Meaningful units of language. Basic language units

VP Timofeev LANGUAGE AS A PHENOMENON. LANGUAGE UNITS

Language is not an object, but a phenomenon - multifaceted, multidimensional, multi-qualitative (in the diagram - clockwise):

3. Acoustic 4. Semantic

2. Physiological 5. Logical

6. Aesthetic

1. Mental4^

7. Social

This idea of ​​the language has developed historically, it is the result of its study by individual linguists, schools and trends. In order to understand this single phenomenon of the realization of the human ability to speak, it is conditionally distinguished in language - in our scheme 3.4 facets and speech - 1.2.5-7 facets.

Each of the facets of language (speech) as a single phenomenon has its own discrete units, and each unit is studied by a special linguistic discipline (branch of linguistics).

The mental unit of language is the psycheme, determined by the activity of thinking, will and temperament, as well as the sociology of character. The sciences about this side of the language are psycholinguistics, ethnopsycholinguistics, linguodidactics.

The physiological unit of language (speech) is the kinema. The science devoted to it should be independent and be called kinematics. Now kinema is reflected in terms that characterize the sound of the language at the place of formation, and as such has been the subject of phonetics since ancient times.

The acoustic units of a language are all units from the acusma to the texteme. Thus, the materialized facet of language is the most essential: in it, in its units, all the qualities of the language are fixed. Akusma and sound as units characterized by the method of formation of sound matter (strength of voice, noise, tone, timbre, rhythm, meter, intonation) are studied by phonetics; phoneme - actually the first speech-linguistic unit - is studied by phonology; morpheme - morphemics, morphonology, form and word formation as sections of morphology; lexeme - a word - an object of lexicology, lexicography, morphology; phrase, sentence members, sentence, text theme are studied

syntax. Such an enumeration may seem trivial if considered outside the context of these prolegomena.

The semantic, semantic, ideal is embodied in linguistic units of a special kind: the seme is the subject of the science of semiotics; sememe - for semasiology, onomasiology, lexicology, lexicography; the gramme, which manifests itself in two varieties, the mothologeme - in the morphology, the syntaxeme - in the syntax; expresseme - its meanings are more often considered in stylistics.

The logical unit should be called a logem, concretized in the subject of speech - the essence of the subject; in the general predicate - the essence of the predicate; in secondary predicates - the essence of the secondary members of the sentence - definitions, additions, circumstances; and in judgment, the essence of the constructions of affirmation, negation, question, and exclamation. The science of logem must be logolinguistics.

Aesthetic units are style and poetem, and in it are paths and figures. Their sciences, respectively, are stylistics and linguistic poetics. At the junction of facets - idiolectology, the language of the writer, the language of works of art.

The social unit is the sociem. It reflects the linguistic and speech characteristics of an individual, nation, class, gender, age, profession and relations of speakers in society. The sciences about this are sociolinguistics, stylistics, rhetoric, and etiquette.

Linguistic facets, individually and collectively, together with language-speech units, constitute the structure of the language. In connection with the conditional division of a single language into language and speech, they also speak conditionally about units of language and units of speech, but it must be borne in mind that all units of speech are constructed on the material variety of linguistic units and on their meanings (3.4 edges). This essence of linguistic-speech activity has not yet been satisfactorily studied by linguistics, and, for example, poetics is still in literary criticism and is not even divided into literary-artistic and linguistic.

All facets of language-speech and language-speech units are in relationships and dependencies, but the psychic and social facets are decisive: a person owes them his exclusive destiny in the living world - to become a Human. All other facets of language-speech are specifically social and controlled by consciousness - the highest form of the psyche. All connections and relationships of language-speech facets and units in their totality determine the nature of the language-speech system.

Language has three essential features - form, content and function, without each of which it cannot be realized. The same features, of course, are inherent in all its constituent units, and in each of them the form,

content and functions will be independent. In the history of linguistics, the most prominent linguistic units, influenced by sensations and spelling, were material, perceptual data. language units from kinema and akusma to textemes, and even those were not opened all at once, but one after another and little by little. Before listing them, it must be borne in mind that they, linguistic units, are specifically human in everything - both in articulation, and in sound quality, and in construction, and in function (role, purpose); and they cannot be equated with another sounding but non-speech nature, therefore the originality of their qualities is exceptional.

Kinema (the term of I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay from the Greek ksheta - movement) is an article as a single action of one speech organ for the production of akusma - a share of sound (Greek akivikov - auditory, also a term of Baudouin de Courtenay). When we indicate the place of sound formation in phonetic analysis, this is the fixation of the kinema: p - labial-labial sound, f - labial-tooth, l - anterior-lingual - dental, lateral; k - posterior-lingual, root ... Kinemas have not yet been fully studied: their names so far only take into account the articulatory organs, although the entire speech apparatus from the abdominal obstruction to the brain is involved in production. The laryngeal kinema is rarely taken into account as a sign of voiced consonants and all vowels.

