What is made up of linguistic units. Units of language and their relation to signs

Language and speech.
In modern linguistics, it is customary to distinguish between the concepts of "language" and "speech".
Language is defined as a system of signs.
A sign is a conventional designation of something, that is, something that we can perceive (for example, a red traffic light), and its meaning, which we agreed on, was agreed upon. It is the agreement that transforms any object. Action, image in sign.

But language is not just a sign, but a system of signs. The system consists of individual elements and connections between them. So, a traffic light is a traffic control system. It has three elements: red, yellow and green signals. Each element has its own meaning and relationship with other elements. If only one element existed, the system would not exist: one element would not be able to regulate traffic. If only the red light was on all the time, then there would be no movement.

Language is not just a collection of signs, it is a system that has a certain structure (structure). The elements that make up this structure do not exist on their own, they are connected with each other and form a single whole. A sign is a member of a particular sign system.

Language as a system has its own function - it is a means of communication.

Speech is language in action, it is the use of all the elements of language and the connections between them. Speech exists in two forms - oral and written.

Oral speech is created at the moment of speaking, so its main feature is unpreparedness, improvisation.

Written speech is speech without a direct interlocutor. Therefore, the author has the opportunity to think, to prepare his statement.

The concept of "speech" includes both the process of speaking itself and the result of this process (story, writing). Speech serves as a means of expressing thoughts and feelings of a person.

Speech depends on many parameters:

1. From that with whom we communicate what are the relations between the interlocutors: friendly, neutral, official.
2. Time and place of communication. Human life is divided into weekdays and holidays, work and rest. Each of these time periods is closely associated with certain events and possible types of conversations. This means that each of the native speakers intuitively feels how the topic and nature of communication depend on the time and place in which it takes place.
3. The topic of communication. Serious conversation on important topic unlikely to be conducted with playful intonations.

That. the situation of communication affects how we speak. Even if one of the parameters of the situation (partners, goal, form of communication) changes, speech means will be used differently.

Basic units of the language.
Language is a system, and any system consists of separate elements interconnected. A language is made up of "language units".

1. Phoneme is the sound we hear and pronounce. The sound itself has no lexical meaning, but in the language some words consist of one sound, in which case the sound ceases to be just a sound and acquires a meaning.
2. Morpheme- this is the minimum semantic unit of the language (prefix, root, suffix, ending). Morphemes consist of phonemes and already have a meaning, but they cannot be used independently.
3. Word is the basic unit of the language. The word names objects, phenomena, signs or points to them. The word consists of morphemes, it has a lexical meaning and is used independently.
4. phrase- This is the smallest unit of the language in which the laws of grammar begin to operate. It consists of two or more owls, between which there is a semantic and grammatical connection.
5. Sentence is a unit of language that serves to express thoughts, emotions, sensations.

1. The smallest units of a language add up to larger ones, but the units of a language differ from each other not only in size. Their main difference is not quantitative, but qualitative (difference in their function, purpose).

Each language unit takes its place in the system and performs a specific function.

The concept of literary language and language norm

The Russian language in the broadest sense of the word is the totality of all words, grammatical forms, pronunciation features of all Russian people, that is, all those who speak Russian as their native language.

The Russian national language is heterogeneous in its composition. Among the varieties of the Russian language, the Russian literary language clearly stands out. This is the highest form national language determined by a whole system of norms. In linguistics, the rules for the use of words, grammatical forms, pronunciation rules that are in force in a given period of development of the literary language are called the norm. The norms cover all its aspects: written and oral variety, orthoepy, vocabulary, word formation, grammar. For example, in a literary language one cannot use such forms as “you want”, “my last name”, “they ran away”; you have to say: “you want”, “my last name”, “they ran”; you should not pronounce e [g] o, sku [h] but, but you need to pronounce e [v] o, sku [w] but, etc. The norms are described in textbooks, special reference books, as well as in dictionaries (spelling, explanatory, phraseological, synonyms, etc.).

The norm is approved and supported by the speech practice of cultured people, in particular, writers who draw the treasures of speech from the language of the people.

The literary language, written and spoken, is the language of radio and television, newspapers and magazines, government and cultural institutions.

The Russian literary language is divided into a number of styles depending on where and for what it is used.

So, in everyday life, when communicating with loved ones, we often use words and sentences that we will not use in official business papers, and vice versa. For example, in a statement, in an explanatory note, the following phrase is quite appropriate: Due to the lack of the required number of vehicles, the unloading of the arrived wagons with construction materials was delayed for one day.

When referring to colleagues at work, the same idea is expressed, for example, as follows: Today there were few cars. The unloading of the wagons was delayed for a day.

The speech of a cultured, educated person must be correct, accurate and beautiful. The more correct and accurate the speech, the more accessible it is for understanding; the more beautiful and expressive it is, the stronger it affects the listener or reader. To speak correctly and beautifully, you need to follow the norms of your native language.

§ one. Language as a system of means of forming thoughts and exchanging thoughts in the process of communication includes a huge set of elements of diverse specifics that combine with each other in a complex functional interaction as part of texts - products of people's speech activity. These elements are called "language units". AI Smirnitsky, defining the concept of a language unit, pointed out that such a unit, standing out in speech, must meet two requirements: first, it must retain the essential general features of the language; secondly, no new features should appear in it, introducing a “new quality” into it. According to the first requirement, a language unit, like the language as a whole, must be two-sided, that is, it must be a unity of form and meaning. According to the second requirement, the language unit must be reproduced in speech, and not act as a "work" created by the speaker in the process of communication. Based on the first requirement, according to A. I. Smirnitsky, the phoneme is excluded from the composition of language units as a one-sided unit, as well as elements of accentuation and rhythm that do not have meaningful functions. On the basis of the second requirement, the sentence is excluded from the composition of the units of the language (see above).

The fundamental difference between phonemes, on the one hand, and sign elements, on the other, is the most important feature of a “natural” human language, in contrast to various artificial sign systems created on the basis of a natural language. This difference is reflected by the linguistic concept of "double articulation" of the language, that is, the division of the totality of its constituent elements into signed and non-sign ("pre-sign") parts.

