The concept of system and structure of language. Structural components of the language system and branches of linguistics

Linguistics as a science: subject, object of study, place in the system of sciences, meaning

Linguistics(linguistics, linguistics) is the science of language, its social nature and functions, its internal structure, the patterns of its functioning and the historical development and classification of specific languages.

Item. Linguistics studies not only existing (existing or possible in the future) languages, but also human Language in general. Language is not given to the linguist by direct observation; Only facts of speech, or linguistic phenomena, are directly observable, that is, speech acts of speakers of a living language along with their results (texts) or language material (a limited number of written texts in a dead language, which no one uses as the main means of communication).

Object linguistics - language. Human language is heterogeneous. Its types are different. The object of linguistics is natural human language. The laws of the structure, development and functioning of language constitute the subject of the science of language. These patterns may be inherent in individual specific languages ​​or their groups. Along with such particular patterns in every language of the world, some general patterns that are inherent in all or most languages ​​of mankind can be revealed. Therefore, the subject of the course “General Linguistics” correlates with such concepts as “particular” and “general” linguistics.

Private Linguistics deals with a single language (Russian, English, Uzbek, etc.) or a group of related languages ​​(say, Slavic languages). It can be synchronic, describing the facts of a language at some point in its history (most often the facts of a modern language), or diachronic (historical), tracing the development of a language over a certain period of time. A type of diachronic linguistics (linguistics) is comparative-historical, which elucidates their historical past by comparing related languages.

General Features human language is engaged general linguistics. It explores the essence and nature of language, the problem of its origin and general laws its development and functioning, it also develops methods for studying languages. Within the framework of general linguistics, typological linguistics is distinguished, which compares both related and unrelated languages ​​with each other, a comparison aimed at clarifying general patterns language. General and, in particular, typological linguistics identifies and formulates linguistic universals, i.e. provisions valid for all languages ​​of the world (absolute universals) or for the vast majority of languages ​​( statistical universals).

There are between 3000-5500 languages ​​in the world. It is impossible to accurately calculate, since there is no specific criterion for determining the number of languages. 500 thousand languages ​​on Earth have been well studied. 1.5 thousand have not been studied.

The separation of languages ​​can be influenced by written expression.

Linguistics is included V circle of sciences about human society. Therefore, it is connected with the humanities (history, literature, ethnography [life culture], dialectology), with the natural sciences (physics [acoustics], physiology) and computational sciences (physics, mathematics), etc.

Objectives and significance linguistics:

Establishing the nature and essence of language

Studying the structure of language

Learning language as a holistic system

Studying the issue of language development

Study of the origin and development of writing

Classification of languages

Selection of research methods: comparative historical, descriptive, comparative, quantitative

Studying the connection between linguistics and other sciences.

Structural Components language systems and branches of linguistics

Language system- this is an integral unity of linguistic units that are in certain interconnections and relationships. The very set of regular connections and relationships between linguistic units forms the structure of the language system. Structure is the main property of a language system. It presupposes the division of language as an integral formation into components, their interconnection, interdependence and internal organization. To name the components of a language system, the terms elements, language units, linguistic signs, parts (groups), subsystems are usually used.

There are denominational units of language (phonemes, morphemes), nominative (words, phrases, phraseological units) and communicative (sentences, superphrasal units, periods, texts).

Units of language are closely related to units of speech. The latter realize (objectify) the former (phonemes are realized by sounds, or backgrounds; morphemes - by morphs, allomorphs; words (lexemes) - by word forms (lexes, allolexes); structural schemes of sentences - by utterances). Units of speech are any units that are freely formed in the process of speech from units of language. Their main features are: productivity - free formation in the process of speech; combinatoriality - a complex structure as a result of the free combination of language units; ability to enter into more large entities(words in phrases and sentences; simple sentences as part of complex; sentences form the text).

Elements, units of language and linguistic signs should be distinguished from parts and subsystems of a single language system.

Any grouping of linguistic units between which internal connections are established that differ from the connections between the groupings themselves can be considered as part of the system. Subsystems are thus formed within the system (in vocabulary - lexical-semantic groups, semantic fields; in morphology - subsystems of verb conjugation or declension of names, etc.).

The linguistic units that form a language system can be homogeneous or heterogeneous. Hierarchical relationships between homogeneous units of language are excluded; they are inherent only in heterogeneous units (phoneme > morpheme > lexeme (words) > phrase > sentence). Homogeneous units of language exhibit the ability to enter into: a) linear structures, chains and combinations (linear connections of language units are called syntagmatic), and b) certain groups, classes and categories, thereby realizing their paradigmatic properties.

Syntagmatic connections are the relationships of linguistic units by contiguity, their juxtaposition (according to the scheme and... and) and compatibility according to the laws defined for a particular language. According to certain syntagmatic laws, morphemes, word forms, sentence members, and parts of a complex sentence are combined. Syntagmatic restrictions are due to the fact that each unit of language occupies a very definite position in a linear series relative to other units. In this regard, the concept of position of a linguistic unit was introduced. Units occupying the same position in the syntagmatic series form a paradigm (class, category, block, group).

Paradigmatic connections are relationships based on internal similarity, association, or relationships of choice (according to the scheme or... or). All varieties of linguistic units have paradigmatic properties (paradigms of consonant and vowel phonemes, morphemes, words, etc. are distinguished). Most a shining example Lexical paradigms, synonyms, antonyms, lexical-semantic groups and fields can serve as such relationships; in morphology - paradigms of declension and conjugation.

A set of homogeneous language units capable of entering into syntagmatic and paradigmatic connections with each other, but excluding hierarchical relationships, is called a level or tier of a language structure. Each level corresponds to a basic unit of language. The main levels include: phonological/phonetic (basic unit - phoneme), morphemic (morpheme), lexeme/lexical (lexeme, or word), morphological (grammeme - a class of word forms) and syntactic (syntax, or syntaxeme). Intermediate levels are usually considered: phonomorphemic, or morphonological (phonomorph, or morphoneme), derivatological, or word-formative (derivateme), phraseological (phraseme, or phraseological unit, phraseological unit).

Structure should be understood as the unity of heterogeneous elements within the whole.

The first thing we encounter when considering the structure of language leads us to a very interesting observation, showing the complexity and inconsistency of such a structure as language.

Indeed, at first glance, verbal communication occurs very simply: I speak, you listen, and we understand each other. It's simple just because it's familiar. But if we think about how this happens, we come across a rather strange phenomenon: speaking is completely different from listening, and understanding is neither one nor the other. It turns out that the speaker does one thing, the listener does another, and they understand the third.

The processes of speaking and listening are mirror opposites: what ends the speaking process is the beginning of the listening process. The speaker, having received an impulse from the brain centers, works with the organs of speech, articulates, as a result, sounds are obtained that, through the air, reach the organ of hearing (ear) of the listener; In the listener, irritations received by the eardrum and other internal organs of the ear are transmitted along the auditory nerves and reach the brain centers in the form of sensations, which are then consciously recognized.

What the speaker produces creates articulatory complex; what the listener catches and perceives forms acoustic complex .