Akusma is the sound effect of a kinema as an oscillating tone in space. When we name the method of sound formation during phonetic analysis, this is an indication of akusma: n - deaf, hard, short; f - voiceless, fricative, hard, short; l - voiced, smooth, hard, short; k - deaf, explosive, hard, short.

Sound is a cinematographic-acoustic unit, to which acoustic distinguishers are added - voice, strength, pitch, tone, timbre, as well as speech features vowels - stress, lack of stress; and then the combination of sounds into syllables with their qualities of openness-closedness, rhythm and meter - the effects of the way they follow in speech. The sound of a language, although it has speech features, is not conventionally recognized as a linguistic unit because, supposedly, it is not a semantic distinguisher or a semantic expresser.

But the phoneme (Greek riopesh - sound, also a term by I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay) - it distinguishes significant units of the language, morphemes and words: som - tom - com - house - scrap ... Such a terminological transformation of sound is so strong in modern linguistic theory, it is impossible to somehow achieve unanimity on this issue today. When characterizing a phoneme as a linguistic unit, we will call its form the positional sound, how it differentiates the meaning (without expressing it!), and this is one of its functions, the other lies in the constructive role: phonemes independently

are not used, but, combined with each other on the basis of differential positions, they create a larger linguistic unit - a morpheme. The arena for the functioning of the phoneme is thus the morpheme, and it is within these limits that morphonology chooses its subject of study. This is the phonemic level, or tier of the language.

Morpheme (Greek shogye - form, also a term of Baudouin de Courtenay) is the first language unit in which essential features and units, and language: form, content, functions. The form of a phonemorpheme is, firstly, a phoneme-on, that is, a morpheme consists of a phoneme or of phonemes: house-a. The form of the morpheme is also considered its position: the root is in the center of the morphemic association; before the root - a prefix (prefix); behind the root - a suffix or ending (inflection); infix - internal morpheme; postfix - an external morpheme with its own qualities. The content of a morpheme consists of three types of meanings: lexical, grammatical, expressive-emotional. Lexical - subject, material content of the morpheme: garden#. The grammatical meaning is an abstract meaning, it accompanies the lexical meaning of another morpheme: sad-s, where Ы expresses the meaning of plurality, nominativity. Morphemes expressing lexical meaning, turn out to be derivational: pilot-chik; morphemes expressing grammatical meaning turn out to be form-building, although they can also form new words: new, where inflection turns out to be word-building. The difference between lexical and grammatical meanings is easy to notice, for example, when declining a noun, where the word will retain a single lexical meaning, for example, spring is the season, and will vary without touching the lexical content: spring - spring; spring, springs, to spring, spring, spring, about spring ... The so-called expressive-emotional, subjective meanings of diminutiveness / magnification, petting / humiliation, neglect can also be expressed in suffixes: voice, neck, sock, cockerel. Morphemes express meanings without naming objects and their relationships. The function of morphemes, the first, as in all subsequent language units, is semantic-expressive - it is necessary to express lexical, grammatical or expressive-emotional meanings. The second function of morphemes is constructive, that is, the creation of a larger language unit - the word. Morphemes are not used independently, but only in combination with each other, in a homogeneous series, based on the harmony of their content and constancy of positions, creating a morphemic level, or tier.

The word is the central linguistic unit: it implements all the laws of existence of its smaller linguistic units - phonemes and morphemes, it predetermines the essence

all subsequent larger language units - phrases, sentence members, sentences and texts. Among hundreds of definitions of a word, there is one reasonable one: it is a segment of text between two spaces in a letter... interjections. All of them will be characterized differently from the point of view of the essence of linguistic units, and in common system their signs will have unequal exceptions. I will talk about words-names.

In terms of form, all words have phonemic and morphemic forms; the latter also applies to service words and interjections. But words-names, that is, parts of speech, in addition, have correlative forms with each other, characteristic of narrow or wide grammatical categories: the category of case, where the system of forms is called declension; a category of a person, where the system of forms is called conjugation, and then - non-broad forms of gender, number, degrees, type, tense, mood, voice, differently presented in parts of speech. Correlative systems of forms are called a paradigm - this is the original form of words as linguistic units. Functional words, in addition to phonemic immutability, themselves participate in the creation of forms: prepositions - in the creation of forms of names in the case paradigm; particles are like auxiliary affixes: something - a prefix, -or, -something - suffixes, the same is characteristic of the particle -sya; conjunctions form coordinating phrases and coordinating / subordinating sentences; articles are additional indicators of gender, number, and certainty/uncertainty; ligaments - a term form of compound nominal and complex predicates. Introductory-modal constructions are a complicating sentence structure. Interjections are always predicative - this is their positional form. Adverbs are inflectionally invariable, this is their form, like the zero form of nouns m.r. with a solid base. Their secondary position as members of a sentence - circumstances distinguishes them, as a form, from the same non-inflectional class of words as instatives (words of the state category).

The form of the word also includes formative prefixes and suffixes, heterogeneous formations (I - me, we - us), repetition of roots (reduplication), stress, word order.

