The role of language in human society. Abstract: The role of language in society
Everyone knows that every country has its own language and culture. The language has been formed for centuries and is still being formed. There are very small countries and tribes where only seven people or fifty people speak a separate dialect. And their way of communication is also included in thousands of languages of the world. Yes, there are more than two thousand languages. Many tribes that still exist in the mountains and forests and communicate with symbols unknown to us.
What do we mean by the word "language"? What languages can we list? What is it for? Most known languages belong to the most developed countries: America, Germany, France... Language is a sign system that has been formed so that we can compare the content of the concept with the sound. Some dialects have developed naturally, and many are intentional, such as the Na'vi language created by linguist Poll Frommer for the film Avatar.
Speech helps us to communicate, share feelings, explain the situation, remember and evaluate events, express our point of view. Knowing only Russian, we will not be able to communicate with the French or Germans. We can pronounce language, write it down with symbols or show it with gestures.
Sign language is also popular among deaf-mutes or people who have lost their hearing. Sign language is less rich in variety, deaf-mutes with different countries are more likely to understand each other. Even people without physical disabilities communicate with gestures. For example, a shrug of the shoulders or a spread of the hands, in each country will be understood the same way. Gestures involve the movement of arms and torso, facial expressions, head tilts.
Without language, mankind would hardly have survived. As they say, "a lone wolf does not live long." Even animals have the ability to communicate. Natural selection assumes that the smartest and largest flock will survive. How more group wolves, and the better they communicate with each other, the more likely it is to catch a deer and feed. That's how people survived. With gestures, symbols, speech, the tribes could come up with a plan to drive the mammoth out and survive. Symbols denoted dangerous places, and thanks to this, they did not drown in the swamp, did not fall off the cliffs, did not stumble upon the tiger's rookery. It was the language that gave us the opportunity to create a civilization where there is light, a safe home, technology.
Among all the creatures of the world, we are the most communicative. Through the development of our speech, we have gained intelligence and the ability to be a super nation. If a cripple is born to animals, then he definitely will not survive. Among our people, a disabled person can become an honorary scientist, computer engineer, physicist or mathematician. Our society, thanks to the intellect, has moved away from the rule "survival of the fittest." We accept everyone and everyone, and a person with physical disabilities can live without fear for his life and receive the same pleasures as others.
Our speech is a piece of the puzzle that allows people to develop and be superior to other animals. “The more languages we know, the more we are people” - this is a speech about the fact that, having the opportunity to exchange our thoughts, we jointly create technology, build cities and develop as a person.
5th grade, 9th grade
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Autumn is a beautiful and very amazing time of the year! Around are trees with yellowed and half-fallen leaves, and underfoot lies a huge carpet
Each of us cognizes the world: for some, knowledge is more difficult, for others it is easier; one matures faster, the other slower. But in any case, none of us can do without our native language, without the simplest words and expressions.
Language is the whole world. native word helps to live.
Since prehistoric times, man has lived in society. This made it necessary for one person to somehow communicate his thoughts, desires, feelings to another. Thus, out of the need to communicate, language emerged.
From early childhood, we learn about the world, at first only out of curiosity, then out of necessity, in order to find our place in it. At the same time, we master the language. It occupies an important place in knowledge. To study any object or phenomenon, you need to name, and then describe it in words. The inability to name objects is also their ignorance. Any problem must be, first of all, formulated in the words of the language. The ability to correctly express your thoughts in words is not easy, but necessary. Even in ordinary conversation, the speaker must be able to express a thought in such a way that the listener understands it accordingly. A poorly expressed thought is not only the inability to speak, but also the inability to think.
Language is part of culture. It occupies the most important place in human activity, allowing one to study science and production, manners and customs, and engage in politics and art.
Finding out the laws of the surrounding world, a person inevitably relates them to himself, trying to understand with his mind and express in his own words.
The history of any language reflects not only the history of the people, but also the most important stages of its development. cultural development. Moreover, the level of culture of the people is largely determined by the degree of development of the language: the presence of a written form, rich vocabulary, which helps to describe any sphere of human activity, the presence of various stylistic forms for all occasions, etc.
The Russian language has all these properties and is the greatest wealth of our people. Writers constantly remind us with their creativity and direct statements that we need to be very careful with this treasure. We call our language native because we speak it since childhood, we think, we dream, our relatives speak it. This is the language of our motherland, in which there is both a resolute, firm word “struggle”, and a soft, tender word “love”, and a kind, soothing word “sympathy”, a warm, affectionate word “mother”.
Ticket number 12
Russian speech etiquette.
Speech etiquette is a system of sustainable forms of communication adopted in accordance with social roles communicating. Areas of use of etiquette forms: greeting, farewell, apology, request, gratitude, etc. Etiquette is an external form of communication, but it is associated with ethics, reflects the moral norms of relations between people. The systems of etiquette speeches are changeable, they accurately reflect the historical time and social strata of their appropriate application. They are situational, "attached" to official and unofficial settings, reflect very subtle differences in the choice of one or another register of communication. For example: Hello!; Hello!; Hello!; Great!; Hello!; How are you?; Healthy bulls! Differences are expressed in addressing you or you, in a village or in a city, among acquaintances and strangers, equal in age or not, etc.