The articulatory complex, the spoken, is not physically similar to the acoustic complex, the audible. However, in the act of speech, these two complexes form a unity; they are two sides of the same object. Indeed, will we say the word house or we hear it - it will be the same from the point of view of language.

The identification of what is spoken and what is heard is carried out in the act of speech due to the fact that the act of speech is two-sided; typical form speech is a dialogue when the speaker through a remark becomes a listener, and the listener becomes a speaker. In addition, each speaker unconsciously tests himself with hearing, and the listener with articulation. The identification of what is spoken and what is heard ensures correct perception, without which it is impossible to achieve mutual understanding between speakers.

When perceiving an unknown language, articulatory-acoustic unity does not work, and an attempt to reproduce the articulation of what was heard leads to incorrect articulations dictated by the skills of one’s own language. This phenomenon is well described in “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy, when the Russian soldier Zaletaev, having heard the song sung by the captured Frenchman Morel: “Vive Henri quatre, Vive, ce roi vaillant!” Ce diable a quatre...", reproduces it as “Vivarica. Vif seruvaru! Sidyablyak! and then conveys the continuation of the French song: “Qui eut le triple talent, De boire, de battre, et d`tre un vert galant...” - How “Kyu-yu-yu letriptala, de bu de ba and detravagala.”

For correct perception, it is necessary that both interlocutors have the same articulatory-acoustic skills, i.e., skills of the same language.

But the act of speech is not limited to perception, although it is impossible without it. The next stage is understanding. It can only be achieved if both the speaker and the listener associate a given articulatory-acoustic unity with the same meaning; if they associate this articulatory-acoustic unity, even with correct perception, with different meanings, mutual understanding does not work; so, if a Russian and a Turk meet, and the Russian says tobacco, then the Turk will easily “adjust” the Russian articulatory complex tobacco for your own acoustic complex tabak, but will understand it either as a “dish” or as a “sheet of paper”, since “tobacco” in Turkish tune(cf. Ukrainian Tyutyun).

Consequently, at this second stage of the act of speech, as at the first, it is necessary that the speaker and the listener belong to a group speaking the same language; then a new identification of the dissimilar takes place: the articulatory-acoustic and semantic side, which also form a unity.

Leaving aside the first stage of the speech act and its components, let us consider the second relationship.

In a language, it is always necessary to have two sides: external, material, associated with the articulatory-acoustic complex, and internal, intangible, associated with meaning. The first is denoting and guaranteeing through signs of bringing speech to the organ of perception, without which verbal communication is unthinkable; the second - denoted, content associated with thinking.

The direct expression of meaning in sound is not typical for language. This is the case in various types of mechanical signaling, for example in a traffic light, where green“straight” means “you can,” red means “you can’t,” and yellow means “get ready.”

In such signaling systems there is nothing between meaning and perceived materiality. In a language, even interjections differ from such a schematic device, since they can perform the function of a whole sentence, relate to a specific part of speech, are expressed not by any sound, but by a sound specific to a given language, and are capable of forming derivative significant words (ooh - ooh, oah etc.), that is, in general they do not stand in isolation, but in connection with other elements of the language and cannot be arbitrarily invented as signaling systems.

Typical of language is the complex structure of interconnected heterogeneous elements.

In order to determine which elements are included in the structure of language, let's look at the following example: two Romans argued who would say (or write) a shorter phrase; one said (wrote): Еo rus[eo pyc] - “I’m going to the village,” and the other replied: I -“go.” This is the most short statement(and writing) that can be imagined, but at the same time it is a completely complete utterance, constituting an entire replica in a given dialogue and, obviously, possessing everything that is characteristic of any utterance. What are these elements of a statement?

[i] is the sound of speech (more precisely, a phoneme), i.e., a sound material sign accessible to perception by the ear, or i- this is a letter, i.e. a graphic material sign accessible to perception by the eye;

1. i - - is the root of a word (in general: morpheme), i.e. an element expressing some concept;
2. i- this is a word (a verb in the imperative mood in the singular) that names a certain phenomenon of reality;
3. I - it is a sentence, i.e. an element that contains a message.

"Small" i, It turns out that it contains everything that makes up language in general:

1. sounds - phonetics (or letters - graphics),
2. morphemes (roots, suffixes, endings) - morphology,
3. words - vocabulary and
4. sentences - syntax.

Nothing else exists or can exist in language.

Why was such a strange example needed to clarify the question of the structure of language? To make it clear that the differences in the elements of language structure are not quantitative, as it might seem if we took long sentence, broke it down into words, words into morphemes, and morphemes into phonemes. IN in this example this danger has been eliminated: all levels of the structure of language are “the same” i , but taken each time in a special quality.

Thus, the difference in the elements of the structure of language is qualitative, which is determined by the different functions of these elements. What are the functions of these elements?

1. Sounds (phonemes) are the material signs of language, and not just “audible sounds”. Sound signs of language (as well as graphic ones) have two functions: 1) perceptual - to be an object of perception and
2. significative - have the ability to distinguish higher, significant elements of language - morphemes, words, sentences: note, bot, mot, that, pillbox, note, lot, mouth, cat... steel, table, chair... pine, pine, pine, pine... etc.

As for the difference between letters (graphic signs) and sounds (phonetic signs) in a language, it is not functional, but material; their functions are the same.

1. Morphemes (see Chapter IV, § 42) can express concepts: a) root - real [table-], [earth-], [window-], etc. and b) non-root of two types: meanings of attributes [- ost], [-without-], [re-] and the meaning of relations [-у], [-ish],sit - sit - sit,[-a], [-y] table-a, table-aetc.; This is a semasiological function, a function of expressing concepts. They cannot name morphemes, but they have meaning; [red-] expresses only the concept of a certain color, and you can name something only by turning the morpheme into a word:redness, red, blush etc.
2. Words can name things and phenomena of reality; this is a nominative function, a naming function; there are words that pure form perform this function - these are proper names; ordinary, common nouns combine it with a semasiological function, since they express concepts.
3. Sentences serve to communicate; this is the most important thing in verbal communication, since language is a tool of communication; This is a communicative function, since sentences consist of words; in their constituent parts they have both a nominative and semasiological function.

The elements of this structure form a unity in the language, which is easy to understand if you pay attention to their connection: each lower level is potentially (possibly) the next higher one, and, conversely, each higher level at least consists of one lower one; so, a sentence can minimally consist of one word (Dawn. Frost.); word - from one morpheme (here, here, metro, hurray); morpheme - from one phoneme (sh-i, w-a-t); Wed the above example with i .

In addition to these functions, the language can express emotional state speaker, will, desires, directed as a call to the listener. The expression of these phenomena is covered expressive function. Expression can be expressed by different elements of language: these can be specially expressive words - interjections (ah! - emotional, Hey! — volitional), some grammatical forms (words with diminutive suffixes: buddy! - emotional, imperative verbs: shut up! - strong-willed), especially expressively colored words of “high” or “low” style and, finally, intonation.

It should also be noted that one function that combines some elements of language with gestures is the deictic - “indicative” function; this is the function of personal and demonstrative pronouns, as well as some particles: here, eva etc.