But due consideration of the cardinal importance for the language as a whole of its phonetic part, which constitutes its separate “structure” within the framework of the tripartite subdivision of the language system (phonetic structure - lexical structure - grammatical structure), does not allow us to exclude the phoneme from the total volume of the concept of a language unit. On the contrary, since the language is the property of the people and since the phonetic appearance is the first feature that distinguishes each specific language of the people from all other languages ​​of the world belonging to other peoples, the isolation of the phoneme into a special unit of the language is dictated by the linguistic reality itself.

In order to consistently separate the two kinds of linguistic elements, namely, sign and non-sign, according to their functional content, we introduce two new terms into conceptual linguistic use: the first is “cortema” (from lat. cortex); the second - "signema" (from lat. signum). The concept of corteme will cover all units of the material form of the language that are "pre-sign" or "one-sided", and the concept of signema will cover all the sign units of the language that are "two-sided". In the accepted conceptual coverage, which facilitates the work of the linguist in the context of the ongoing theoretical dispute about the two-sidedness or one-sidedness of the sign, the phoneme acts as a special case of the cortem, which we will discuss below.

According to their material structure, all units of the language are divided into those that are formed by phonemes, appearing in the form of their chains or "segments", and those that accompany the segments as concomitant means of expression. The smallest segment of a language is the phoneme. A morpheme, a word, a sentence constitute segmental meaningful units (signems), each with its own set of functions. To accompanying means of expression, singled out as integral units with own functions, include significant models of intonation (intonemes), stress, pauses, word order changes. All these units are terminologically united under the name of "super-segment". The functions performed by them are displayed in the form of corresponding modifications of the content of segment units that carry the primary functional load in text formation.

§ 2. All segmental units of the language are related to each other in such a way that large segments are divided into a number of smaller segments, and this division reveals a rank or tier character.

The indicated nature of the correlation of language segments serves as the basis for considering the language as a hierarchy of levels - such that the units of each higher level are formed from the units of the lower level.

This level representation of the language is opposed by the concept of "isomorphism", which arose as a result of bringing to the fore the most abstract properties of the formal relations of linguistic units of different levels.

Thus, in American descriptive linguistics, for a long time, the postulate was accepted that the actual linguistic quality of phonemes and morphemes - the two main (according to the views of this area of ​​research) level-forming types of language segments - is entirely determined by identical (isomorphic) patterns of their "distribution" ( distribution in the text) relative to other segments, respectively, of its own and adjacent levels. Descriptivists made special emphasis on the regularities of distribution as an exponent of the nature of the elements of language because, as we noted above, they set out to build a description of the language on a “strictly formal” basis, in abstraction from the meanings expressed by the language [Main Directions of Structuralism, 1964, p. . 177–211]. But it is impossible to describe language in abstraction from the meanings it expresses, for the simple reason that meanings are themselves an integral part of the language; and if we not only do not digress, but, on the contrary, consistently take into account the meanings and functions transmitted and performed by the elements of the language that fall into the scope of analysis, then we inevitably come to the conclusion that the concept of linguistic isomorphism is very relative.

There is undoubtedly a certain commonality in the structure of different levels of the language. It is directly dependent on the very function of language as a means of forming thoughts and exchanging thoughts in the process of communication. It is reasonable to see such a commonality in the fact that at all levels of the language, the unity of syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations that determines the language as a whole is revealed. This unity is specifically revealed in the fact that each higher level is a sphere of functional output of units of the lower level, with the resulting complex phenomena of interlevel interaction (see: [Levels of language and their interaction, 1967; Units of different levels of the grammatical structure and their interaction, 1969 ]; see also: (Yartseva, 1968; Arutyunova, 1969; Shchur, 1974]). On the other hand, the units of each level have their own properties of form and function, which do not allow them to be reduced to the properties of units of other levels, and this formal-content specificity of the types of language units, correlated with the properties that unite them, enter into syntagmatic and paradigmatic connections in their parts of the system, as times and serves as a justification for the very idea of ​​the level division of the segment composition of the language.

§ 3. The lower, initial level of the segments is composed of many phonemes.

The specificity of units of the phonemic level is that they form a material form or "shell" of the overlying segments, without being sign units in themselves. Phonemes form and distinguish morphemes, and the specific implementers of their distinctive function are linguistically relevant "distinctive features", more precisely, the substantial content of these features - the material properties of sounds on which their differentiation in a particular language is based. These properties or features are no longer segments in themselves, and therefore it would be unjustified to speak of a "level of phonological distinguishing features" in the accepted sense.

The phoneme, as stated above, is special case cortemes are units of the material form of a language. In cortemic ( total population linguistic elements of the material form), as in signemics (the totality of sign linguistic elements), segmental units and supersegmental units are distinguished. Non-sign accentuation, rhythm, a certain part of the "overtones" in intonation patterns belong to the super-segmental cortemic. Segmental cortemics, in addition to phonemics, includes syllabic structure words, i.e. "syllabemics". Thus, from a material and physical point of view, the area of ​​segmental cortemics is subject to hierarchical division into the level of phonemes and the level of syllabems, and the total composition of language units is distributed over two hyperlevels - cortematic and signematic, respectively.

On the other hand, it should be taken into account that it is phonemes with their own distinctive features that have a direct word-building (more precisely, morphemic) function. This gives us the right in the present description to speak of a generalized phonemic level of language segments, directly opposed to a vast hierarchy of sign segments. As for syllabem syllables, forming their own sublevel in the segmental cortemic, taken in isolation, they act as components of a special field of linguistic rhythm, crossing the signematic level of morphemes closest to the phonemic level: syllable division and morphemodeling of the word, obeying different principles organizations are irrelevant.

The language can be presented not only in oral, but also in written form, which takes important place in modern human interaction. However, the primary matter of language is sound, not graphics; the function of linguistic graphics is reduced to representing the linguistic sound. Since letters and their combinations (in the phonological type of writing used by most languages) directly or indirectly represent ("designate") phonemes and their combinations, they are, strictly speaking, signs, but signs of a completely different kind than the supraphonemic sign segments of the language - signems. .