Usually they name at least ten most important situations that have their own set of etiquette words and turns of speech.
Appeal - to one person or to many; official or friendly, with varying degrees of intimacy; to a friend or stranger, to a man or a woman, to an adult or a teenager, a young man; at the stadium at the critical moment of a football match - or in the foyer of the opera house, during the intermission; in the market in the meat rows - or in the embassy of a friendly state: Is it you, Holy Father Sergius? (N.S. Leskov). Using this greeting, it is not difficult to recreate both the situation and the degree of closeness of the interlocutors. The judge is addressed with the words your honor, the president - your excellency, excelent. Dear Alexey Nikolaevich! I don't know how to thank you... (A.P. Chekhov). Dear Katya! - from a letter to a friend.
Greetings when meeting in a variety of situations. Hello, hello! is the most common type of greeting in different languages: wish for health. There is still a salute in Russian - but this is also “health” (Spanish). The wish of health has dozens of options.
Additions are made to the greeting: How are you?, glad to see you, etc.
Farewell - friendly and official, everyday and for a long time, with wishes and without them, etc.: (Goodbye; Farewell!; All the best; All the best; Well, bye!; Chao. Gestures: handshake, etc.
Acquaintance, introduction - Hello. I Commercial Director firm "Vostok", Ivanov Ivan Nikitich. Friendly meeting: Kolya, introduce us! - This is Slava, we study together at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University.
Gratitude is one of the most profound manifestations of ethics through etiquette, and this is reflected in the lexical meanings of etiquette: thank you, thank you!, I am very obliged to you (or you); Senk-yu (English), grazio (Italian), graces (Spanish), dzenkue (Polish), thanks (Bulgarian), danke (German); usually with a hint of a joke.
Gratitude usually elicits a response from those being thanked: please; do not mention it!; eat (eat) for health; and thank you for everything!
Congratulations on the holiday, with any significant events; congratulations are usually preceded by an appeal, a greeting.
Dear Nikolai Ivanovich! With all my heart I am glad of your success - the brilliant completion of the work of many years. yours A new book- a genuine contribution to the culture of Russia. I congratulate you and bow. In this example, form and content are harmoniously merged.
Wish is one of the freest etiquette structures. They wish their friends and acquaintances: good health, long life, success in work and study, in creative activity, well-being and prosperity, joy and happiness - to children and all relatives.
Apologies: I'm sorry, please!, I'm sorry!, I beg your pardon, don't judge me harshly! - playfully, familiarly.
Request: please; I ask you (you); I ask for your assistance (in some undertaking); I have a big request to you...; help for Christ! After the etiquette beginning, the content of the request usually follows.
Invitation: to a scientific conference, to the Geographical Society of Russia for a presentation, for a birthday (name) to his friends, a subpoena as a witness and much more .
The rules of speech etiquette include a ban on the use of obscene vocabulary and other rude words, jargon, etc. in a decent society. to a bad company and understands its catchphrases (I just can’t get it; I fell in love with my neighbor; I sang with my kid, etc.). Your interlocutor, most likely, will be unpleasant that you think so of him. It is better not to use such units of speech at all, but if you really want to “sharpen” your style with their rare, single use, then do it with some kind of reservation: He is at this job, as they say simple people, lafa; He, to use a thieves expression, was simply set up! and so on.
A few compliments. Compliments or flattering words must be answered accordingly, and if you know how, then unconventionally. So, an enthusiastic statement about the qualities of your mind, your soul can be answered with the words of a character from a French film: Thank you. The compliment, though undeserved, but pleasant. It can be simpler: I'm afraid that it only seemed to you; I don't know if this is true; I wish it was true!; This is, of course, an exaggeration!; I find it hard to believe. Any response to praise must be delicate.
The owner (organizer) or his spouse should invite you to visit or to some event. It is not tactful to resort to the help of a third party. It is better to do this in person (or by phone), choosing heartfelt words and expressions.
The invitation should be answered definitely (will you come or not), not using evasive answers (if ..., I will try to come ..., I don’t know, it’s hard for me to say now). The inviter must know exactly whether you will come or not. It is indecent to ask: Who else will!, ask (offer) to postpone the event to another day, “respond” to the invitation with a long pause, as if you are weighing whether it is worth it or not to accept it. If you are forced to refuse, give a sufficiently convincing reason. If you find it difficult to give an immediate answer, then say that you will give it in the near future. When refusing, thank for the invitation, adding unfortunately or the equivalent I would very much like, I would be very happy, but ...
While at the table, do not say anything that might spoil the appetite of others. In particular, do not mention the violation of hygiene in cooking, questionable types of food: someone may be too impressionable. Do not follow Sobakevich:
An important issue of speech etiquette is addressing the interlocutor in various personal situations.