The content of the word as a linguistic unit is just as diverse and differentiated. First, the meaning is distinguished by four structural-semantic classes: parts of speech each have their own nominative meanings, called general grammatical ones: nouns name objects; adjectives - passive signs; numerals - a sign of a number; pronouns - indicative; verbs - an active, effective sign; adverbs - a sign of a sign;

instatives - state; in service words - prepositions, derivational and formative particles (something, -either, -something, -sya, -by); articles, copulas express grammatical-morphological meanings; unions - grammatical-syntactic meanings (see the meanings of phrases and sentences); introductory-modal constructions - modal-volitional meanings; interjections - sensual-emotional. Each of these values ​​is divided into several particular varieties. In nouns, the named objects can have the property own name and common noun, material and abstract, animate and inanimate; in adjectives there are signs of qualitative, relative, possessive; they can also be represented in the degree of positive, comparative, excellent, etc.; in numerals there are quantitative, ordinal, fractional values ​​...; in pronouns there are as many particular meanings as are fixed in digits; in the verb - varieties of actions, movements and states; in adverbs and instatives, the meanings in grammar books are listed by category, where there will be the meanings of the circumstances and the predicate (lexico-syntactic meanings).

In functional words, their morphological and syntactic meanings will also vary in paradigms. There are categories of particular meanings for modal words and interjections (see grammar books). Now it should be said that the words-names have their own meaning, not equal to the sum of the meanings of their morphemes: for example, in the word pod-snow-nik, not a single morpheme even hints at a flower from the amaryllis family ... This is its own, lexical the meaning of the word as a linguistic unit. The word has more than one lexical meaning, even many terms. In these meanings there is the first and all the others, they are the second, portable. Lexical meanings can simply distinguish words, they can bring them together (these are synonyms) or oppose them on the axis of common meaning (antonyms). As you can see, the word expresses many types of meanings and their varieties, it is this set that is called polysemy.

The function of a word is again determined by two tasks: to express all the meanings it has, and for significant words - the expression of a lexical meaning is called its nominative function; and then - to construct a larger language unit - a phrase. Words are not used separately from each other, they necessarily need to be combined in one row on the basis of the harmony of their meaning and the interaction of their forms (that is, on the basis of a predetermined valence). Such a combination of words is realized in a phrase.

A phrase is a syntactic unit and it could be called a syntagme as something connected (Greek sintagma), although such a name also suggests the combination of phonemes, morphemes ... F.F. Fortunatov’s division of words into those that have a form and those that do not have it convinced M.N .Peterson that the combination of words on this basis, that is, the phrase is the only subject of syntax. Then there will be more members of the sentence, the sentence and the texteme ... The accusation of F.F. Fortunatov and his student M.M. Peterson in formalism closed the theory of the word combination. Only since 1950, after the articles by V.P. Sukhotin and V.V. Vinogradov in the collection "Questions of the Syntax of the Modern Russian Language" (Moscow: Uchpedgiz, 1950), and then after the first Soviet Academic Grammar (1952), the theory of the phrase unfolded throughout latitude, and some scientists, unable to tear themselves away from the word, tilted phrases towards nominative units (V.P. Sukhotin and others), and V.V. Vinogradov, assuming a sentence, found it possible to talk about predicative phrases, although it is clear that predicativity is a term of the level of members of a sentence and a sentence, that is, it refers to other language units as a definition ... And so far there is no unity of opinion in determining the features of a phrase, and each scientist's own understanding seems to be true. I liked the definition of the phrase, given sometime in the 50s at a lecture by prof. S.E. Kryuchkov, my supervisor: "A phrase is a combination of two or more significant words, grammatically organized according to the laws of a given language, single in meaning and dissectedly denoting objects, phenomena, their signs and relationships in objective reality." It follows from this definition that the combination of a functional word with a significant one is not a phrase and that in a phrase the plural meaning of a word is narrowed to a specific given meaning, that is, in a phrase words are always used in the same meaning, and ambiguity in the same case is either aphasia or a means of humor . Phraseologists of the Chelyabinsk school consider a word form with or without a preposition to be phraseologically idiomatic, which is possible, but this is a property of another process in the language - lexicalization ...

So, the form of a phrase as a linguistic unit is primarily a word-form realization of the connection of significant words - composition and subordination, which is why phrases are called coordinating and subordinating. In coordinating phrases, the first formal feature is the correlative, correlative forms of the combined words: thunder and lightning, where the words are correlated by the forms singular and nominative case. In such phrases, as their formal sign, as their form, service words appear - unions that separate compositions.

noun phrases into the following formal varieties: connecting without a union or with the union And: both a sling and an arrow; adversative, with the union BUT or A, YES in the meaning of BUT; separating with unions OR-OR; comparative with unions HOW MANY-SO MANY, AS-SO AND. In subordinating phrases, syntactic links of agreement, complete and incomplete, are the form; management, direct or indirect; adjunction of a word with a zero form.

The content of phrases is precisely the meaning that is reflected by tradition in their names-terms: composition, subordination, and in composition - connection, opposition, separation, comparison; in submission - coordination, control, adjunction - this is the elusive syntactic meaning of phrases introduced into them by unions and the relationship of word forms. In general, the meaning of phrases is concretizing, which in a word is a generalizing meaning.

