsky as self-contained systems, which, if they interact with each other (forming a system of systems or a system of language), then only as separate and integral unities. The result is something like a coalition of allied nations, whose troops are united by the common task of military action against a common enemy, but are under the separate command of their national military leaders.

In the life of a language, things are, of course, different, and the individual “tiers or systems” of a language interact with each other not only frontally, but to a large extent, so to speak, with their individual representatives “one on one.” So, for example, as a result of the fact that a number of English words during the period of the Scandinavian conquest had Scandinavian parallels, a splitting of the sound form of some words of common origin occurred. This is how doublet forms were created, separated by natural processes in the phonetic system of Old English, which ended before the Scandinavian conquest. These doublet forms also created the basis for differentiating their meanings.

Thus, the difference arose between skirt and shirt (<др.-англ. scirt) — «рубашка», а также такие дублетные пары, как egg — «яйцо» и edge (

In a similar way, the German Rappe - “black horse” and Rabe - “raven” (both from the Middle High German form of garre), Knappe - “squire” and Knabe - “boy”, etc., split into two; Russian ashes - gunpowder, harm - vered, having a genetically common basis. An even more striking example of the natural interaction of elements of different “tiers” is the phonetic process of reduction of final elements, well known from the history of Germanic languages ​​(which in turn is associated with the nature and position of the Germanic force stress in a word), which caused extremely important changes in their grammatical system.

It is known that the stimulation of analytical tendencies in the English language and the deviation of this language from the synthetic structure is directly related to the fact that reduced endings turned out to be unable to express with the necessary clarity the grammatical relationships of words. Thus, a purely concrete and purely phonetic process gave rise to new not only morphological, but also syntactic phenomena.

This kind of mutual influence of elements included in different “tiers” or “homogeneous systems” can be multidirectional and go both along an ascending (i.e., from phonemes to elements of morphology and vocabulary) and descending line. Thus, according to J. Vahek, the different fate of paired voiced final consonants in Czech (as well as Slovak, Russian, etc.), on the one hand, and in English, on the other hand, is determined by the needs of the higher planes of the respective languages. In Slavic languages, due to neutralization, they were deafened, but in English the contrast p - b, v - f, etc. was preserved, although the contrast in voicing was replaced by the contrast in tension.

In Slavic languages ​​(Czech, etc.), the appearance of new homonymous pairs of words, due to the deafening of final voiced consonants, did not introduce any significant difficulties in understanding, since in the sentence they received a clear grammatical characteristic and the sentence model in these languages ​​was not functionally overloaded . And in the English language, precisely because of the functional overload of the sentence model, the destruction of the opposition of final consonants and the resulting emergence of a large number of homonyms would lead to significant difficulties in the communication process.

In all such cases, we are dealing with the establishment of individual connections between elements of different “tiers” - phonetic and lexical.

Regular relationships are thus established not only between homogeneous members of the language system, but also between heterogeneous ones. This means that systemic connections of linguistic elements are formed not only within one “tier” (for example, only between phonemes), but also separately between representatives of different “tiers” (for example, phonetic and lexical units). In other words, the natural connections of the elements of a language system can be multidirectional, which does not exclude, of course, special forms of systemic relationships of language elements within the same “tier”.

V.A. Zvegintsev. Essays on general linguistics - Moscow, 1962.