It is most neutral and at the same time respectful to call a person by his first name and patronymic when we address him or when we talk about him in his absence. This is suitable for most cases when communicating with cultured people.
However, one should not use the name and patronymic too often, almost in every phrase in a private conversation:
Have you been to France, Alexei Vladimirovich? How did you like it there, Alexei Vladimirovich? Will you go there next time, Alexei Vladimirovich?
Such a construction of speech can cause the interlocutor to have a negative attitude towards the speaker.
If you address someone by their first name and patronymic, then you should also call him behind his back: Alexey Vladimirovich recently returned from France, etc. If your interlocutor notices that in the presence of a person you call him by his first name and patronymic, and in his absence - by his last name (Spiridonov returned from France yesterday) or simply by his first name, then such a difference will mean for him that your respectfulness does not extend too far, or perhaps it is generally insincere, purely formal.
Sometimes, with a hint of some kind of joke, they call a person (behind his eyes) by his patronymic: Well, what did Mikhalych say? Petrovna called you, etc. This anthroponymic formula is respectful in the common people or in informal communication, but in an official setting it is not suitable: there is a mixture of styles.
The surname formula has long existed in secular communication, but it needs specific conditions, outside of which it will turn out to be tactless. It is normal to address or call the absent person by their last name, if it is a colleague of equal rank, or a classmate, or an old friend. In the past, this formula expressed a special shade of disposition towards a person. For example, this is how noble colleagues, friends Denisov and Nikolai Rostov addressed each other in War and Peace by L.N. Tolstoy. This is how Tatyana Larina addresses Onegin: Onegin, I was younger then, I think I was better ... In our time, this appeal has been preserved. But in some cases, its use is doubtful or has a shade of bad taste when talking with a subordinate or when mentioning him, when talking about a boss (especially in his presence), when students talk about their teacher.
It is tactless to call an acquaintance like this (addressing him or talking about him in his presence), who is not a close friend, etc.
In the presence of a person, it is tactless to say he (or she):
But he does not agree with such a position (plus a nod to the appropriate person); Ask him, he knows best.
Don't end a sentence for someone else. This is close to interrupting the speaker, and can irritate him. The one who finishes for the other, as it were, “helps” him to say something, thereby instilling the idea that he has a poor command of speech. In addition, "finish" may not have the same meaning as the speaker wanted to express, and as a result there is some awkwardness.
Do not try to "outdo" the interlocutor and in general all those present with something - intelligence, competence, bringing more interesting fact. This is what children do, and it is better for an adult to be more modest.
Do not publicly correct a person if you notice what he did speech error: You thereby put him in an awkward position. If corrected, thank you politely: Quite possibly. I will keep it in mind. Even if they “correct” it wrong (and this happens), for example, you said enviously, and they tell you: you need to say enviably, answer very simply: Really? May be. I'll check it in a dictionary. If you prove your case (and, suppose you prove it), then some discomfort in communication may result.
Often we say hello to our friends, acquaintances, relatives. There are certain rules of speech behavior in these cases. You should only say hello when you know the recipient. Otherwise, it is inappropriate. You can say hello to a person if you know each other by hearsay, cooperate at a distance, but have not met yet. Persons much older than you or much higher socially should not say hello, but bow, otherwise there may be a shade of inappropriate familiarity (and ask the intermediary to convey exactly the bow, as he may be indifferent to such subtlety).
You should not impose your mediation in sending greetings: I will soon see such and such, convey greetings to him from you? and so on. The fact is that by doing this you can put the interlocutor in an awkward position: after all, it will be embarrassing for him to answer No, do not pass, thereby recognizing that he has a difficult relationship with the mentioned addressee.
It is impolite to speak to someone in a language that the rest of the audience does not know.
It is not tactful to interfere in someone else's conversation. Thus, you violate the concept of "communicative immunity". In Europe, this is observed sacredly, but in our country “excessive sociability” is not considered something special. Think about it, would it be nice for you if someone else intervened in your conversation with a friend, acquaintance, colleague?
Ticket number 13
Popular sport
Figure skating is a kind of speed skating, which is based on the movements of an athlete on ice to music, with changes in the direction of sliding, rotation, jumps, combinations of steps and patterns of figures in single skating, and lifts in pair skating.
Modern figure skating includes four independent species: single skating (male and female), pair skating, sports dancing and synchronized skating. Each type is unique in its own way.
Currently, singles and pairs figure skating includes short and free programs to music. The short program includes the execution of eight prescribed elements with connecting or connecting steps for 2 minutes 40 seconds.
In sports dances, two obligatory dances are performed, an original one with the required rhythm, and an arbitrary dance.
Performances are evaluated on a six-point system. The short program evaluates the technique of the eight prescribed elements and the presented program. In the free program, technique and artistry are evaluated. In the free dance, technical skill and artistic impression are evaluated. The place of each participant or pair is determined by the absolute majority of judges - an odd number.
Since 1891, European championships have been held in figure skating, and since 1896, world championships. The first of them took place in 1896 in the capital of Russia, St. Petersburg. The development of this sport is led by the International Skating Union - ISU, which was founded in 1892.