Within each circle or tier of the linguistic structure (phonetic, morphological, lexical, syntactic) there is its own system, since all elements of a given circle act as members of the system. A system is a unity of homogeneous interdependent elements.

In no case should the concept of a system be replaced by the concept of external mechanical orderliness, which is what distinguishes the instrument of communication - language - from the instruments of production (see above); with external order, the quality of each element does not depend on the whole (whether we put four or eight chairs in a row and whether there are 32 or 64 of them - this will make each of the chairs remain the same as if it stood alone).

The members of the system, on the contrary, are interconnected and interdependent as a whole, therefore the number of elements and their relationships are reflected in each member of a given system; if there is only one element left, then this system being liquidated; Thus, a declension system is possible if there are at least two cases (for example, in English pronoun he - him), but there cannot be a system of declension with one case, as in French; the category of the imperfect form of a verb is possible only when there is also a category of the perfect form in the same grammatical system, etc.

Members of a system receive their significance in relation to other members of the system; therefore, for example, the genitive case in the presence of a deponent (ablative) is not the same as the genitive case in a language where there is no ablative; the significance of [k] in languages ​​where there is [x] is different than in languages ​​where there is no [x].

Systems of individual tiers of the language structure, interacting with each other, form the overall system of a given language.

Reformatsky A.A. Introduction to Linguistics / Ed. V.A. Vinogradova. - M., 1996.

System is a set of interconnected and interdependent elements and relationships between them.

Structure is the relationship between elements, the way the system is organized.

Any system has a function, is characterized by a certain integrity, has subsystems and is itself part of a higher-level system.

Terms system And structure often used as synonyms. This is inaccurate because although they denote interrelated concepts, they do so in different aspects. System denotes the relationship of elements and a single principle of their organization, structure characterizes the internal structure of the system. The concept of a system is associated with the study of objects in the direction from elements to the whole, with the concept of structure - in the direction from the whole to its component parts.

Some scientists give these terms a specific interpretation. Thus, according to A.A. Reformatsky, a system is the unity of homogeneous interdependent elements within one tier, and structure is the unity of heterogeneous elements within the whole [Reformatsky 1996, 32, 37].

The language system is hierarchically organized, it has several tiers:

· Phonological

· Morphological

· Syntactic

· Lexical

The central place in the language system is occupied by the morphological layer. The units of this tier - morphemes - are elementary, minimal signs of language. Units of phonetics and vocabulary belong to the peripheral tiers, since phonetic units do not have the properties of a sign, and lexical units enter into complex, multi-level relationships. The structure of the lexical tier is more open and less rigid than the structures of other tiers; it is more susceptible to extralinguistic influences.

In the Fortunat school, when studying syntax and phonology, the morphological criterion is decisive.

The concept of system plays an important role in the typology. It explains the relationship various phenomena language, emphasizes the expediency of its structure and functioning. Language is not a simple collection of words and sounds, rules and exceptions. The concept of a system allows us to see order in the variety of facts of language.

No less important is the concept of structure. Although the principles of structure are common, the languages ​​of the world differ from each other, and these differences consist in the uniqueness of their structural organization, since the ways of connecting elements can be different. This difference in structure precisely serves to group languages ​​into typological classes.

The systemic nature of language allows us to highlight the core on which the entire linguistic typology is built - the morphological tier of the language.

End of work -

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Theoretical basis of the typology

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All topics in this section:

Goals and objectives of typological linguistics
Being part of general linguistics, typological linguistics has as its goal such a study of various languages ​​of the world that would allow us to identify structural types and laws in all their diversity.

The subject of linguotypology and aspects of its study
The subject of linguistic typology is the comparative (including contrastive, taxonomic and universal) study of the structural and functional properties of languages, regardless of x

And their application in linguistics
The Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary interprets typology as a method of scientific knowledge, which is based on the division of systems of objects and their grouping using a generalized idea

Matching material
The basic units of phonology are phonemes and syllables. In language, phonological units are acoustic-articulatory images of sounds and syllables; in speech, they are actually sounding physical units

Comparison criteria
The phonological systems of different languages ​​can be compared according to the following signs: · Total number of phonemes; · The presence of certain classes of phonemes (for example, aspirated consonants,

Universal and typological features in phonology
Among the phonological universals are the following: · A language can have at least 10 and no more than 80 phonemes; · If the language has a combination of smooth + nasal, then there are combinations

Systems of Consonantism
There are 33 consonant phonemes in the Russian language: 24 noisy and 9 sonorant. Sonorants include /th/ and paired softness-hardness /m, n, p, l/. The remaining consonants are noisy.

Vocalism systems
In Russian, vowels are distinguished by two differential features - row and rise. The vocal system includes 5 phonemes. Phonemes /у, о/ are labialized, the rest are non-labialized

Matching material
The subject of comparative morphology is the grammatical structure of languages. The focus of linguists involved in this section is the relationship between units of the grammatical tier, i.e.

Comparison criteria
When morphologically comparing languages ​​in morphological classification, the following criteria are used: the nature of the morphemes (independence, standardity, number of meanings, gender

The grammatical structure of the language
The grammatical structure is a system of morphological categories, syntactic categories and constructions, as well as methods of word production. The grammatical structure is the basis without cat

Inflectional type of languages
The main feature of inflectional languages ​​is that the forms of individual independent words are formed using inflection. Inflection is an inflectional affix that must

Affixes, in turn, are divided into
· inflectional (inflections); · word-forming (derivatives). By place in a word relative to the root in inflectional languages, the following are distinguished: · prefixes (affixes that stand in

I will, you will, there will be
Spanish he, hemos (I, we had – auxiliary verb complex past tense). The main property of function words is the grammatical nature of the meaning of their roots. These words are

Agglutinative type of languages
The main feature of the agglutinative type is that the forms of independent words are formed with the help of unambiguous affixes freely attached to the original form. The term ag-glu-tinatio is etymological

Incorporating languages
Incorporating languages ​​are identified based on the design feature their grammatical structure, which consists of organizing the utterance as a single morphological whole. In p

Isolating languages
Isolating languages ​​are characterized by the absence of inflectional forms. The grammatical relationships between words in a sentence are expressed in these languages ​​by word order, function words and intonation. Track

Signs of language morphology
Most of the morphological universals established by linguistics characterize the interdependence of phenomena in the language system. So, for example, B.A. Uspensky established the following universals:

Typology of morphological categories
The grammatical structure of a language is created not only by forms, but also by morphological categories. Categories, as mentioned above, are systems of forms with meanings opposed to each other

Spatiotemporal categories
Spatial values ​​express the following categories: deixis; · localization; · orientation Ι; · orientation ΙΙ. Dyke category

Quantitative categories
Among the inflectional categories expressing quantity, I.A. Melchuk distinguishes 4 classes: - numerical quantification of objects; - numerical quantification of facts; - non-numeric

Quality categories
Inflectional categories expressing qualities can characterize: - participants in the described facts; - the facts themselves; - relationships between participants in facts