To maintain uniformity in terminology, a letter as a generalized graphic type that reveals a set of corresponding linguistically relevant graphic features can be called a “letterme”, and its specific implementations, respectively, “letters”.

The letter unit of a written language is sometimes called a "grapheme", but this term is hardly appropriate to use in this sense. In fact, the linguistic concept of “graphics” with which it correlates goes far beyond the alphabet and covers all the graphic means of the language, related to both the cortem and signemic areas. Consequently, in the developed system of representations, a lettereme should act as a special case of a grapheme, which is elevated to the rank of a type unit of a completely generalizing nature: in addition to the lettereme, the semantic scope of the concept of a grapheme includes such graphemes as punctuation marks, signs, accent marks, diacritical marks, font emphasis, underlining, etc.

Directly above the phonemic segmental level of language lies the level of morphemes, the morphematic level.

A morpheme is defined as the elementary meaningful part of a word. It is built up by phonemes, and the simplest morphemes include only one phoneme.

The functional specificity of the morpheme is that it expresses abstract, abstract (“significative”) meanings that serve as material for the formation of more specific “nominative” meanings of words (embodied in speech in very specific “denotative” or “referential” meanings). In other words, the semantics of a morpheme, from the point of view of its functional purpose in the language, can be defined as "sublexemic".

Above the morphematic level of the language lies the level of words, or the lexical level.

The word (lexeme) serves, as we have just noted, as the nominative unit of the language; its function is to directly name objects, phenomena and relations of the external world. Since the elementary components of a word are morphemes, the simplest words include only one morpheme. Compare: I; here; many; and. At the same time, in the case of single-morphemic words, as in the case of single-phonemic morphemes, the fundamental principle of level non-overlapping remains valid (specified, but not canceled by the separation of basic and transitional levels, about which see below). In other words, a monomorphemic word is precisely a word consisting of one morpheme, but not a morpheme acting as a word. This is especially clearly seen in the examples of the occurrence of a (phonetic) word with a single morphemic base form in different lexical classes (lexico-grammatical categories). Compare, for example, different lexical classes represented by the form but (conjunction, preposition, contact-setting particle, restrictive adverb, relative pronoun, singular and plural noun): last, but not less; there was nothing but firelight; but it "s what you like; those words were but excuses; there are none but do much the same; that was a large but; his repeated buts are really trying.

Tokens, connecting with each other, build phrases, or phrases. A word-combination is usually considered as a combination of fully-meaning words that serves as a part of a sentence with a complex name for objects, phenomena and relations of the surrounding world (see: [Vinogradov, 1972, p. 121]).

The question arises: should the level of phrasemes (phrasematic level) be singled out as a level directly above the level of words (lexematic level)?

To answer this question, it is necessary to take into account the fundamental law of the structural relationship of the segmental levels of the language, which consists in the fact that the unit of each higher level is built from one or more units of the immediately lower level. Consequently, the desired level-forming unit, located higher than the word (distinguished directly above the word in the level hierarchy of the language), must be built by one or more words (lexemes) and at the same time perform some function higher than the function of the word taken as an element of the vocabulary (i.e. as a unit of the lexical level with its own nominative function). We find such a unit in the person of a member of a sentence - an element of a language that is built by one or more words with a denotative (contextualized) function. This unit, adhering to the chosen emic terminology, we call "denotheme", and the selected level, respectively, "denothematic". As for the phraseme as such, being included in the composition of the sentence, it turns out to be nothing more than a kind of denotem.

As you know, among phrases, there are, on the one hand, stable phrases (phraseological units), and on the other hand, free ("syntactic") phrases. Phraseological units constitute a special subject of study of the phraseological section of lexicology, and free combinations are studied in the lower section of syntax. However, the grammar does not pass by phraseological units, comparing them by internal grammatical properties and relations with free combinations. Compare: good for nothing - good for the job; in the lap of Providence - in the lap of the nurse; to take the upper hand –to take the longer pencil (of the two); to come down handsome –to come down safe, etc.

For the convenience of distinguishing between two types of phrases in descriptions, phraseological combinations can be called "phraseomes".

The main phrases in the English language, realized by combining full-meaning words, are formed by one or more syntagmas around the substantive (or equivalent), verbal, adjective and adverbial centers [Barkhudarov, 1966, p. 44 ff.]. At the same time, adjective and adverbial combinations, as a rule, are included in substantive and verbal combinations as their phrasal components. Compare: the previous night; something very affectionate and intimate; the others, far less responsible; to delay the departure; to turn the mind to the suggested subject; to radically improve one "s position, etc.

Some scholars object to limiting the concept of a phrase to only compounds of full-meaning words and include here also combinations of a full-meaning word with a functional one [Ilyish, 1971, p. 177 ff.]. If we adhere to the formal content of the concept (i.e., the proper content of the term), then we will have to admit that such combinations should also receive the rank status of phrasemes (cf. the above-described concept of a formative syntagma), since they are also “complex names”. In addition, the distinction between functional and significant words includes layers of transition. Compare: ought to return; only to recommend; all but one; the very best; at one time; on arrival, etc.

However, given the nature of the nominative function performed by the phrase, significant combinations should be singled out in the basic part of the phrasematic level. In fact, phrasemes perform the function of "polynomination" (turned in a sentence into the function of "polydenomination"), differing in this from the "mononomination" of a word in the proper level sense. It is the polynomination of the phrase that gives modern linguists the reason to single out the doctrine of the phrase itself as a separate section of syntax, sometimes called “small syntax” in contrast to the “large syntax” of the higher level of segments.