Olympic competitions in singles and pairs figure skating were held at the Games of the IV and VII Olympiads in 1908 and 1920. Since 1924, figure skating has been included in the program of the Winter Olympic Games. Ice dancing has been a part of the Winter Olympics since 1976.
In each type of Olympic competition, a country can enter one participant or a couple. A country whose athletes in the pre-Olympic year took 1st to 5th place in this event at the World Championships can be represented by three participants, pairs, and from 6th to 10th place - by two participants, pairs. Nina and Stanislav Zhuk were the first Soviet figure skaters to achieve success in the international arena. During 1958-1960. they performed brilliantly at European championships, winning silver medals. At the Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley (1960), they took sixth place, but already at the next games, L. Belousova and O. Protopopov won gold medals.
Since 1969, I. Rodnina and A. Ulanov have become leaders in pair skating. For four years they collected the entire harvest of gold medals at the European and World Championships and consolidated their success with a victory at the Olympic Games in Sapporo (1972). Then A. Zaitsev began to act as a partner of I. Rodnina. Together they twice became Olympic champions - in Innsbruck (1976) and in Lake Placid (1980). In the same years, they won the titles of European champions seven times and world champions six times.
Sports dancing on ice is the youngest form of figure skating. Soviet athletes did not take part in it until 1965. Having quickly achieved high skill, our duets began to claim leading roles. In 1970, L. Pakhomova and A. Gorshkov rightfully took the leading place in the European and World Championships, brilliantly won the title of the first Olympic champions in ice dancing in 1976. I. Moiseeva and A. Minenkov picked up the winning baton, and then N. Linichuk and G. Karponosov took the lead. Both pairs won the titles of world and European champions twice.
Ticket number 14
Is it necessary to protect nature from man?
The future of the Earth depends on each of us! After all, any flower, a small blade of grass, even the most unremarkable living creature at first glance is beautiful and interesting in its own way, deserves our attention and good attitude.
It is impossible not to say about the trouble in which nature found itself. For centuries, people took everything they wanted from her, sparing nothing and no one, not thinking about the consequences. Many plants and animals have already disappeared from the face of the Earth because of this, and many others are about to disappear. Instead of forests, deserts appeared in many places through the fault of people, and instead of clean rivers, muddy streams flowed, from which it is impossible to drink, in which it is dangerous to swim. There are fewer butterflies, dragonflies, and flowers on the forest edges from year to year. but more and more garbage, fires, broken trees. We, in the eternal rush and bustle, often do not notice how quickly nature is dying. But she needs our help.
Nothing can replace living, changeable nature. After all, we ourselves are a part of it. And if nature suffers, we will suffer too. nature's wounds become deeper and more painful every day. But you have to take care of your big house about the earth we live on. destroying animals and plants, polluting the air, soil, water, people cause irreparable harm to themselves. We must always remember this and take care of everything that surrounds us.
People, stop! The Earth has very little strength left... She is very tired... We need to help her before it's too late. We are all responsible for the future of the Earth, since our world is not only our home, our hobbies, activities, food. it is also water, air, plants, animals and birds. Everything in nature is interconnected.
Each person must understand that nature is now bad. And be sure to help her. Necessarily! Like a friend in need.
Ticket number 15
Similar information.
Introduction
I was attracted to the title of the topic of my essay "Language: essence, origin, functions, role and place in the life of society", the concept of "language". It is interesting to know what is hidden behind this "word". Language, in my understanding, is a mystery to be unraveled.
The greatest mystery of language lies in its naturalness. It is as familiar and imperceptible as breathing. We can talk about everything. But we do not always think about how air vibrations perceived by the ear can tell us about colors and smells. sizes and shapes known through sight and touch. The world of thought, embodied in "fragile sound", flourishes and asserts itself along with the world of nature.
Language is one of the reasons why human life is interesting and moves forward.
In order to deal with the topic of my essay, I must, relying on the points of view of great thinkers, look into the depths of the well of history, answer the question: "When did human language arise?" I will also try to answer other questions posed by me, arising from the title of this work: "What is the essence of language?"; "What functions does the language perform?"; "What is the language in the life of society?"
These questions are arranged in such a logical chain that will help me deal with the problem posed.
I believe that at this point in time the topic has not lost its relevance. Because, from ancient thinkers to modern thinkers, the problem of "language" is nothing more than an intertwining of possible misconceptions with possibly correct ideas.
The relevance of the topic stems from its complexity.
Four questions have been put before me, answering which I begin to consider this topic "Language: essence, origin, functions, role and place in the life of society".