The function of phrases is to express their own meaning as special language units and only together with this - the meanings of the smaller language units included in them, and then and at the same time to be embodied component by component into larger language units - members of the sentence. Unfortunately, no one looks at the members of a sentence from the standpoint of form, content, and their function as independent linguistic units, although, when discussing them, they list all their essential features. What are they?

Each member of the sentence has either unified in use, that is, central forms, or possible, not so predominant, but also real: for example, Im.p. nouns and personal pronouns - the subject form, although it can be a nominal part of a compound predicate or an application; the conjugated verb is only the predicate, the same is the comparative degree; the same - instatives, being always predicates; and the same adverbs, being almost always circumstances. The form of the subject is a special form in the language: substantiating, expressing the subject of the action or known, any element can become the subject language system, any dash of a letter, any handwriting and, finally, any object or phenomenon named in a speech by a predicate word can become a subject-subject: "Night. Street. Lantern. Pharmacy ..." In nominative sentences of all types, not the subject, which the subject is named, but nothing is said about it, but - the predicate-predicate! .. The form of the predicate is also specific: simple verb, compound verb, compound nominal, complex polynomial. The secondary members of the sentence are secondary predicates, which also have predominant forms of parts of speech, but, most importantly, their own forms: definition - agreed, inconsistent; addition - direct, indirect; circumstance in

dependent in meaning or form of a prepositional case or invariable structure. The form of the members of the proposal should also be called their positions, which are known from the phrase "direct and reverse order words", which is formulated incorrectly, because the order in the sentence does not concern the words-lexemes, but the words-members of the sentence. When the members of the sentence are updated, their form becomes a logical stress.

The content of the sentence members is determined by their logical nature: for the subjects, the meaning is the subject; for predicates - the meaning of the predicate, although the content of the main members is also reflected in their terms: the subject - is subject to disclosure, the predicate - speaks about it, this is known and unknown, which is the goal, the basis of any speech; definitions have an indirect predicate in the form of a definition; for additions - an indirect predicate in the form of a complementary value; circumstances have an indirect predicate indicating the circumstances in which the sign appears: where, when, how, to what extent, to what extent, for what ... When V.V. Vinogradov spoke about predicative, semi-predicative and non-predicative phrases, and others began to talk, after this, about attributive, additional and adverbial phrases, this was a fact of mixing the level of phrases and sentence members: the components of phrases do not have such relations, these are the properties of sentence members ... The content of sentence members should be called conceptual and predicative , this is determined by the nature of their purpose.

The function of the members of the sentence is to express their informational meaning and the content of all the smaller constituent units included in them, and at the same time, to unite, on the basis of the harmony of meaning and intended positions, into a larger language unit - the sentence.

The form of the sentence is, first of all, the presence of the composition of the members of the sentence: if there is one predicate (there is no one subject in a normal sentence), the sentence is one-part, and there are eight of them according to the degree of decreasing the meaning of the person and the form of the predicate: definitely personal, generalized personal , indefinitely personal, impersonal, infinitive, nominative, nominative, vocative; if there are two main members - subject and predicate, this is a two-part sentence; depending on the presence or absence of secondary members of the proposal, the form of the proposal will be widespread or non-common; if the sentence consists of one predicative pair, it is simple; if of two, it is complex; from the presence in the form of a proposal of alliances, it can be allied or non-union; the intonation of a sentence serves as a form of expression of the actual role of one or another member of the sentence or the will and emotion of the speaker. AT

the written form of speech the form of the sentence will be set off by punctuation marks.

The content of the sentence as a linguistic unit is predicativity, which is specified in the affirmation or denial of the connection between the main members of the sentence; the relevance of one or another member of the proposal; modality as an expression of the speaker's will, relation to what was said; and, finally, emotionality, without which there can be no proposal. The content of the sentence is expressive-communicative, because it serves the function of the sentence - to express a thought and establish a connection between the speaker and the interlocutor. The semantic core of a sentence is the judgment embodied in it. The function of the sentence to express a thought and communicate it to another was considered the last for a long time, the last among the language units was the sentence. That is, if there is another thought, still say a sentence. Etc. And if so, then the speaker seemed to no longer need units of some higher level than the sentence, and he does not create them. It turns out that the proposal can not be lonely in speech! A second, reciprocal sentence is necessarily necessary - such is the law of the existence of speech, that is, language. Speech is possible in the presence of an interlocutor and his response speech reaction. Such an understanding of the conditions for the existence of sentences naturally prompted researchers to search for and approve a larger linguistic unit - the text.

The texteme, therefore, is the constructive unit of the language that sentences create, being used in the same row with each other on the basis of the need to express the actual adequate content, the interaction of the formal composition, united by a single intonation of the message, description or reasoning.