In the field of phrasemics, there is a heated discussion on the question of whether it is legal or illegal to single out the connection of the subject and the predicate as a “predicative phrase” [Sukhotin, 1950; Vinogradov, 1950; 1975 a; 1975 b; Ilyish, 1971, p. 179-180]. It seems that this discussion turned out to be complicated by a terminological misunderstanding. Indeed, if a phrase, like a word, is endowed with the fundamental function of nomination (which turns into a denotation as part of a sentence), then the combination of the subject with the predicate cannot fall into the class of phrases (phrases) by definition, since the function of predication (such a predication, which is expressed by the connection of the subject and predicate) highlights not a word or a phrase, but a sentence.

Another thing is the concept of "predicative syntagma" in its application to the connection of the subject and the predicate. The cognitive value of this concept already follows from the fact that, within the aspect of linear connections of linguistic units, it stands above the concepts of phrases and sentences, not replacing either one or the other.

But not every combination of a noun with a verb makes up a sentence. A sentence is built only by combining a personal verb with a substantive-subject. Along with such compounds, there are combinations of an impersonal verb with a noun or its equivalent, which, although they represent a paradigmatic correlate of a sentence, are not in the full sense of the word predicative (cf.: the defendant "s bluntly rejecting the accusation - for the defendant to bluntly reject the accusation–The defendant bluntly rejected the accusation).These combinations, even when derivationally elevated to the corresponding sentences, are naturally included in the sphere of phrases, receiving a marginal status here.

Above the denothematic level lies the level of sentences, or the "proposematic" level.

The specificity of a sentence (“proposeme”) as a sign language unit is that, while naming a certain situation, it simultaneously expresses predication, that is, it reveals the relation of the objective part of the situation to reality. In this sense, a sentence, in contrast to a word and a phrase, is a predicative unit, and its semiotic nature is, as it were, bifurcated, reflecting the nominative and predicative aspects of the prepositive content. Being a unit of a specific message (speech), a sentence enters the language system as a generalized construction - a typical structural-functional model that expresses a whole range of communicative meanings. In this capacity, the sentence exists in the language in the form of a set of simple and complex segments-constructions, between which a network of its own level relationships is established.

It is known that the language has a certain number of stable sentences in the form of elements of a “ready citation”. These sentences, along with stable phrasemes (phraseomes), are the subject of phraseology. Cf.: Live and learn. Let us return to our muttons. You may rest assured. God bless my soul! etc.

Continuing the terminological line adopted in this study, we can call a fixed speech like "the above" "proposeome". Proposeomes, being predicative units, have a bright specificity and require, like phraseomes, to be allocated to a special section of the linguistic description.

But a sentence as a level-forming unit is not yet the upper limit of the “size” of a segmental linguistic sign. Above the proposematic level lies the “above proposematic” (“above propositional”) level, which is formed by syntactic associations of independent sentences.

Associations of independent sentences were, in various terms, described as special syntactic units relatively recently, and the foundations of the theory of these associations were laid by Russian linguists (starting with the works of N.S. Pospelov and L.A. Bulakhovsky). Such associations were called "complex syntactic wholes" (N.S. Pospelov) or "superphrasal unities" (L.A. Bulakhovsky).

Supra-phrasal unity is formed by the coupling of several independent sentences by means of connecting (cumulative) connections. These connections distinguish super-phrasal unity from a complex sentence, which is built by “addition” connections (composing, subordinating). In the meanings of superphrasal units, various correlations of simple and complex situations are expressed.

Some scholars interpret superphrasal unity as a speech unit coinciding with a paragraph of monologue speech. However, it should be taken into account that the paragraph, being in a certain sense correlative with the super-phrasal unity, is primarily a compositional unit of a book-written text, while the super-phrasal unity - a syntactic sequence of independent sentences with a wide situational plan of semantics - is distinguished by a universal character and stands out in all varieties of language, both written and spoken.

On the other hand, it should be noted that the direct element of the structure of the text as a whole can be not only super-phrasal unity, that is, the union of sentences, but also a separate sentence placed by the sender of the message in a meaningful position. Such a special informational status of a sentence can lead to its selection as a separate paragraph of a monologue written text. The text as a whole, being the final sphere of the output of the functions of the elements of the language in the process of speech formation, is a sign-thematic formation: a certain topic is disclosed in the text, which unites all its parts into an informational unity. In the thematizing role (through "microthematization") one should see the own functional nature of the segment that lies above the sentence in the level hierarchy of the language.

So, immediately above the proposematic level, which is the level of predication, there is another level of thematization, within which a text is created as a finished (spontaneous or specially composed) work of the speaker-writer. The constitutive unit of this level, that is, the unit of thematization, given its speech-creative nature, we call the term "dicteme". Accordingly, the entire distinguished upper level of language segments is called "dictematic".

Since a dicteme as a unit of thematization is typified by its own structural features (including a dictemic-long pause), the concept of thematization itself should be included in the conceptual-categorical system of grammar along with the fundamental concepts of nomination and predication. We address this issue in the last part of this work.

§ four. So, we have identified six segmental levels of the language, connected, at least from the point of view of the form of the elements that make them up, by successive (in the direction from bottom to top) inclusion relations.

It is clear that the units of all levels in the language system are equally necessary for this system, they constitute its integral structural components with their structural and semantic properties: the systemic status of none of them is impossible without the systemic status of others. At the same time, taking into account the grammatically organized distribution of these units in the order of the hierarchy, it is natural to pose the question: what is the weight of each level in the language system in terms of the degree of independence of its function? Is it possible to single out any of the described levels as defining, and to assign the role of accompanying or intermediate to others?

Consideration of the functional specifics of the units that form the segment levels, from the point of view of text formation as the ultimate goal of the functioning of the language as a whole, shows that the places occupied by different segment levels in the language system are not equivalent to each other.

Indeed, while the quality of some units is determined, as it were, by internal features that are relatively closed at the corresponding level (such are the phoneme, distinguished by a set of phonological distinguishing features and not carrying a sign function; a word, distinguished by signs of a nominative function; a sentence, distinguished by signs of a predicative function), the quality of other units is determined only in the necessary and direct correlation with units of adjacent levels. Thus, a morpheme is distinguished as a mandatory component of a word with a sign function mediated by the nominative sign function of the word as a whole. The denoteme (expressed by a significant word or phrase) stands out as a mandatory component of a sentence with a sign function determined by the situational-predicative (prepositive) function of the sentence as a whole. As for the dicteme, it is a context-thematic association of sentences, outlining the output of the sentence into a detailed, coherent speech.