Chapter 1
1.1 How did human language originate?
One of the questions is posed: "How did human language arise?" This question is not resolved and it looks like it will take a very long time to answer it. So what is this chapter about? In it, I consider the search for an answer to the question of the origin of human language. Any problem can be correctly stated when it is already solved. From here you can trace the course of its solution, but if there are no answers, then the unidirectional logic of history disappears. Ancient Greek thinkers believed that the stable world of ideas is the only reality worthy of study, because it contains the meaning of being. This happened when they were aware of nature, language and mind. After all, any person is a person, as long as he embodies the nature of man in general. And an act is just only because it expresses justice as such. But in the world around us there are only specific people and specific actions, and there is neither a person in general, nor justice in itself. We can talk about them without being able to show them. They exist only through language. Language has measured nature with man, and man with himself. Thanks to this, the level of human culture "grew". And where, after all, is that moment in time in the past when the language itself arose? Let's consider several points of view.
1.2 A. Verzhbovsky's theory of the origin of man ("Theory of onomatopoeia")
A. Verzhbovsky claims that "everything that ever existed and existing languages Homo sapiens have a consanguineous common Cro-Magnon origin (regardless of one or more places of Humanization of the Primate, since the Tribal Organization dates back to one single Cave from where it (like the "Bee Families" and organized living beings gaining experience in the struggle for survival) was scattered to every corner of the earth."
In his opinion, A. Verzhbovsky, the first words were root bases - "two-consonant first signals of onomatopoeic origin." Their emergence occurred among members of the humanizing community. The words were then divided into two groups.
The first of the groups of words was intended to name the "terrifying forces of nature." For example: 1) GaN - RaN "for naming Thunder at Sunset/Sunrise"; 2) Man - "for the Flying Dragon"; 3) YesN - "to express the joy of the younger members of the Humanizing Community that the beast is killed, brought and thrown to be devoured by children."
The second group is actually human. These are the titles of the first cave ancestors "according to production functions". For example: 1) aM is the title of the progenitors called by the "Watchdog Female to feed the suckling youngest crybabies"; 2) "ac - the smallest; 3) Ai - av- "Knee of Grandchildren Crybabies on south side of the entire Cave, who were taught by females";
) Al - Ar - the title of the guys who "already drove the animals with screams into the trapping pits" in order to kill them with stones; 5) Ag - "Older Children"; 6) Ab- "First-knee men", who "made up a team of hunters armed with the heaviest stones.
A. Verzhbovsky described the first few words of the human language. After all, it is no less greatest achievement than deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. But such an event went unnoticed, because "granddaughter crybabies" are not science, but "a fairy tale for adults." The results of such a study cannot be verified. Why did the inhabitants of the cave have to give the name "Flying Dragon", and not "Saber-toothed tiger"? This "fairy tale" was published as scientific work, and this cannot be overlooked. Science cannot but pay attention to such an event and go its own way. Of course, this does not happen. But the appearance of such works indicates that this field of knowledge has not yet taken shape in science.
Consider another version of the origin of the language.
1.3 Divine theory about language ("Old Testament version")
It says the following version of the origin of the language: 1) "The Lord God formed from the earth the animals of the field and all the birds of the sky, and brought (them) to a man to see how he would call them, and to know how he would call every living soul, so it was her name, and the man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to all the beasts of the field…” .
) "The whole earth had one language and one dialect ... And they said: let us build ourselves a name, before we are scattered over the face of the earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building. And the Lord said: behold, one people, and they all have one language: and this is what they began to do, and they will not be left behind from what they planned to do: let us go down and confuse their language there, so that one does not understand the speech of the other. And the Lord scattered them over all the earth, and they They stopped building the city and the “tower.” Therefore, the name Babylon was given to it, for there the Lord confounded the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over all the earth.”
If you try to understand these texts, they can be understood very broadly. Back in the 3rd century, Ephraim the Sirin said that Adam invented a thousand names in one hour, which became the basis of the original Hebrew language. For more than a thousand years, no one doubts that the Hebrew language is the first language of mankind.
The first word that was uttered by Adam, according to Dante, is the Hebrew word "EL" - God.
It follows from the "divine theory" that Adam was created speaking the Hebrew language, and Eve, their children, their children's children, etc., learned this language from him.
During the construction of the Tower of Babel, the Lord mixed up the language of Adam. According to E. Sirin, God breathed the ability to create a language into a person, and its further change is its own imperfect creation.
What is the theory of "I"?
.4 What theory do I adhere to?
It seems to me that the most reliable version of the origin of man is the theory of onomatopoeia, which A. Verzhbovsky adheres to. You can see that people sigh, shout, react differently to different objects. Now we ask ourselves the question: why are these reactions clear to everyone? Because the same sounds refer to the same things. But how could this be achieved if people still cannot agree: the language has not yet appeared. It turns out that sounding objects or animals are depicted by voice, imitating them.
If someone says "woof-woof!" - everyone will understand that a dog is meant, and if he says "coo-coo!", no one will think that it is a tiger. That's where the first words come from!
At first, people cuckooed, yapped, crowed, growled. And when we saved up words, then the life of our ancestor became easier.
Another argument in favor of the theory of onomatopoeia: if people learn language by imitating the sounds of other people, then who could the first people imitate? Only the sounds of nature. However, this overlooks a tiny detail: it is not clear what "first people" means. These, apparently, are some people who have just appeared, jumping out, for example, from a shark (as Anaximander believed). This question is easier to answer for an anthropologist.