The volumetric form of textemes is indicated in the school textbook of syntax, being taken out of the Russian language course, because the authors are perplexed that these are textemes: direct and indirect speech, dialogue, monologue... Before that, inside the syntax, as a kind of sentence structure, the so-called incomplete sentence is considered, which is, in fact, a part, the second sentence of the text. In prose, a paragraph is, of course, part of a text; in oral speech- a long pause, a silence, with which the speaker considers it necessary to divide his speech. In the drama, the form of the texteme looks like a stage and is fixed by the author's remarks. In verse, textemes fit into a stanza, in a combination of stanzas, and in a small genre - throughout the entire poem. The form of the verse system is both meter, and rhyme, and sound writing, the structure of tropes and figures. In oral speech, it is limited to that moment of dialogue, after which the speakers can disperse or both become silent. All these are technical forms of the texteme; they are due to the genres of oral and writing; By the way, oral/written is also a form of a texteme... But a texteme also has purely linguistic

formal features: the same tense form of verbs-predicates or simply predicates in sentences included in the texteme ( different time at the same time, it can be used as an artistic means of depiction: a quick change of events, etc.); the presence of anaphoric pronouns and words in the following sentence; the presence of synonyms and antonyms placed in different sentences of the text; words that have something in common with some meaning in the sentences that make up the texteme; intonation of the message, description or reasoning; the intonation of the dialogue or monologue completes the form of the texteme.

The content of the texteme as a linguistic unit first corresponds to the quality of the form: message, description, reasoning, and in general is defined as informative and thematic. It is especially brightly emphasized by the words of one lexical-thematic group. The content of the texteme should include only its inherent semantics - pathos: triumph, pathos, despondency, humility, humor, irony, sarcasm, etc. Here is the text - the inscription on the monument of times civil war, placed on the Revolution Square in Shadrinsk: "Here lie the selfless fighters for communism, the victims of the Kolchak gangs. The cause of Lenin will not die! On the bones of the best and brave, millions of calloused hands are building the world Commune." In 1978, I heard in a broadcast from Seoul my Komsomol youth song "When the soul sings ..." performed by a choir of nuns; they sang humbly, sadly, subtly, pleadingly, submissively, conscientiously: "When the soul sings And the heart asks to fly, On a distant road, the high sky Calls us to the stars ... Keep the fire of your soul in your heart, Let them shine, If cloudy days will suddenly meet ... "The pathos of cheerfulness and enthusiasm is replaced by the pathos of angelic complacency ...

The function of a texteme is to create a text in the genres of oral and written speech with all its expressive essence.

As you can see, all language units, of course, correspond to the main features of the language - they have form, content and function. These features are manifested in the interaction of linguistic units in a homogeneous series, which is called a level or tier: phonemic level, morphemic, lexical, etc. This is a horizontal indicator of the language system. But there is also a vertical system, when language units of different levels-tiers interact: phonemes with morphemes, morphemes with words, words with subsequent language units, entering into each other, like a nesting doll in a nesting doll. The theory of all national languages ​​is devoted to the interaction of linguistic units horizontally and vertically. Each language has its own structure as a set of facets and linguistic units in their systemic connections and relationships.

The stated understanding of language as a phenomenon and the totality of its constituent units that are in structural and systemic relationships, of course, is not equal to language, but it helps research orientation and educational practice.

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, fragmented, there is no minor members, 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 units are elements of the language system that have different functions and meanings. To the main language units include speech sounds, morphemes (parts of a word), words, sentences.

Language units form the corresponding levels of the language system: speech sounds - the phonetic level, morphemes - the morphemic level, words and phraseological units - the lexical level, phrases and sentences - the syntactic level.

Each of the language levels is also complex system or subsystem, and their combination forms the general system of the language.

Language is a naturally occurring human society and a developing system of sign units clothed in a sound form, capable of expressing the totality of human concepts and thoughts and intended primarily for the purposes of communication. Language is at the same time a condition of development and a product human culture. (N.D. Arutyunova.)

The lowest level of the language system is phonetic, it consists of the simplest units - speech sounds; units of the next, morphemic level - morphemes - consist of units of the previous level - speech sounds; units of the lexical (lexico-semantic) level - words - consist of morphemes; and the units of the next, syntactic level - syntactic constructions are made up of words.

Units of different levels differ not only in their place in the general system of the language, but also in their purpose (function, role), as well as in their structure. Thus, the shortest unit of language - the sound of speech - serves to identify and distinguish between morphemes and words. The sound of speech itself does not matter, it is connected with semantic distinction only indirectly: combining with other sounds of speech and forming morphemes, it contributes to the perception, discrimination of morphemes and the words formed with their help.

A syllable is also a sound unit - a segment of speech in which one sound is distinguished by the greatest sonority in comparison with neighboring ones. But syllables do not correspond to morphemes or any other meaningful units; in addition, the identification of the boundaries of the syllable does not have sufficient grounds, so some scholars do not include it among the basic units of the language.

A morpheme (part of a word) is the shortest unit of a language that has a meaning. 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 edge- 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 - й has a grammatical meaning of the masculine gender, singular, nominative case (as in the words black, rude, 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.