Thus, among the selected segmental levels of the language, one should distinguish between basic and transitional.

The main levels are phonemic, lexical and proposematic. The transitional levels include morphematic (transition from phoneme to word) and denothematic (transition from word to sentence). The dictematic level, in essence, is the level of the output of the sentence into the text. At the same time, it should be taken into account that the phonemic level forms the basis of the sign part of the language, being the bearer of its material form. Consequently, within the framework of the doctrine of language levels, the central concepts of grammatico-linguistic representations remain the concepts of the word and the sentence, which are considered by the theory of grammar in two traditionally distinguished sections - morphological (the grammatical doctrine of the word) and syntactic (the grammatical doctrine of the sentence).

Without breaking with the sentence, but relying on the analysis of its nominative and predicative structure, the theory of grammar goes into a detailed text, thematized with dictemes, as the end product of people's speech-creative activity.

Language is not a set of heterogeneous elements, but a strictly organized system.

Language system- a set of interrelated and interdependent units that are a single whole.

The language system is a system of different levels or tiers.

The main levels of the language system (from lowest to highest):

1) Phonemic

2) Morphemic

3) Tokenized

4) Syntaxemic

Accordingly, language units:

2) Morpheme

3) Lexeme

4) Syntaxeme (sentence scheme)

At the lowest level, there is no semantic meaning, a morpheme is the minimum semantic unit.

A phoneme is a one-dimensional unit that has a form, but does not have a meaning.

Between units of language there are paradigmatic, syntagmatic and hierarchical relations.

paradigmatic- these are relations of opposition, interconnection and conditionality between units of the same language level, uniting these units into classes (paradigms).

Syntagmatic- (connected, built together) relation of compatibility between linearly located units of the same language level (phoneme with phoneme, morpheme with morpheme, lexeme with lexeme).

Hierarchical- these are inclusion relations between units of different levels (the arrangement of units from the lowest to the highest).

Language and thought.

One of the most difficult questions that cannot be solved by science alone. This problem is solved by philosophy, logic, psychology, linguistics, etc.

The problem of the connection between language and thinking was solved in different ways. Everyone agreed that there was a connection. Disagreements arose when the question of the nature of this connection came up.

Burchley (an idealist) believed that thought is born independently, only then is it clothed in a linguistic form.

Humboldt (materialist) identified language and thinking, i.e. regarded as an inseparable whole.

Thought is ideal, language is material. The ideality of thought and the materiality of language do not allow them to be identified.

De Saussure wrote that language is like a sheet of paper. One side is language, the other is thought.

Language and thinking differ from each other in purpose and in the structure of their units. The first difference is that the purpose of thinking is to obtain new knowledge and systematize it, while language only serves cognitive activity.

The second difference is in the structure of their units, in the difference in their linguistic and logical form. The basis of thinking is the logical structure of thought, the rules for operating with concepts and judgments to achieve the truth.

The form of thought is found in language.

The concept, judgment, conclusion are realized in the language.

The inseparability of language and thinking is expressed in such a concept as inner speech.

Inner speech is fragmentary, fragmentary, there are no secondary members in it, there is a reduction, verbal, two or three thoughts unfold simultaneously.

The inner speech depends on the outer one, but the outer one also depends on the inner one.

Language and speech.

Language is a system of signs, which is the main means of communication between people. This is an ideal (abstract) system of units and rules for their combination, worked out in the practice of verbal communication.

Speech is the language activity of people in which language finds its practical application.

Language is a means of communication, speech is communication itself.

Language is general, speech is particular.

Language and speech are inextricably linked and represent two sides of the same phenomenon. Language and speech are united by a common phenomenon - speech activity.

For the first time, the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, one of the founders of linguistics of the 20th century, clearly distinguished between language and speech. Since then, the need to distinguish between language and speech has become generally accepted among philologists.

The origin of the language.

The question of the origin of the language is one of the most difficult, not fully resolved. The languages ​​that exist on earth are at a fairly high level of development. While the origin of the language refers to an era with archaic forms of human relationships.

Therefore, all theories of the origin of language are hypotheses.

Hypotheses of the origin of the language:

1) Theistic (divine)

2) Atheistic (materialistic)

¾ Biological

Onomatopoeic

Interjection

¾ Social

The theory of labor cries

Social contract theory

The theory of onomatopoeia was born in ancient times. Imitation of surrounding sounds.

The theory of interjections also arose in antiquity. From emotions.

Social theories considered a person as a member of the team.

Social contract - agreed on the language. Assumes the existence of thinking before the appearance of language.

Labor cries - from collective labor, accompanied by cries.

Similar information.

Language functions and their implementation in speech.

The term "function" in linguistics is used in several meanings:

1) the purpose, the role of language in human society, 2) the purpose of the role of language units.

In the first case, they talk about the functions of the language, in the second - about the functions of language units (phonemes, morphemes, words, sentences).

The functions of a language are a manifestation of its essence. Language researchers do not agree on the number and nature of functions. However, the core basic features make everything stand out. The main functions include communicative and cognitive.

The communicative function is manifested in the appointment of the language to serve as a tool, a means for transmitting information, exchanging thoughts and reporting on experienced emotions. Of course, along with the verbal language (verbal), we also use the means of non-verbal communication (gestures, facial expressions, postures), which complement sound speech, expressing a feeling or prompting to action. However, they cannot express dissected concepts and coherent thoughts.

The cognitive (thought-forming) function is closely related to the first.

The basic functions of the language are manifested in particular: emotive, aesthetic, metalinguistic, appellative, contact-establishing, in the functions of storing and transmitting national identity, traditions, history of the people, and in some others.

The emotive function is manifested in the expression of moods, emotions by choosing words, using a certain type of intonation: He has such a physiognomy!