Now let's try to consider and try to answer the following question, which I put before myself in the introduction: "What is the essence of language?"
Chapter 2 The Essence of Language
2.1 Understanding "language"
Let us put before ourselves the question in order to understand the "essence of language": "What is "language"?"
In my work, I will consider two points of view on the concept of the term "language": linguistic, for example, L. L. Verzhbovsky and philosophical - E. Cassirer.
From a linguistic point of view, the word "language" means a system of signs - what constitutes the subject of linguistics, and to be more precise, language is a system of interrelated categories that allowed a person to create and maintain a sign system of language. At the lexical level, each language encodes some areas of experience in greater detail than others. There is an opinion that if in a certain language there is only one word as the meaning of a phenomenon, then this word easily becomes a classification principle for speakers given language. Two additional examples given by L. L. Verzhbovsky:
The Hopi people designate with the same word all flying objects, except birds (for example: planes, insects, pilots), while in most languages there are separate concepts for all these things.
On the other hand, the Eskimos use a number of different words for snow: falling snow, melted snow, dry snow - then, as they usually use one word "snow".
The linguist is trying to reconstruct exactly the system of signs (which, for example, L. L. Verzhbovsky did).
The linguistic point of view is not enough to answer the question: "What is a "language"?", consider philosophical views with the help of one of the thinkers E. Cassirer.
In his understanding, "language" is a not fully understood specific feature of a person, which, on the one hand, reflects, on the other hand, fixes a certain view of the world. Language is the ability to express one's thoughts reflected in consciousness, through the nature of meanings. The nature of meaning was considered, in his opinion, in connection with all kinds of human activities. She acted as a problem of social behavior and communication of people. Cassirer held the idea that in human activity things acquire a symbolic function. The terms of ordinary and scientific language, the phenomena of art, the concepts of morality, philosophical categories, and others concentrate thoughts and feelings common to a given culture. With the help of symbols, a person crosses his individual boundaries and participates in the collective mental process (public consciousness, public opinion, the spirit of the era, etc.). The philosophy of symbolic forms in the interpretation of E. Cassirer covered not only the actual cognitive, but also other types of sign activity: artistic, mythical, religious, ritual and others, where a person gives certain human meaning to certain natural or artificial objects. The psychological phenomena of human life and the reactions of people in the process of communication were also included in the problem of meaning. With all the breadth of his approach, Cassirer, in accordance with his idealistic philosophical positions, refers "language" exclusively to the internal sphere. human consciousness.
I have considered two points of view on the concept of "language" from different fields of science: linguistics and philosophy. Obviously, only philosophy is interested in finding a connection between human consciousness and language. With the help of symbols, a person is able to express his thoughts. But if one adheres to a philosophical point of view, is a linguistic one necessary?
Remaining on the neutral side between the versions of the concept of "language" that I have considered, it seems to me that without the literacy of the presentation of one's thoughts and their exact presentation, the "culture" of a person degrades.
2.2 Relationship between "language" and "speech"
What is the relationship between "language" and "speech"? Are "language" and "speech" the same thing? To answer this question, let's compare two points of view on these categories: linguistic and philosophical.
Linguistics has always used the term "language" , and only from the beginning of the 20th century. the concept of "speech" appears. Language and speech together form a single phenomenon, and at the same time there are fundamental differences between them.
Let us ask ourselves the question: what is "speech"?
"Speech" - this is a specific speaking that takes place in sound or written form, this is everything that is said and written: a conversation between acquaintances, a speech at a rally, a speech by a lawyer, a scientific essay, a poem, a story, a report, etc.
But speech is impossible without language. For example, foreign speech will be perceived as an incomprehensible continuous hum, in which it is difficult to distinguish words, sentences if we do not know the language. Speech is built according to the laws of the language, is produced by the language, represents its embodiment, implementation. As L. L. Verzhbovsky wrote.
"Language is both a tool and a product of speech." In other words, language creates speech and at the same time creates itself in speech.
We read the text, we hear the speech. By observing and analyzing spoken and written speech, we comprehend the structure of language as a "mechanism" that generates speech. For example, in order to "discover" such a part of speech as a noun, linguists had to analyze a huge amount of speech material. And then it turned out that there are words that have the meaning of objectivity and have certain grammatical features, that is, they behave in speech in the same way.
But language, unlike speech, is not given to us in direct perception. “You can master the language and you can think about the language,” wrote the famous linguist A.A. Reformatsky, “but you can’t see or touch the language. You can’t even hear it in the direct meaning of this word” (4, p. 65).
Indeed, one can hear or pronounce a word, a sentence, a whole text, but it is impossible to "touch" a noun or a verb. These are abstract concepts that are extracted from speech, much like iron from ore.
So, speech is material, it is perceived by the senses. And what do thinkers think about the relationship between "language" and "speech"?