Syntactic peak
This class includes only two categories: · finiteness; · predicativeness. The category of finiteness, which expresses the role of the verb as a syntactic vertex

Syntactic master
This class includes categories that mark the role of the verb as a syntactic host: - concordant categories; - category of syncategorematicity; - category is objective

Syntactically dependent element
The syntactically dependent role of the verb is expressed by: mood category; · series category; · category of coordination. The first two categories express subordinating

And joining the designations of facts
Within this class there is a subclass of contact derivatives that change the composition of the semantic actants of the lexeme. Contact derivatives are divided into three groups depending on

The main word-formation meanings of this class are divided into 5 groups: · identifier ‘to be something’; · habit ‘to have something’; · productive ‘to make something’;

And attached to fact designations
This class includes derivatives: · name of the figure; · object name; · name of the place; · tool name; · method name; · name of the result. Them

And attached to the designations of participants
Substantive derivatives of this type form an open set. An example of such a derivative in Russian is ‘the one who makes the object called the base function’: pool

Nominators
The French language has a variety of suffixes that form nouns from verbs and adjectives. Verbal nominalizers include suffixes: -ion, -ation, -ment

Verbalizers
In Russian, suffixes are verbalizers, for example, in the following words: attack, advise, repair. To Malagasy

Adjectivizers
Adjectivizers form relative adjectives from nouns, for example, in Russian: apple → apple, pear → pear, lemon → lemon, tank → tankovy

Adverbializers
Adverbializers of nouns are rare. IN English(in business style) adverbs are formed from nouns using the suffix –wise with the meaning ‘relatively’

Separability
In the majority English words it is easy to identify the morphs included in their composition, for example, week-s (weeks), letter-s (letters), student-s (students), general-iz-ation (general-eni) , live-li-ness (live

Standardity
Standardity is characteristic of the affixes of the English language, in which the inflection of the number of the noun, the inflection of the person of the verb and the inflection of the tense of the verb have variants, the appearance of which in the word form is defined

Connection type
The English language is characterized by an agglutinative combination of morphs within a word. The addition of an affix most often does not cause morphological alternations: farm-er (farmer), dull-ness (boredom), ta

Separateness
The separateness of a word is the difference between a word and a morpheme (part of a word) and the difference between a word and a phrase. In English, many word forms in the text coincide with simple stems,

Integrity
The integrity of a word lies in its phonetic, grammatical and semantic unity. The phonetic unity of a word in Russian and English is ensured by stress, the semantic unity is ensured by

Articulation
The division of a word into stem and inflection is established by comparing the word forms of one word. The articulation of the word stem is determined by comparing related words. Both languages ​​have both

Paradigmatics
Paradigms of independent words in English are characterized by the presence of a small number of inflectional forms within the paradigm (noun – 2, verb – 4). In addition to inflectional ones, there are

Syntagmatics
Syntactic relationships between words in English are expressed using word order and prepositions. Parts of a sentence are sometimes connected by unions and allied words, but more often by non-union connections. Fle

Personal forms of the indicative mood of the active voice
Present Past Future Future-in-the-Past Simple I explain I explained

Passive voice
Present Past Future Simple is explained was explained will be explained

Infinitive
simple to explain progressive to be explaining perfect to have explained

Matching material
The basic communicative unit of any language is the sentence. Ready-made sentences are not contained in the language itself - they arise in speech. However, the rules for constructing a sentence are necessary

Comparison criteria
To compare the syntax of phrases, the following criteria are taken into account: 1) type of syntactic relations; 2) the way of expressing syntactic relations; 3) position behind

1. The concept of the system and structure of language

The preservation of the language is explained by the stability of its sound and grammatical structure. In other words, the stability of a language rests on its consistency And structure.

Terms system And structure often replace each other, but they do not coincide in all meanings.

IN " Explanatory dictionary Russian language": word system(Greek origin, lit. “whole of component parts”), word structure(Latin origin, “structure, location”)

System And structure language imply that language has internal order, organizing parts into whole.

Systematicity and structure characterize the language and its units as a single whole from different sides. Under structure the unity of heterogeneous elements within the whole is understood. System is a unity of homogeneous interdependent elements.

Language is characterized by a complex structure of interconnected and heterogeneous elements. The structure of the language includes different elements and their inherent functions. It is formed by the following levels (tiers):

Ø phonetic,

Ø morphological,

Ø lexical,

Ø syntactic,

Ø ( text),

Ø ( cultural).

The idea of ​​the last two levels/tiers was introduced into scientific use relatively recently, but not all scientists are of the opinion that these levels should be considered within the framework of linguistic analysis of the language system. Indeed, these two levels/tiers take us beyond the boundaries of the language system itself in the traditional linguistic sense and connect language directly with the society and culture in which language functions.

2. Units of language (elements of levels) and their functions

Units phonetic tiers are phonemes (sounds) – material embodiments of language; they implement two main functions: perceptual(perception function) and significative, or distinctive(the ability to distinguish significant elements of language - morphemes, words, sentences, cf.: that, mouth, cat, steel, table, etc.).

Units morphological tiers – morphemes – express concepts:

A) root(real), cf.: [-table-] [-ground-], etc.;

b) non-root 2 types: values signs, cf.: [-ost], [without-], [re-], and meanings relations, cf.: [-u], [-ish], etc., for example, sit-u, sit-ish, table-a, table-at.

This - semasiological function expressions concepts, but not naming. Morpheme doesn't name, just word has nominative function. By naming something, we turn a morpheme into a word. For example, the root red- expresses the concept of a specific color, but red (noun) names a phenomenon. Therefore, it is believed that a morpheme, as the smallest meaningful unit of language, has a meaning, but this meaning is connected, it is realized only in combination with other morphemes. True, this statement is fully true for affixes, and only partially true for root morphemes (see the example above).

Units lexical level – lexemes (words) – name things and phenomena of reality, they perform a nominative function. The lexical level of a language system is special in the sense that its units are considered the basic units of language. At the lexical level, it is most fully represented semantics. A number of linguistic disciplines study the lexical composition of a language: lexicology, phraseology, semantics, semasiology, onomastics etc.

Units syntactic level – phrases And offers – perform communicative function, that is, necessary for communication. This level is also called constructive-syntactic or communicative-syntactic. We can say that the basic unit of this level is proposal model. Deals with issues of studying the proposal syntax.

Elements of all levels in language form a unity, which is expressed in the fact that each lower level is potentially the next highest and, conversely, each higher level consists of at least one lower one. For example, a sentence may consist of one or more words, a word may consist of one or more morphemes, and a morpheme may consist of one or more phonemes.

Linguistic units are formed at a lower level and function at a higher level.

For example, a phoneme is constructed at the phonemic level, but functions at the morphemic level as a meaningful unit.

This property of linguistic units connects the levels of language into a single system.

Within each level/tier of the language structure (phonetic, morphological, lexical, syntactic), its units form their own separate system, that is, all elements this level act as members of the system. Systems of individual tiers of linguistic structure form the overall system of a given language.

3. Basic types of relationships between language units.

To talk about the relationships between language units, it is necessary to introduce and define the following concepts: language units, language category, level/tier, language relations.