A metalinguistic function is revealed when there is a need to explain an incomprehensible word or some linguistic fact: A syllable is the minimum pronounceable unit.

The appellative function is observed in cases where the speaker encourages the listeners to do something: Take a pen, please.

The contact-establishing function is the function of creating and maintaining contact between interlocutors. It is usually expressed in words and phrases of speech etiquette: Hello! How are you doing? All the best.

The aesthetic function is manifested in the aesthetic impact of the language of fiction on the reader.

The function of storing and transmitting national experience is found in many linguistic phenomena, and in particular in the meanings of words and in phraseological turns such as caftan, Monomakh's hat is heavy.

In speech, private functions can be combined.

Language as a system. Basic units of the language. Language as a system

Language is a material means of human communication, or, more specifically, a secondary material or sign system that is used as a tool or means of communication. Without language there can be no communication, and without communication there can be no society, and thus no person.

Language is the product of a whole series of epochs during which it is shaped, enriched, polished. Language is associated with the production activity of a person, as well as with any other human activity in all areas of his work.

It should be noted that there are many opinions about the definition of the concept of "language", but all these definitions can be reduced to some general idea. Such common idea is the idea that language is a functional material system of a semiotic, or sign, nature, the functioning of which in the form of speech is its use as a means of communication.

Language as an extremely complex entity can be defined from different points of view, depending on which side or sides of the language are highlighted. Definitions are possible: a) from the point of view of the function of language (or functions of language): language is a means of communication between people and, as such, is a means of forming, expressing and communicating thoughts; b) from the point of view of the device (mechanism) of the language: language is a set of certain units and rules for using these units, that is, a combination of units, these units are reproduced by speakers at the moment; c) from the point of view of the existence of language: language is the result of a social, collective skill of “making” units from sound matter by pairing some sounds with some meaning; d) from a semiotic point of view: language is a system of signs, that is, material objects (sounds) endowed with the property of denoting something that exists outside of them; e) from the point of view of information theory: language is a move by which semantic information is encoded.

The above definitions complement each other and partially intersect and duplicate each other. Since in a single definition it is hardly possible to give enough complete description language, therefore, it is necessary to rely on the maximum general definition, concretizing it as needed by one or another special characteristics that are universal. One of universal characteristics- the systemic nature of the language.

Language as a secondary material system has a structure, understood as its internal organization. The structure of the system is determined by the nature of the relationship of elementary objects, or elements of the system. The structure of a system can be defined differently as a set of intrasystem connections. If the concept of a system refers to some object as a holistic formation and includes the elements of the system and their relationships, then the concept of the structure of this system includes only intra-system relations in abstraction from the objects that make up the system.

Structure is an attribute of some system. The structure cannot exist outside the substance or elements of the system.

The elements of the language structure differ qualitatively, which is determined by the different functions of these elements.

sounds are material signs of language, not just "audible sounds".

The sound signs of a language have two functions: 1) perceptual - to be an object of perception and 2) significative - to have the ability to distinguish between higher, significant elements of the language - morphemes, words, sentences.

Words can name things and phenomena of reality; this is a nominative function.

Offers serve to communicate; it is a communicative function.

Except specified functions, the language can express the speaker's emotional states, will, desire, directed as a call to the listener.

Basic units of the language:

morpheme (part of a word) is the shortest unit of language that has a value. The central morpheme of a word is the root, which contains the main lexical meaning of the word. The root is present in every word and can completely coincide with its stem. Suffix, prefix and ending introduce additional lexical or grammatical meanings.

There are word-forming morphemes (forming words) and grammatical (forming word forms). In the word reddish, for example, there are three morphemes: the root red- has an indicative (color) meaning, as in the words red, blush, redness; suffix -ovat- denotes weak degree manifestations of a sign (as in the words blackish, rough, boring); the ending -ы has a grammatical meaning of the masculine gender, singular, nominative case(as in the words black, rough, boring). None of these morphemes can be divided into smaller meaningful parts.

Morphemes can change over time in their form, in the composition of speech sounds. So, in the words porch, capital, beef, finger, the once distinguished suffixes merged with the root, a simplification took place: derivative stems turned into non-derivative ones. The meaning of the morpheme can also change. Morphemes do not possess syntactic independence.

Word -- the main meaningful, syntactically independent unit of the language, which serves to name objects, processes, properties. The word is the material for the sentence, and the sentence may consist of one word. Unlike a sentence, a word outside the speech context and speech situation does not express a message.

The word combines phonetic features (its sound envelope), morphological features (the set of its morphemes) and semantic features (the set of its meanings). The grammatical meanings of a word materially exist in its grammatical form.

Most of the words are polysemantic: for example, the word table in a particular speech stream can mean a type of furniture, a type of food, a set of dishes, a medical item. The word can have variants: zero and zero, dry and dry, song and song.

Words form certain systems, groups in the language: on the basis of grammatical features, a system of parts of speech; on the basis of word-formation connections - nests of words; on the basis of semantic relations - a system of synonyms, antonyms, thematic groups; according to the historical perspective - archaisms, historicisms, neologisms; by sphere of use - dialectisms, professionalisms, jargon, terms.

Phraseological units, as well as compound terms (boiling point, plug-in construction) and compound names (White Sea, Ivan Vasilievich) are equated to the word according to its function in speech.

Word-combinations are formed from words - syntactic constructions, consisting of two or more significant words, connected by the type of subordination (coordination, control, adjacency).

phrase along with the word is an element in the construction of a simple sentence.

Sentences and phrases form the syntactic level of the language system. A sentence is one of the main categories of syntax. It is opposed to the word and phrase in terms of formal organization, linguistic meaning and functions. The sentence is characterized by an intonational structure - the intonation of the end of the sentence, completeness or incompleteness; intonation of the message, question, motivation. The special emotional coloring that is conveyed by intonation can turn any sentence into an exclamatory one.

Offers are simple and complex.

A simple sentence can be two-part, having a subject group and a predicate group, and one-part, having only a predicate group or only a subject group; can be common and non-common; may be complicated, having in its composition homogeneous members, appeal, introductory, plug-in construction, isolated turnover.