The word is 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-building 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 Vasilyevich) 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 according to the type of subordinating connection (coordination, control, adjacency).

The 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 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 is divided into subject and predicate, common - into the subject group and the predicate group; 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, logical stress falls on it.

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.

So, you already know that a language is a system, and any system consists of separate elements interconnected. What elements does the language consist of and what is the relationship between them?

These elements are called "language units". In most languages ​​of the world, such units of language are distinguished as phoneme, morpheme, word, phrase, sentence, text.

So, we see that the smallest units of the language add up to larger ones, but the units of the language differ from each other not only in size. The main difference between linguistic units is not quantitative (some are larger, others are smaller), but qualitative (difference in their function, purpose). True, size also has some significance: each higher language unit can include subordinate ones, but not vice versa (that is, a phoneme is included in a morpheme, a morpheme in a word, a word in a phrase and sentence).

The units of the language in their structure can be simple and complex. Simple ones are absolutely indivisible (phoneme, morpheme), complex ones (phrase, sentence) always consist of simpler ones.

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

The set of basic units of the language forms certain levels of the language system. Traditionally, the following main levels of language are distinguished: phonemic, morphemic, lexical, syntactic.

The structure of each level, the relationship of language units in it are the subject of study of various sections of the science of language:

ü phonetics studies the sounds of speech, the laws of their formation, properties, rules of functioning;

ü morphology - word formation, inflection and categories of words (parts of speech);

ü lexicology - the vocabulary of the language;

ü Syntax studies phrases and sentences.

The simplest unit of language is phoneme- an indivisible and in itself insignificant sound unit of the language, which serves to distinguish between minimal meaningful units (morphemes and words). For example, words sweat - bot - mot - cat differ in sounds [p], [b], [m], [k], which are different phonemes.

Minimum significant unit – morpheme(root, suffix, prefix, ending). Morphemes already have some meaning, but they cannot be used on their own. For example, in the word Muscovite four morphemes: Moscow-, -ich-, -k-, -a. Morpheme moscow-(root) contains, as it were, an indication of the area; -ich- ( suffix) denotes a male person - a resident of Moscow; -to- (suffix) denotes a female person - a resident of Moscow; -a(ending) indicates that the given word is a feminine singular noun in the nominative case.

Has relative independence word- the next in terms of complexity and the most important unit of the language, which serves to name objects, processes, features or point to them. Words differ from morphemes in that they not only have some meaning, but are already capable of naming something, i.e. a word is the minimum nominative (naming) unit of a language. Structurally, it consists of morphemes and is construction material for phrases and sentences.

phrase- a combination of two or more words, between which there is a semantic and grammatical connection. It consists of the main and dependent words: new book, put play, everyone of us (key words in italics).

The most complex and independent unit of language, with which you can not only name some object, but also tell something about it, is offer- the main syntactic unit that contains a message about something, a question or a prompt. The most important formal feature of a sentence is its semantic design and completeness. Unlike a word, which is a nominative (nominative) unit, a sentence is a communicative unit.

Language units are interconnected by paradigmatic, syntagmatic (compatibility) and hierarchical relations.

Paradigmatic called the relationship between units of the same level, by virtue of which these units differ and group. Units of the language, being in paradigmatic relations, are mutually opposed (for example, the phonemes "t" and "d" are distinguished as voiceless and voiceless; the forms of the verb I write - I wrote - I will write are distinguished as having the meanings of the present, past and future tense), interconnected, i.e. combined into certain groups according to similar features (for example, the phonemes “t” and “d” are combined into a pair due to the fact that both of them are consonants, front-lingual, explosive, solid; these three forms of the verb are combined into one category - the category of time, so as they all have a temporary value), and thus interdependent.

Syntagmatic(Compatibility) refers to the relationship between units of the same level in the speech chain, by virtue of which these units are associated with each other - the relationship between phonemes when they are connected into syllables, between morphemes when they are connected into words, between words when they are connected into phrases. However, at the same time, units of each level are built from units of a lower level: morphemes are built from phonemes and function as part of words (i.e., they serve to build words), words are built from morphemes and function as part of sentences.

Relationships between units of different levels are recognized hierarchical.

[?] Questions and tasks

When determining the basic units of the language, most leading experts in the field of psycholinguistics rely on the theoretical concept of “analysis of the whole by units”, developed by L.S. Vygotsky (42, 45). Under the unit of this or that system L.S. Vygotsky understood “such a product of analysis that has all the basic properties inherent in the whole, and which is further indecomposable living parts of this unity” (45, p. 15).

To the main language units, distinguished in linguistics and psycholinguistics include: phoneme, morpheme, word, sentence and text.

Phoneme - is the sound of speech, speaking in his meaningful function that allows you to distinguish one word (as a stable sound complex and, accordingly, material carrier of meaning) from other words. meaningful (phonemic) the function of speech sounds manifests itself only when the sound is in the composition of the word, and only in a certain, so-called. "strong" (or "phonemic") position. For all vowels, this is the position in the stressed syllable; for individual vowels (vowels a, y) - also in the first pre-stressed syllable. For consonants, a common "strong position" is the position before a vowel in direct syllables; position in front of the same type of consonant (voiced before voiced, soft - before soft, etc.); for sonors and unvoiced sounds, another "phonemic" position is word-final position.