Units of language– its permanent elements, differing from each other in structure, purpose and place in the language system.

According to their purpose, language units are divided into:

Ø Nominative – word (lexeme)

Ø Communicative – proposal

Ø Drilling – phonemes and morphemes, forms of words and forms of phrases

Language categories– groups of homogeneous language units; categories are combined based on a common categorical feature, usually semantic. For example, in the Russian language there are categories of tense and aspect of the verb, case and gender, categories of collectiveness, animacy, etc.

Level (tier ) language – a set of similar units and categories of language: phonetic, morphological, lexical, syntactic.

Language relations– relationships between tiers and categories of language, its units and their parts.

Main types of relationships between language units: paradigmatic, syntagmatic And hierarchical.

Paradigmatic relations (Greek paradigm - example, sample) are relations that unite language units into groups, categories, categories. Elements that are in paradigmatic relationships constitute a class of similar phenomena. Paradigmatic relationships are relationships of choice.

For example, the system of consonants, the system of declension, and the synonymic series rely on paradigmatics. When using language, paradigmatic relations allow you to select the desired unit, as well as form words and their forms by analogy with those already existing in the language, for example, case forms of one word, synonymous series.

Syntagmatic relations unite units in their simultaneous sequence. These are relationships of units arranged linearly, for example, in a stream of speech. Syntagmatic relationships are used to build morphemes as combinations of phonemes, words as sets of morphemes and syllables, phrases and sentences as sets of words, complex sentences- as a collection of simple sentences.

Hierarchical relations connect the levels of language with each other, these are relations of structurally simpler units to more complex ones (remember: units are formed at a lower level, and function at a higher one).

All these types of relations in the language system are not isolated; they determine each other to one degree or another.

4. Phonology. Basic concepts of phonology

Initially, speech sounds were defined as sound formations that corresponded to letters: letters were “pronounced,” they were “hard” and “soft,” “vowels” and “consonants.” With the development of linguistics in the 19th century, it became possible to take a different look at the relationship between letters and sounds, since by this time sufficient material had accumulated on comparing the sounds of modern and ancient languages, as well as the sounds of related languages.

Speech sounds have a complex nature, therefore, within the framework of linguistics, over time, separate phonetic disciplines emerged that study various aspects of speech sounds: phonetics phonology(functional phonetics).

Phonetics studies the sound structure of a language: speech sounds and the rules for combining them into words in a stream of speech, an inventory of language sounds, their systemic properties, sound laws. The area of ​​interest of phonetics also includes syllable, stress, and intonation.

As a natural phenomenon, the sound of speech can be considered in three aspects:

Ø acoustic(being studied speech acoustics);

Ø articulatory (articulatory phonetics);

Ø functional (phonology).

Phonology studies speech sounds in their functional, or social aspect. What is important here is not the physical quality of speech sounds. But their functions are in the language system.

From this point of view, speech sounds are a way of materializing morphemes and word forms, acting as a unity of sound and meaning.

The multifaceted nature of speech sound has caused ambiguity in basic phonetic terms speech sound And phoneme.

Sound of speech– an acoustic phenomenon, an articulatory complex necessary to pronounce a specific sound, a unit of the sound system of a language.

Phoneme- the smallest unit of language, it does not have its own meaning and serves only to distinguish the sound shells of words. This is the sound unit of the language, i.e. the sound of speech in the phoneme system of a given language. The number of phonemes in a language is small; in any language in the world it is limited to a two-digit number.

The description of units at the phonetic level began a long time ago, even before the formation of linguistics as a science. By now, this level of the language system can be considered extremely described. As already mentioned, the characteristics of units of the phonetic level are dealt with phonetics(acoustic and articulatory) and phonology(functional phonetics).

The creator of the doctrine of the phoneme is Ivan Aleksandrovich Baudouin de Courtenay. He laid the foundations of phonology. His teaching is based on two basic principles:

Ø phoneme – a set of articulatory and acoustic representations;

Ø phonemes themselves have no meaning, but they also perform a semantic-distinguishing function (significative).

The idea of ​​the phoneme was taken up by other scientists. A representative of the Prague linguistic school, Russian scientist Nikolai Sergeevich Trubetskoy wrote the book “Fundamentals of Phonology” in 1939. From this point on, phonology becomes a separate linguistic discipline.

For Nikolai Sergeevich Trubetskoy and other scientists of the Prague linguistic school, the phoneme is a unit oppositions, capable of distinguishing morphemes or words.

The core of Trubetskoy’s phonological concept is meaningful phoneme function. Sounds are combined into phonemes not by articulatory or acoustic proximity, but by functional community. If, depending on their position in a word, sounds are pronounced differently, but perform the same function and form the same words, they are considered as varieties of the same phoneme. Hence:

Ø phoneme – the shortest linguistic unit that serves to distinguish the material shell of a word and morphemes;

Ø phoneme is a complex sound unit, a set of different acoustic and articulatory properties, which manifests itself differently in the sound chain and performs a significative function in different ways.

The central concept of the teachings of Nikolai Sergeevich Trubetskoy is phonological oppositions , sound contrasts that can differentiate the meaning of words of a given language. For example, the contrast of consonants based on voicedness/voicelessness in the Russian language.

Phonological oppositions form the phonological systems of specific languages.

In all the languages ​​of the world there are only 12 pairs of differential features (DP). Different types of sounds are characterized by different pairs of DP. For example, vowels are characterized by rise, row, and labialization. IN different languages pairs of DPs are different, there is a certain set of DPs for the phonemes of a given national language. For example, in the Russian language DP, longitude/shortness of vowels does not “work”, i.e. is not essential, but in English this feature distinguishes meanings, i.e. is essential, cf.:

Ø Russian: voiced/voiceless, noisy/sonorant, hard/soft, front-lingual/back-lingual;

Ø English: long/short, labial/non-labial;

Ø French: nasal/non-nasal, etc.

Each phoneme is a bundle differential features , which distinguish phonemes from each other and facilitate the recognition of words and morphemes. Phonemes also have non-essentials ( non-integral) features that are not used to distinguish phonemes of a language.

The conditions under which phonemes are pronounced are called positions .

The concept of phoneme is closely related to the concept positions, i.e. the position of the sound in a word or morpheme. There are strong positions in which the phoneme realizes all its differential features, and weak positions in which some of these features are lost. The system of strong and weak positions in the Russian language can be presented as follows.

In strong position the phoneme realizes All its differential features; in a weak one, it neutralizes (loses) some of them.

Phonemes appear in options And variations.

Variation is a positional variation of the same phoneme ( m And r – f And r).

Options – these are common positional varieties of different phonemes ( ro h– ro With ).

Only in strong positions is the system of phonemes of a given language revealed.

All phonemes specific language form it phonological system , that is, they are interconnected, interdependent and united by a common semantic-distinguishing function.