Simple two-part non-proprietary proposal it is divided into a subject and a predicate, extended - into a group of the subject and a group of the predicate; but in speech, oral and written, there is a semantic articulation of the sentence, which in most cases does not coincide with syntactic articulation. The proposal is divided into the original part of the message - "given" and what is affirmed in it, "new" - the core of the message. The core of the message, the statement is highlighted by logical stress, word order, it ends the sentence. For example, in the sentence A hailstorm predicted the day before broke out in the morning, the initial part (“data”) is the hailstorm predicted the day before, and the core of the message (“new”) is in the morning, it falls logical stress.

A complex sentence combines two or more simple ones. Depending on the means by which the parts of a complex sentence are connected, compound, complex and non-union complex sentences are distinguished.

4. The concept of the literary language and the language norm The Russian language in the broadest sense of the word is the totality of all words, grammatical forms, pronunciation features of all Russian people, that is, all those who speak Russian as their native language.

The Russian national language is heterogeneous in its composition. Among the varieties of the Russian language, the Russian literary language clearly stands out. This is the highest form of the national language, determined by a whole system of norms. In linguistics, the rules for the use of words, grammatical forms, pronunciation rules that are in force in a given period of development of the literary language are called the norm. The norms cover all its aspects: written and oral variety, orthoepy, vocabulary, word formation, grammar. For example, in the literary language one cannot use such forms as “you want”, “my last name”, “they ran away”; you have to say: “you want”, “my last name”, “they ran”; you should not pronounce e [g] o, sku [h] but, but you need to pronounce e [v] o, sku [w] but, etc. The norms are described in textbooks, special reference books, as well as in dictionaries (spelling, explanatory, phraseological, synonyms, etc.).

The norm is approved and supported by the speech practice of cultured people, in particular, writers who draw the treasures of speech from the language of the people.

The literary language, written and spoken, is the language of radio and television, newspapers and magazines, government and cultural institutions.

Russian literary language is divided into a number of styles depending on where and for what it is used.

So, in everyday life, when communicating with loved ones, we often use words and sentences that we will not use in official business papers, and vice versa. For example, in a statement, in an explanatory note, the following phrase is quite appropriate: Due to the lack of the required number of vehicles, the unloading of the arrived wagons with building materials was delayed for one day.

When referring to colleagues at work, the same idea is expressed, for example, as follows: Today there were few cars. The unloading of the wagons was delayed for a day.

The speech of a cultured, educated person must be correct, accurate and beautiful. The more correct and accurate the speech, the more accessible it is for understanding; the more beautiful and expressive it is, the stronger it affects the listener or reader. To speak correctly and beautifully, you need to follow the norms of your native language.

5 Dictionaries of the Russian language. A dictionary is a book in which information is organized by breaking down into small articles sorted by title or subject.

With the development of computer technology, electronic dictionaries and online dictionaries are becoming more widespread.

Typology of dictionaries

First in Russian science L. V. Shcherba turned to the problem of the typology of dictionaries. He proposed a classification of dictionaries based on 6 opposites:

Dictionary of the academic type - a reference dictionary. An academic type dictionary is a normative one that describes the lexical system of a given language: it should not contain facts that contradict modern usage. In contrast to academic dictionaries, reference dictionaries can contain information about a wider range of words that go beyond the boundaries of the standard literary language.

Encyclopedic dictionary - general dictionary. Contrasting encyclopedic (describe a thing, reality) and linguistic dictionaries (describe words)

Thesaurus is a common (explanatory or translation) dictionary. Thesauruses are dictionaries that contain all the words that occur at least once in a given language.

The usual (explanatory or translation) dictionary is an ideological (ideographic) dictionary. In an ideological dictionary, words must go in order

Explanatory Dictionary - Translation Dictionary

Historical dictionary - non-historical dictionary

special attention deserves a distinction between linguistic (primarily explanatory) and encyclopedic dictionaries, which, first of all, consists in the fact that concepts are described in encyclopedic dictionaries (depending on the volume and addressee of the dictionary, more or less detailed scientific information is given), in explanatory - linguistic meanings . There are many entries in encyclopedic dictionaries in which proper names are the heading word.

The following dictionaries can be considered the largest dictionaries of the Russian language in terms of the composition of the vocabulary:

Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language (Dal) - approx. 200,000 words.

Consolidated dictionary of modern Russian vocabulary - approx. 170,000 words.

Russian spelling dictionary (Lopatin) - c. 200,000 words.

Derivational Dictionary of the Russian Language (Tikhonov) - approx. 145,000 words.

Dictionary of the modern Russian literary language (large academic dictionary) - approx. 120,000 words.

Big Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language (Kuznetsov) - approx. 130,000 words.

Modern explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, in 3 volumes (Efremov) - approx. 160,000 words.

(currently under testing) Big Russian Dictionary of Synonyms (Trishin) - sv. 500,000 words and approx. 2 million synonymous links.

6. The concept of speech culture, its social aspects Culture of speech - part common culture person. By the way a person speaks or writes, one can judge the level of his spiritual development, his inner culture. A person's mastery of the culture of speech is not only an indicator high level intellectual and spiritual development, but also a kind of indicator of professional suitability for people of various professions: diplomats, lawyers, politicians, school and university teachers, radio and television workers, journalists, managers, etc. In his activities, he is connected with people, organizes and directs their work, teaches, educates, conducts business negotiations, and provides various services to people.

What does the concept of "culture of speech" mean?

The phrase "culture of speech" is used in three main meanings:

1. The culture of speech is a branch of philological science that studies the speech life of society in a certain era and establishes on a scientific basis the rules for using language as the main means of communication between people, an instrument for the formation and expression of thoughts. In other words, the phrase "culture of speech" in this sense is the doctrine of the totality and system of communicative qualities of speech.

2. The culture of speech is some of its signs and properties, the totality and systems of which speak of its communicative perfection.