The semantic-distinctive function of phonemes is most clearly manifested in monosyllabic words-paronyms that differ in one sound (phoneme), for example: onion - bough - juice - sleep etc. However, in all cases, phonemes (no matter how many there are in a word and in whatever combinations they appear) always perform their main function in the composition of a word. It consists in the following: the correct pronunciation of phoneme sounds in the external phase of the implementation of speech activity ensures the possibility of its full perception by the listener and, accordingly, an adequate transmission of mental content. At the same time, the phoneme itself is neither a semantic nor a sense-forming unit. Once again, I would like to draw the attention of speech therapists-practitioners to the fact that the main task of working on the formation of correct sound pronunciation is the development of skills correct production of phonemes mother tongue within a word. Correct pronunciation phoneme is condition for the full implementation of the communicative function of speech.

Morpheme is a combination of sounds (phonemes), which has a certain, so-called. "grammatical" meaning. This "meaning" of the morpheme also appears only in the composition of the word, and it received such a name because it is inextricably linked with the basic grammatical functions of morphemes. In linguistics, morphemes are classified in different ways. So, according to the place in the “linear structure of the word”, prefixes(prefixes) and postfixes(as morphemes preceding and following root morpheme); from the number of postfixes stand out suffixes and inflections (endings); the root morpheme itself was named after its sense-forming (in this case, “lexical-forming”) function. The morphemes that form the basis of a word are called affixes;"grammatical opposition" to them is inflections.

Morphemes perform a number of important functions in the language (when used in speech activity):

With the help of morphemes, inflection processes are carried out in the language (changes in words according to grammatical forms). Basically, this function is performed by inflections, and also, in some cases, by suffixes and prefixes;

With the help of morphemes, the processes of word formation take place in the language. The morphemic way of word formation (suffixal, suffixal-prefixal, etc.) is in developed languages the world as the main way of forming new words, since the homonymous way of word formation has a rather limited scope of use in the language system;

With the help of morphemes, word connections in phrases are formed (the grammatical function of inflections, as well as suffixes);

Finally, a certain combination of morphemes creates the main lexical meaning of the word, which is, as it were, a “summation” of the grammatical meaning of the morphemes included in the given word.

Based on these most important linguistic functions of morphemes, as well as the fact that, in terms of their diversity and quantitative composition, morphemes form a fairly extensive layer of the language, we can draw the following methodological conclusion in relation to the theory and methodology of corrective "speech" work: full acquisition of the language by students impossible without mastering its morphological structure. It is no coincidence that in the best methodological systems of domestic specialists in the field of preschool and school speech therapy, such great attention is paid to the formation of students' language knowledge, ideas and generalizations related to the assimilation of the system of morphemes of the native language, as well as the formation of appropriate language operations with these units of language (T.B. Filicheva and G. V. Chirkina, 1990, 1998; R. I. Lalaeva and N. V. Serebryakova, 2002, 2003; L. F. Spirova, 1980; S. N. Shakhovskaya, 1971; G. V. Babina , 2005 and others).

The basic and universal unit of language is word. This language unit can be defined both as a stable sound complex with meaning, and as a “fixed”, “closed” combination of morphemes. The word as a unit of language appears in several of its qualities or manifestations. The main ones are the following.

A word as a language unit is a lexical unit (lexeme) that has a certain number of meanings. This can be represented as a "mathematical" expression:

Lex. units = 1 + n (values), for example, for the Russian language, this numerical formula looks like 1 + n (2–3).

The word includes at least two components: on the one hand, it denotes an object, replacing it, highlighting essential features in it, and on the other hand, it analyzes the object, introduces it into the system of connections, into the appropriate category of objects based on the generalization of its content. This structure of the word suggests the complexity of the process nominations(item name). This requires two basic conditions: 1) the presence of a clear differentiated image of the object, 2) the presence of a lexical meaning in the word.

The word as a unit of language acts as grammatical unit. This is manifested in the fact that each lexeme word belongs to a certain grammatical category of words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, numerals, etc.). Referring to a particular grammatical class, a word has a set of certain grammatical features (or, as it is customary to define in linguistics, - categories). For example, for nouns, these are the categories of gender, number, case (declension), for verbs, the categories of aspect and tense, etc. These categories correspond to various grammatical forms of words (word forms). The word forms “formed” by morphemes provide the widest possibilities for different word combinations in the construction of speech utterances, they are also used to convey in speech (RD) various semantic (attributive, spatial, qualitative, etc.) connections and relations.

Finally, the word as a linguistic unit acts as a "building" element of syntax, since syntactic units (phrase, sentence, text) are formed from words, based on one or another variant of their combined use. The "syntactically forming" function of the word is manifested in the corresponding function of the word in the "context" of the sentence, when it acts in the function subject, predicate, object or circumstances.