The phonetic systems of different languages ​​differ:

Ø number of phonemes (English – 44, Russian – 41, French – 35, German – 36);

Ø the ratio of vowels and consonants (Russian – 6 vowels: 35 consonants; English – 12 vowels: 8 diphthongs: 17 consonants; French – 18 vowels: 17 consonants; German – 15 vowels: 3 diphthongs: 18 consonants) ;

Ø specific laws of compatibility of phonemes in the flow of speech (in different languages ​​(in Russian, despite small quantity vowel phonemes, their occurrence in speech accounts for almost half of the phoneme composition).

5. Main phonological schools

Further development of the ideas of Ivan Aleksandrovich Baudouin de Courtenay and Nikolai Sergeevich Trubetskoy in Russia led to the formation of the main phonological schools: Moscow (MFS) and Leningrad (LFS).

Representatives of the IMF (R.I. Avanesov, P.S. Kuznetsov, A.A. Reformatsky, V.N. Sidorov, etc.) consider the phoneme as the shortest sound unit, which is an element of the sound shell of significant language units (lexemes and morphemes). The concept of the IFS is based on the concept positions, i.e., the conditions for the use and implementation of phonemes in speech (see above). Here, a strong position is considered as favorable for identifying the functions of phonemes, and a weak position as unfavorable. Phonemes perform two functions: recognition (perceptual) and discrimination (significative). Depending on the function, completely different results will appear in the same weak positions: a perceptually weak position gives variations, and a significatively weak position gives variations.

LFS (L.V. Shcherba, L.R. Zinder, N.I. Matushevich, etc.) considers the phoneme as sound type, associated with specific phonetic representations. According to the LFS, a phoneme is not only a bundle of differential features, but a specific sound unit.

The theoretical disagreements between the MFS and LFS are associated precisely with this difference in the understanding of the phoneme. So, in the words oak, roses, pond, etc. Representatives of the first school will see variants of the phonemes [b], [z], [d], and representatives of the second – phonemes [p], [s], [t]. From the point of view of the MFS, soft sounds , , are not independent phonemes, since they never occur in the same hard sounds positions, and from the point of view of the LPS, these are phonemes that are acoustically different from solid ones.

However, what these two schools of phonology have in common is that they

Ø recognize the social nature of the phoneme;

Ø rely on the connection between phonetics and phonology;

Ø consider the phoneme as a unit of language;

Ø based on the presence of a phonological system of a particular language and its historical variability.

6. Grammar. Basic grammatical traditions

Morphology And syntax are parts grammar – science of grammatical structure of the language , which means:

Ø ways and means of changing lexical units (morphology);

Ø constructing sentences from lexical units in speech according to the thought being expressed.

Morphology is the study of the grammatical form of a word and its structure. Morphology deals with the study of units at the morphological level. It offers classifications of morphemes, describes their characteristics and laws of functioning in language.

Syntax– the study of the rules of compatibility of units in a sentence and the relationships between them. Studying ways of constructing phrases and sentences.

Modern provisions of grammatical theory have been greatly influenced by the Greco-Latin tradition, since ancient scientists made a great contribution to the development of grammatical problems.

Plato tried to classify parts of speech on a logical basis; he identified the noun and the verb. A verb is something that refers to actions, a name is a designation of the one who performs this action.

Aristotle studied the structure of sentences. He believed that a sentence expresses a thought. In addition, Aristotle analyzed the parts of speech: noun, verb and conjunction. He introduced the concept of case of a name or verb, by which he understood the indirect forms of these parts of speech.

In the 2nd century BC. In ancient Greece, the Alexandrian grammar school was created, whose representatives are Aristarchus of Samothrace, Apollonius Discolus, Dionysius the Thracian. The Alexandrians define a word as the smallest significant part of coherent speech, and a sentence as a combination of words expressing a complete thought. This school developed in detail the doctrine of parts of speech. Dionysius identified 8 parts of speech: name, verb, adverb, participle, pronoun, article, preposition, conjunction. Apollonius studied the syntactic properties and functions of parts of speech. But the Alexandrians had not yet come to understand the need to analyze the morphological structure of the word.

Roman grammar generally followed the rules of Greek grammar, using them to analyze the Latin language. The development of a Latin grammar became very important in the Middle Ages, when Latin becomes the language of religion, science and education.

In the 17th-18th centuries, developments appeared in the field of grammatical differences in European languages ​​(English, French, German, Russian). “Russian Grammar” by Mikhailo Vasilyevich Lomonosov appeared in 1757.

In the development of linguistic thought of the 17th century, a special position is occupied by the so-called “General and Rational Grammar”, or the grammar of Port-Royal, written by the abbots of the Port-Royal monastery A. Arnaud and C. Lanslot. The philosophical basis of this grammar is the ideas of Rene Descartes, who emphasized the omnipotence of the human mind, which should serve as a criterion of truth.

The purpose of the Port-Royal Grammar was to study logical principles, which underlie all the languages ​​of the world, i.e. the existence of language was examined from the point of view of the ability to express logically correct thoughts. The authors proceeded from the identification of logical and linguistic categories and set as their task the identification of universal categories found in all languages.

Universal grammars, created using material from different languages, are essentially an attempt to understand the structure of language.

Grammar as a linguistic science studies the form and content, structure and functioning of grammatical units and categories. The complex nature of grammatical units and categories has led to the emergence of different approaches to their study. These approaches underlie the classification of grammar types. Main types of grammars:

Ø formal grammar studies, first of all, grammatical forms, their structure, groupings by parts of speech and rules of inflection (paradigms), combinations (syntactic connections). The basic units of grammar are the word-formation and inflectional model, the form of words and phrases;

Ø functional grammar studies the potential functions of linguistic units and categories and their functioning within one modern state of the language. Functional grammar is characterized by the consideration of linguistic units in the interaction of grammatical and lexical units of a language within a schematic and real context;

Ø Abstract linguistic grammars are contrasted with speech, communicative grammars, in which the object of study is speech communication and speech activity.

7. Grammatical categories

The set of grammatical forms expressing the same or mutually opposed meanings constitutes grammatical category . For example, all cases constitute a category of cases. The sets of grammatical categories do not coincide in different languages.

Grammatical form- this is the unity of grammatical meaning and grammatical means expressing this meaning. Grammatical forms are varieties of words that, while having the same lexical meaning, differ in grammatical meaning. Grammatical forms form paradigms , representing a set of grammatical forms, established in a certain order.

8. Properties of a word. Lexicology

The vocabulary of a language is called vocabulary(gr.: lexicos - vocabulary, logos - teaching).

Lexicology- a branch of linguistics that studies the patterns inherent in the entire vocabulary of a language, as well as the characteristics of various groups of words. Since a word has many different sides, a number of branches of lexicology are distinguished.

Ø Semasiology – studies the meanings of words (structure of meaning, semantic oppositions, semantic features, etc.).

Ø Onomasiology – studies the process of naming.

Ø Onomastics – proper names. It is divided into anthroponymy (the study of people's names), toponymy (the study of geographical names), ethnonymy, etc.

Ø Phraseology – stable phrases.

Ø Etymology – the origin of words.

Ø Lexicography is the science of methods for describing vocabulary and principles of compiling dictionaries, etc.

Lexicology can be synchronic and diachronic (historical), as well as general and specific.