3. The culture of speech is a set of human skills and knowledge that ensure the expedient and uncomplicated use of language for communication purposes, “proficiency in the norms of oral and written literary language (rules of pronunciation, stress, word usage, grammar, stylistics), as well as the ability to use the expressive means of the language in various conditions of communication in accordance with the goals and content of speech.

The first meaning of the phrase "culture of speech" determines the subject of study of a particular branch of philology. The second and third meanings define the culture of speech as a set and system of its normative communicative qualities, the knowledge and mastery of which is the goal of studying this discipline by students. In this sense, "culture of speech" is identical to the concept of "cultural speech", "good speech".

Researchers distinguish three aspects of speech culture: normative, communicative and ethical. The first and most important aspect is normative. The language norm is the central concept of the culture of speech. The culture of speech, first of all, implies the observance of the norms of the literary language, which are perceived by its native speakers, speaking or writing, as an "ideal", a model. The norm is the main regulator of people's speech behavior. However, this is a necessary but insufficient regulator, because compliance with the requirements of the norm alone is not enough to ensure that oral or written speech turned out to be quite good, that is, it satisfied all the needs of communication. It is possible to cite a large number of the most diverse texts in terms of content, impeccable from the point of view of literary norms but not reaching the goal. This is ensured by the fact that the norm regulates to a greater extent the purely structural, symbolic, linguistic side of speech, without affecting the most important relations of speech to reality, society, consciousness, and people's behavior. Therefore, the second important quality of speech culture is communicative expediency - this is the ability to find an adequate language form in the language system to express specific content in each real situation of speech communication. The choice of language means necessary for this purpose and in this situation is the basis of the communicative aspect of speech.

The third aspect, the ethical aspect of the culture of speech, is closely connected with communicative expediency. Communicative expediency as a criterion of the culture of speech concerns both the form of expression of thought and its content. The ethical aspect of the culture of speech prescribes the knowledge and application of the rules of linguistic behavior in specific situations in such a way as not to humiliate the dignity of the participants in the communication. Ethical norms of communication provide for the observance of speech etiquette. Speech etiquette is a system of means and ways of expressing the attitude of those who communicate with each other. Speech etiquette includes speech formulas of greetings, requests, questions, thanks, congratulations, appeals to “you” and “you”, the choice of a full or abbreviated name, address formulas, etc. The ethical component of speech culture imposes a strict ban on foul language in the process of communication and other forms that offend the dignity of participants in communication or people around them. All of the above allows us to accept the definition of speech culture proposed by E. N. Shiryaev: “Speech culture is such a choice and organization of language means that, in a certain situation of communication, while observing modern language norms and ethics of communication, can provide the greatest effect in achieving the set communicative tasks.”

Characteristic of the culture of speech as an expression of a certain level of social culture is that it always affects the consciousness, behavior and activities of people.
Social aspects of speech culture (age, level of education, gender, profession, social status), along with other aspects of speech culture, are of parity for the communicative improvement of speech, since they have a decisive effect on speech behavior as a selection process the best option to construct a socially correct statement.
First of all, various units of speech etiquette are used depending on the social roles that the participants in communication take on. Here, both social roles in themselves and their relative position in the social hierarchy are important. When communicating between two students; between student and teacher; between superior and subordinate; between spouses; between parents and children - in each separate case etiquette requirements can be very different.
These aspects of speech behavior are also superimposed by differences in the use of units of speech etiquette among representatives of different social groups. These groups can be distinguished according to the following criteria: age, education and upbringing, gender, belonging to specific professional groups.

Sound(phoneme) * - the smallest unit of the language. Has a plan of expression (form), but no plan of content (meaning). So, for example, the sound [and] we can pronounce, hear, but it does not mean anything.
It is customary to assign 2 functions to sounds: the function perception and meaningful(for example, [ball] - [heat]).

* Sound is what we hear and pronounce. This is a unit speeches.
A phoneme is an abstract unit abstracted from a concrete sound. This is a unit language. In Russian, allocate 37 consonant phonemes and 5 vowel phonemes (according to academic grammar).

The Leningrad phonological school distinguishes 35 consonant and 6 vowel phonemes (long and’ ,w’ not considered (for example, in[and'and'] and, dro[and'and']and), a s stands out as an independent phoneme). The Moscow Linguistic School distinguishes 34 consonant phonemes (k’, g’, x’ are considered as allophones of phonemes k, g, x).

Morpheme- a two-dimensional language unit (there is both an expression plane and a content plane, i.e. meaning). The meaning of a morpheme is not fixed in dictionaries like the meanings of words. But, passing from word to word, morphemes retain their meaning and indicate the difference between words in meaning.
For example, morphemes in words arrived and flew away point to:

• approach / removal (using prefixes at- and y-),
• movement through the air (this meaning is concentrated in the root of the word -years-),
• and grammatical suffixes and endings report parts of speech(the suffix -e- indicates the verb), time(-l- - past tense suffix), gender and number(Ø - masculine, singular, and the ending -a indicates feminine, singular).

The functions of a morpheme are determined by the role that it performs in a word:

• so, at the root - the semantic core of the word - real value;
• prefixes, most suffixes and postfixes (-something, -or, -something, -sya, etc.), changing the meaning of a word, perform derivational function;
• at endings, as well as at grammatical suffixes and postfixes (they change the grammatical form of a word: gender, number, case, tense, inclination, etc.) grammatical, inflectional function.

Word(lexeme) - the central unit of the language: sounds and morphemes exist only in the word, and sentences are built from words. The word is a unity of lexical meaning (content plan) and grammatical meaning (expression plan, i.e. form).

The lexical meaning is individual, it is inherent in a particular word, fixed in explanatory dictionary. grammatical meaning abstractly, unites entire classes of words. For example, words house, cat, table have different lexical meanings, but the general grammatical meaning.
Lexical meaning: house - 'place of residence', cat - 'pet', table - 'piece of furniture'.
Grammatical meaning: all words belong to the same part of speech (noun), to the same grammatical gender (masculine) and stand in the same number form (singular).

The main function of the word is nominative(naming). It is the ability of the word to name objects real world, our consciousness, etc.