From the point of view of philosophy, relying on the material of M.S. Kozlova, “language” is a not fully understood specific feature of a person, which, on the one hand, reflects, on the other hand, fixes a certain view of the world. Speech is the realization of language, the process of speaking and the result of this process.
Speech is material, it is perceived by the senses - hearing, sight and even touch, for example, texts for the blind. Language is a system of categories derived from speech that govern speech, but are inaccessible to our senses or sensations. Language is comprehended by the mind, the scientific analysis of speech.
There are other distinctive features of language and speech. Unlike language, speech is individual and concrete.
For example, the lines: "My uncle - the most honest rules ..." belong to A.S. Pushkin.
Language, unlike speech, is collective, fundamentally impersonal, it belongs to everyone (to paraphrase A. Pushkin): an academician, a hero, a navigator, and a carpenter.
The same Russian language gives birth to literary masterpieces and clerical speech, poetry and prose, travel notes and reports, judicial speech and scientific.
Speech is not only concrete and individual, but also infinite.
For example: even the largest libraries cannot contain everything written - books, magazines, newspapers, archives, manuscripts, diaries. And if we include sounding speech here, then the ocean, the universe of speech, will be truly boundless, inexhaustible.
Speech is mobile, dynamic, language is stable. It is the stability of the language that ensures its continuity from generation to
generation. Language changes, develops, but much more slowly than speech. And this is the guarantee of its stability, safety through the ages.
Changes in language are laid down and begin in speech. Having an individual character, speech allows improvisation, deviations from language norms. At first, speech innovations cause surprise, even protests, but then some of them, spreading more and more, become the property of the entire language community, pass into the language.
Comparing the two points of view, we conclude that language is a system of signs and ways of connecting them, which serves as an instrument for expressing thoughts, feelings and will of people and is the most important means of human communication. In addition, language is also a means of cognition, allowing people to accumulate knowledge, passing it on from person to person and from each generation of people to the next generations.
2.3 Thought-images
Can "language" be "language" without thought-images?
We need to compare several views on the topic of this problem in order to answer the question posed.
Leontiev A.A. believes that language does not often mislead us. He serves us faithfully. Moreover, it is the use of language that determines the theoretical thinking of a person. And this fully applies not only to an adult, but also to a child whose mental abilities are just being formed.
Language turns out to be a faithful assistant to a person in the case that was only mentioned above - when teaching arithmetic to first-graders. If you teach a child in a new way (teach him to think), then the verbal formulation of the problem comes first. This method of teaching is based on a certain psychological theory - "the theory of mental actions", developed by associate professor of Moscow University P. Ya. Galperin. According to the "theory of mental actions", human thought (mental action) is always born as an external action - with material objects. To teach a child to count, he must first learn to operate with real objects. Then the skill developed in this way seems to be curtailed, "growing" into the human consciousness. In other words, it goes from external to internal. .
And now it turns out that the first step of "clotting" and "growing" is the translation of the action into a speech form. In order to learn to count instantly in the mind, the child must describe in words his initial material action, i.e. shifting pencils from left to right or throwing bones on the abacus. The child should have images-thoughts.
Language is used by our thinking, and above all, in those cases when we encounter the use of inner speech.
Inner speech is speech that "serves" only thinking and does not serve, like other types of speech, the goals of communication. A classic example of inner speech can be found in any classroom in any school at the moment when the teacher opens the magazine to start the survey. .
In the reflections of philosophers, from the work of M.S. Kozlova, for a long time now the thought of the closest connection between human thinking and "language" has been either muffled or more clearly heard. Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, D.S. Mill... In the philosophy of modern times, this idea is perhaps more convincingly defended by Hobbes than many others: to think means to use words. "Reason is nothing but taking into account the consequences of agreed common names" Logicians noted the linguistic nature of thinking: "Language, obviously (and all thinkers agree with this), is one of the main tools of thought." The unity of language and thinking was also understood by the leading representatives of linguistics.
Marxism accepted, deepened and developed the idea of the connection between thinking and language. "The "spirit" is cursed from the very beginning - to be "burdened" by matter, which appears here in the form of moving layers of air, sounds - words, in the form of language ... language is practical, existing for other people and only thereby existing also for myself, real consciousness. "The materialistic theory of society created by Marx provided for the first time scientific basis to study the connection between human thinking and language as a social tool of thought, the history of language as an embodied history of thinking, etc.
Based on two views of different scientists, it follows that language and thinking are closely related. Language is used by our thinking when we encounter the use of inner speech.
.4 Ideal language
While "language" was developing, did thinkers try to create an "ideal language"? Russell, Wittgenstein and their followers dreamed of a symbolism in which all signs are unambiguous, and their relations are regulated by "logical grammar", "logical syntax". It was assumed that the ideal language overcomes such inconvenient properties of natural language in scientific analysis as complexity, ambiguity, psychological associations, fuzzy logical form. In a universal formalized language, according to the authors of this idea, the internal structure of thought should be crystallized. Concept logically perfect language relied on the distinction between essential, necessary and random, external features of linguistic symbolism. It was meant that the revelation of the internal logical structure of linguistic thinking is achieved in the course of analysis, which reveals the hidden logical nature of signs. A perfect language was conceived as an ideal or limit of formalized logical analysis, as a fully analyzed language. It seemed to Russell that in the case of bringing the analysis to logical completeness, we should get an "ideal" language containing only simple signs, the meanings of which are directly familiar to us (real "things", properties, relations and logical forms). Such language, it seemed to Russell, "straight up to reality." The idea of such a language was picked up by Wittgenstein.