The totality of all the words of a language - its vocabulary (vocabulary). In developed languages ​​there are hundreds of thousands of words. Dictionary V.I. Dahl contains 200,000 words, the Large Academic Dictionary (BAS) - 120 thousand, the Modern Dictionary of the Russian Language - 500 thousand. Not a single person uses all the words: it stands out in the vocabulary fixed assets words (words active use). Varies for a specific person active And passive dictionary. The child's vocabulary is approx. 3 thousand words, teenager – approx. 9 thousand words, and an adult – 11-13 thousand.

The word is one of the basic units of language. Unlike other units, it has nominative function – naming function.

Many definitions of a word can be formulated, but none of them can be exhaustive. All definitions will differ depending on the aspect in which the word is considered (for example, from a graphical point of view, a word is a chain of graphemes between two spaces). In order to define a word, it is necessary to highlight its main features.

Word- This:

Ø sound unity according to the laws of phonetics of a given language;

Ø grammatical unity according to the laws of grammar of a given language;

Ø a significant unit of language that has a nominative function;

Ø has positional independence (that is, it is characterized by the absence of a rigid linear connection with neighboring words, cf.: The weather is warm today – The weather is warm today);

Ø has syntactic independence (i.e. the ability to obtain the syntactic function of a member of a sentence or an individual sentence).

Thus, a word is a phonetic, grammatical and lexical unity. Please note that the specified characteristics represent different sides words from the point of view of different levels of the language system.

Not all words have the same ratio of these characteristics.

You can give working definition words : This a minimal relatively independent unit of language that has lexico-grammatical relevance and is freely reproduced in speech to construct a statement .

The word as a unit of language (in the system) is called lexeme . A lexeme is an “ideal word”. In speech we deal with allolexes(options for implementing a separate token), or word forms, Wed Man is man's friend(3 words, but 2 lexemes).

Every word is a unity of sound and meaning. The connection between sound and meaning is arbitrary; it is reinforced by social practice. The meaning of a word reveals the connection between language and the outside world. However, lexicology describes words, not items the surrounding world.

Lexical meaning- this is what a given word means, this meaning correlates with the concept and relates the word to a certain section of the lexical-semantic system of the language. Grammatical meaning - this is the belonging of a word to a certain grammatical category, determines the compatibility of the word and the ways of its modification.

The core of lexical meaning is a mental reflection of a particular phenomenon of reality, an object or a class of objects. The object denoted by the word is called denotation .

Alexander Afanasyevich Potebnya spoke about the immediate and further meaning of the word, and also pointed to the dialectical unity of the linguistic and extra-linguistic content of the word.

Distinguish denotative And connotative meaning of the word. Denotative meanings are specific ( dog, green), abstract ( joy, honestly), imaginary ( mermaid). Connotative meaning is the emotional, expressive, evaluative and stylistic characteristics of a word (cf.: dog – little dog).

Lexical meanings are specific and individual, i.e. each lexical meaning belongs to one word, but in relation to the subject, each lexical meaning turns out to be generalized.

Lexical meanings are classified depending on their relationship to objects and phenomena of reality:

Ø Nominative ( house, birch) signal ( this one, he)

Ø Straight ( head, hand) portable (time runs)

Ø concrete abstract

According to the nature of the subject relevance, the meanings are own(single) and common nouns(general).

The basis of lexical meaning is concept: a generalized thought about a given object or phenomenon. Different types of words relate to a concept in different ways, although each concept can be expressed by a word or phrase. But the word is not the same as the concept. A concept is a category logic. We can say that the meaning is broader, and the concept is deeper. For example, one word can have several meanings, i.e. relate to several concepts; one concept can be denoted by several words; the concept can be expressed by a compound name.

The relationship between sound and meaning arises by chance, but, once established, it becomes binding on all speakers of a given language.

The lexical meaning may contain internal shape (motivation , i.e. an indication of the reason why a given meaning turned out to be expressed by a particular combination of sounds (for example, onomatopoeic words, or such Lunokhod, airplane etc.).

Not all words have the motivation preserved. Each language has its own reasons for motivation. Wed: windowsill, airplane. Over time, the word undergoes a process de-etymologization (i.e. forgetting motivation; cf. cabbage from caput– head). In the case of conjecture of motivation, a phenomenon arises such as false (folk) etymology; compare: semi-clinic, half-over, caterpillar etc.

The entire vocabulary of a language can be considered as a system, the structure of which is determined by the types of lexical meanings and lexico-grammatical categories of words. So, all words can be classified into categories parts of speech in accordance with their lexico-grammatical relevance. Depending on the relationship of lexical meaning, they can be distinguished polysemantic words, homonyms , synonyms , antonyms , paronyms etc. From the point of view of language changes in the lexical composition, the following are distinguished: neologisms (new words that have appeared in the language are the result of various types of borrowings or changes in the semantic structure of words existing in the language - computer, dealer), historicisms (words naming realities that have gone out of use - chain mail, bast shoes), archaisms (outdated words – eyes, cheeks).

The concept of systematic language and its structure came to the science of language at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. In this way, linguistics to some extent reflected the general trend in the formation of scientific knowledge (cf. the emergence of ideas about systematicity in other sciences: Charles Darwin’s theory of the origin of species, Dmitry Mendeleev’s system of chemical elements, etc.).

It should be added that the language system is in a process of constant change. Is it true, different levels languages ​​change in different ways, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The lexical level turns out to be the most mobile: new words and new meanings appear, some words fall out of use, etc.

Thus, the language system, on the one hand, strives for change, and on the other hand, it must maintain integrity, otherwise the language will cease to fulfill its functions, since people will no longer understand each other. These are two opposite processes that affect the system, so it is customary to say that the language system is always in a state relative equilibrium.

ASSIGNMENTS ON TOPIC 5

Questions and practice tasks

1. Why do you think people came from understanding the connections between objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality to describing these connections in accordance with the principle of systematicity in the 19th century?

2. What examples of system description from other sciences can you give?

3. Why do they say that language is a “system of systems”?

A. Draw a diagram of the language system. Try to show in this diagram all types of relationships between language units.

B. Solve the problem.

Suggestions given

· The elephant surprises everyone with its big ears.

· He was driving the car on a dusty road.

· I knew her as a little boy.

· He was reading a book on a warm evening.

· The rocket pierced the clouds with black lightning.

· He dug up the bed with a sharp shovel

· I knew him as a little boy.

· I thought he was a total fool.

· He left Kursk by the evening train.

In these sentences, the instrumental case of the last noun has different meanings. To find out this difference, it is enough to redo (transform) these sentences so that their meaning is preserved, but instead of a phrase with the instrumental case, they contain some other grammatical construction (it is allowed to transform the entire sentence, and not just a phrase with the instrumental case).

Using these transformations, try to distinguish as many (all?) of these sentences as possible from each other.

Come up with your own suggestions for a similar task.

IN. Solve the problem.

Words given Same And Also. Find: a) a sentence with the word too, where instead of Same cannot be consumed Also(the sentence will become incorrect); b) a sentence where instead of Also cannot be consumed Same; c) a sentence where these words are interchangeable.