The indicated functions of the word as the main and universal unit languages ​​should be subject analysis for students remedial classes, and in the classes of a general developmental type.

Offer represents a combination of words that conveys (expresses) a thought in a finished form. hallmarks suggestions are semantic and intonational completeness, as well as structure(presence of grammatical structure). In linguistics offer refers to the number of "strictly normative" linguistic units: any deviations from the linguistic norms of constructing a sentence, associated with non-compliance with its basic properties indicated above, are considered from the point of view of "practical grammar" as an error or (using the terminology of speech therapy) as "agrammatism" (140, 271 and others). This is especially true for the written form of the implementation of speech activity, although agrammatism (especially “structural” or “syntactic”) is a negative phenomenon for oral speech.

Offer just like the word, it is defined in psycholinguistics as the basic and universal unit of language (133, 150, 236, etc.). If the word is a universal means of displaying in the mind of a person the objects of the surrounding reality, their properties and qualities, then the sentence acts as the main means of displaying the subject of speech and thought activity - thought, and at the same time as the main (along with the text) means of communication.

The unit of realization of speech activity (in the psychology of speech - the unit of speech) is a speech statement. In a typical (linguistic) in the implementation of the RD, the speech statement is “embodied” in the form of a sentence. Proceeding from this, it is completely legitimate and methodologically justified from the psycholinguistic positions to single out educational work “on the word” and “on the sentence” into separate, independent sections of “speech work”.

Text defined in linguistics as macrounit of language. The text is a combination of several sentences in a relatively expanded form revealing a particular topic1. Unlike a sentence, the subject of speech (a fragment of the surrounding reality) is displayed in the text not from any one of its sides, not on the basis of any one of its properties or qualities, but “globally”, taking into account its main distinctive features. If the subject of speech is any phenomenon or event, then in a typical version it is displayed in the text, taking into account the main causal (as well as temporal, spatial) connections and relationships (9, 69, 81, etc.).

hallmarks text as the units of the language are: thematic unity, semantic and structural unity, compositional construction and grammatical connection. The text (as a linguistic "form of expression" of a detailed statement) features the latter: observance of the semantic and grammatical connection between fragments of a speech message (paragraphs and semantic-syntactic units), the logical sequence of displaying the main properties of the subject of speech, the logical-semantic organization of the message. Various means play an important role in the syntactic organization of a detailed speech utterance. interphrase communication(lexical and synonymic repetition, pronouns, adverbial words, etc.).

Thus, text(in the "semantic plan") is a detailed speech message transmitted by means of the language. With its help, the subject of speech (phenomenon, event) is displayed in speech activity in the most complete and complete form. In global speech communication in human society, the text as macrounit language plays a decisive role; it is he who serves as the main means of "fixing" information (regardless of its volume and even on the conditions of speech communication) and the transfer of information from one subject of RD to another. In view of the foregoing, it is quite reasonable to define text as well as the basic and universal unit of language.

According to another linguistic classification, language units includes all language structures that have value: morphemes, words, phrases, sentences (phrases), texts as detailed connected statements.

Structures that have no meaning, but only importance(i.e., a certain role in establishing the structure of language units: sounds (phonemes), letters (graphemes), expressive movements (kinemas) in kinetic speech are defined as language elements(166, 197 and others).

The main units of the language form in its general system the corresponding subsystems or levels, which form the so-called level or "vertical" structure of the language system (23, 58, 197, etc.). It is shown in the diagram below.

The above diagram of the level ("vertical") structure of the language reflects its "hierarchical" structural organization, as well as the sequence, stages of "speech work" in the formation of language representations and generalizations in a child, a teenager. (It should be noted that this sequence does not have a strictly “linear” character; in particular, the assimilation of a language system does not imply an option in which the assimilation of each subsequent (“superior”) subsystem of the language occurs only after the previous one has been fully assimilated) . The assimilation of different components of the language can take place simultaneously during certain periods of "speech ontogenesis", the formation of "superior" structures of the language can begin even before the "basic" structures are fully formed, etc. At the same time, the general "order" of the formation of the main subsystems language, of course, is maintained in the ontogenesis of speech, and the same general sequence in the work on various components (subsystems) of the language must be observed in the structure of "speech work" on the assimilation of the language system. This is due to the “structural“ hierarchy ”of language units, the fact that each unit is more high level is created, formed on the basis of a certain combination of units of the lower level, just as the higher level itself is created by lower (or “basic”) levels.

Linguistic "knowledge" and representations formed during the study of linguistic units of the "basic" levels of the language form the basis and prerequisite for the assimilation of linguistic representations of other, more complex subsystems of the language (in particular, categorical grammatical and syntactic sublevels). From the analysis above scheme methodological conclusion follows: Full-fledged assimilation of a language is possible only on the basis of a complete and lasting assimilation of "language knowledge" in relation to all its structural components, on the basis of the formation of appropriate language operations with the basic units of the language. This is of fundamental importance in the aspect of continuity in the work of correctional teachers (primarily speech therapists) of preschool and school educational institutions.