G. Comment on Jean Aitchison's statement. What does the author want to draw our attention to?

LITERATURE

1. Rozhdestvensky V.S. Lectures on general linguistics.

2. Khrolenko A.T. General linguistics.

3. Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary.

4. Stepanov Yu.S. Fundamentals of linguistics.

The language is bidirectional. Thus, with the help of language we comprehend perceived reality. And at the same time, it is aimed at the inner, spiritual world of man. Consequently, two spheres closely interact in language: material and spiritual. Language recreates the material world in its secondary - ideal manifestation.

One of the main tasks of linguistics is to identify the patterns of the internal structure of language. A deep and consistent study of the internal organization of language began in the 19th century and was formed as an independent theory by the middle of the 20th century thanks to the establishment of a systems approach in science.

The systematic approach in linguistics received diametrically opposed assessments: complete support and complete denial. The first gave rise to linguistic structuralism, the second - the desire of supporters of the so-called traditional linguistics to defend priorities historical method, which, in their opinion, is incompatible with the system. This intransigence stems mainly from different understandings of what a “system” is.

In philosophy, “system” is “order”, “organization”, “whole”, “aggregate”, “totality”. Further we observe the semantic complication of the concept. It is conceptualized as a “self-developing idea,” an integrity containing many steps. As scientists note, since the second half of the 20th century we can talk about a developed systemic style of thinking.

Currently, systems are classified into: 1) material (consisting of material objects) and ideal (from concepts, ideas, images); 2) simple (consisting of homogeneous elements) - complex (uniting heterogeneous groupings or classes of objects); primary (consisting of elements that are significant for the system due to their natural properties) - secondary (elements of which are used specifically to transmit information, for this reason such systems are called semiotic, that is, symbolic; integral (in which the connections between the elements are stronger than the connections of the elements with the environment) - summative (in which the connections between the elements are the same as the connections between the elements and the environment); dynamic - static (that is, interacting with the environment) - closed;

What place does language occupy in this classification of systems? It is impossible to unambiguously classify a language into one of the types due to the multi-qualitative nature of language. It belongs to the category of complex systems, since it combines heterogeneous elements (phonemes, morphemes, words, etc.) The question of the scope of localization (or existence) of language remains debatable. The opinion that it exists in the form of linguistic memory is not unfounded, but, nevertheless, this is not the only condition for its existence. The second condition for its existence is the material embodiment of its ideal side in linguistic complexes.

Since the ideal and material sides are inextricably linked in language, and it is intended to transmit information not by nature, but as a result of the purposeful activities of people to consolidate and express semantic information (that is, ideal systems - concepts, ideas), it should be considered as a secondary semiotic system .

Representatives of structuralism view the language system as closed, rigid and uniquely determined. Comparativists, if they consider language a system, then only a holistic, dynamic, open and self-organizing system. This understanding satisfies both traditional and new directions in the science of language. What is the relationship between the concept of “language system” and such related concepts as “totality”, “whole”, “organization”, “element” and “structure”? Before answering this question, it is necessary to find out how the concepts of “elements” and “units” of a language relate, since the “system” of a language presupposes the presence of minimal, further indivisible components of which it consists.

With the development of the systematic study of language and the desire to understand the internal properties of linguistic phenomena, there is a tendency towards a meaningful distinction between the concepts of “elements” and “units” of language as a part and a whole. As components of language units (their expression plan or content plan), language elements are not independent, since they express only some properties of the language system. Units of language have all the properties of a language system and, as integral formations, are characterized by relative independence (ontological and functional). Units of language form the first system-forming factor.

The concept of “system” in linguistics is closely related to the concept of “structure”. A system is understood as a language as a whole, since it is characterized by an ordered collection of its units, while a structure is the structure of a system. In other words, systematicity is a property of a language, and structure is a property of a language system.

Linguistic units differ both quantitatively, qualitatively, and functionally. Collections of homogeneous language units form subsystems called tiers or levels.

The structure of a language is a set of regular connections and relationships between linguistic units, depending on their nature and determining the qualitative uniqueness of the language system as a whole and the nature of its functioning. The uniqueness of a language structure is determined by the nature of connections and relationships between linguistic units.

A relationship is the result of a comparison of two or more units of language according to some common basis or characteristic. This is an indirect dependence of linguistic units, in which a change in one of them does not lead to a change in the others. The following relationships are fundamental to the linguistic structure: hierarchical, established between heterogeneous units (phonemes and morphemes; morphemes and lexemes, etc.); oppositional, according to which either linguistic units or their characteristics are opposed to each other.

Connections of linguistic units are defined as a special case of their relations, implying the direct dependence of linguistic units. In this case, a change in one unit leads to a change in others. The structure of a language acts as a law of connection between these elements and units within a certain system or subsystem of a language, which presupposes the presence, along with dynamism and variability, of such an important property of structure as stability. Thus, stability and variability are two dialectically related and “opposing tendencies of the linguistic structure. In the process of functioning and development of a language system, its structure manifests itself as a form of expression of stability, and function as a form of expression of variability. The structure of language, due to its stability and variability, acts as the second most important system-forming factor.

The third factor in the formation of a language system (subsystem) is the properties of a language unit, namely: the manifestation of its nature, internal content through its relationship to other units. The properties of linguistic units are sometimes considered as functions of the subsystem (level) formed by them. The internal and external properties of linguistic units are highlighted. Internal ones depend on the connections and relationships established between homogeneous units of one subsystem or between units of different subsystems, while external ones depend on the connections and relationships of linguistic units to reality, to the surrounding world, to the thoughts and feelings of a person. These are such properties of linguistic units as the ability to name, designate, indicate, etc. Internal and external properties are called subsystem (or level) functions. What is the structure of a language system? To answer this question, it is necessary to reveal the essence of those connections and relationships thanks to which linguistic units form a system. These connections and relationships are located along two system-forming axes of the language structure: horizontal (reflecting the property of linguistic units to be combined with each other, thereby performing the communicative function of language); vertical (reflecting the connection of linguistic units with the neurophysiological mechanism of the brain as the source of its existence). The vertical axis of the linguistic structure represents paradigmatic relations, and the horizontal axis represents syntagmatic relations, designed to activate two fundamental mechanisms speech activity: nomination and predication. Syntagmatic refers to all types of relationships between linguistic units in a speech chain. They implement the communicative function of language. Paradigmatic are the associative-semantic relations of homogeneous units, as a result of which linguistic units are united into classes, groups, categories, that is, into paradigms. This includes variants of the same language unit, synonymous series, antonymic pairs, lexical-semantic groups and semantic fields, etc. Syntagmatics and paradigmatics characterize internal structure language as the most important system-forming factors that presuppose and mutually condition each other. By the nature of syntagmatics and paradigmatics, linguistic units are combined into super-paradigms, including homogeneous units of the same degree of complexity. They form levels (tiers) in the language: the level of phonemes, the level of morphemes, the level of lexemes, etc. This multi-level structure of language corresponds to the structure of the brain, which “controls” the mental mechanisms of speech communication.