When presenting the concept of an "ideal" or "logically perfect language, the views of Russell and Witenstein often do not differentiate. Meanwhile, there is a certain difference.
On a number of issues, the student disagrees with the teacher. This problem formed the main subject of Wittgenstein's later reflections. What were Wittgenstein's objections to Russell? Wittgenstein strongly disagrees with Russell's view that sentences are names of complexes, believing that it leads to the positing of "logical objects" as the meanings of logical sentences.
In an ideal language, it wasn't hard to know general principles building a logical system. The development of a formalized logical analysis was accompanied by a refinement of various types of relations between signs and the signified. Influenced by the ideas of formalization, Russell and Wittgenstein set out to develop a unified theory of the essential, necessary properties of linguistic symbolism, scientific knowledge. The doctrine of ideal language was the idea of a universal logical structure of science. It was, first of all, the logical absolutization of one of the specific logical languages.
The problem of the ideal language has not yet been solved, but attempts to solve it have already been made. The problem persists until it is resolved.
Chapter 3
3.1 Man and "language"
Man is a temporary carrier of the universal human mind, the socio-historical experience of mankind. He received it from his ancestors and will pass it on to his descendants with the help of "language". And if this experience does not pass, so to speak, through his brain, he (experience) will cease to exist altogether. The history of mankind will end. Leontiev A.A. gives an example that if on our planet, as a result of some kind of cosmic catastrophe, the entire adult population died. Only small children survived. In such a case, human culture would perish completely.
The experience of the ancestors, assimilated by each individual
man, is deposited in his brain in the form of the so-called "pre-program", and it, being embedded in the human brain by mankind, allows him to be the owner of the "smart machine" itself, which has an immeasurably smaller amount of preprogramming.
According to Marx, "Language is an element of thinking itself - and also belongs - in a certain sense - to the number of spiritual abilities of man."
Language helps mankind to transfer the accumulated experience.
Therefore "language" has functions.
And what are the functions of the language can be?
3.2 Reproductive function of "language"
What is this function? From the point of view of Leontiev A.A. and Kozlova M.S., each person, with the help of language, is able to reproduce what he heard or saw.
In fact, any person sitting in front of the dashboard - whether in the cab of a truck, in the command compartment of an airliner or in the distribution room of a power substation - perceives from the instruments the information that he sees, tries to reproduce it and acts, guided by this information. But a person cannot reproduce this information if he has no thinking. So language is a tool of thinking? And if so, then this is another function of the language.
3.3 Language is an instrument of thought
The most important function of language is its ability to be an instrument of thought. The person is capable of thinking. On the example of Leontiev A.A., in which he says that in order to teach a person to count, he must first learn how to handle real objects. Then the skill developed in this way seems to be curtailed, "growing" into the human consciousness. In other words, it becomes internal from external.
And now it turns out that the first step of "clotting" and "growing" is the translation of the action into a speech form. In order to learn how to count instantly in the mind, a person must describe in words his initial material action, i.e., shifting objects from left to right or vice versa, throwing bones on the accounts.
This is where a very important function of language comes into play - its ability to serve as an instrument of thinking. Of course, this ability is manifested in every person. Language is used by our thinking in this function literally at every turn. And above all, in those cases when we encounter the use of inner speech. What is inner speech?
3.4 Inner speech as a function
Inner speech is speech that "serves" only thinking and does not serve, like other types of speech, the goals of communication, it is one of the functions of "language".
Are the images that arise in the process of visual representations and the images that are born from inner speech the same thing?
No, not only not the same thing, but diametrically opposed things. Leontiev A.A. clearly contrasts these two types of images. Some of them (images-representations) from the very beginning exist in thinking (or rather, in representation), as something integral, undivided. Others (images-thoughts) arise after we consciously single out, of course, with the help of speech, the necessary features of a given subject. For example: a child who does not yet know geometry may have an idea about a triangle; when he hears this word, his inner speech helps him to imagine the corresponding image in his mind. But such an image is not accompanied by knowledge of the properties of the triangle, but arises as a random impression from the first triangle that comes across. It is a completely different matter when such an image is born in the mind after a thorough study of the properties of the same triangle. And the system of verbally designated knowledge about the subject is gradually replaced in the mind by the image-thought, which, in fact, is used in the process of thinking.
3.5 The function of human experience
The function of assimilation of universal human experience, what is it?
According to Leontiev A.A., language, with the help of the brain, can give, for example, some elements of its activity to a machine for a while, but first it must necessarily take shape in order to be able to ask questions. And this is impossible if he does not will pass the way knowledge of the truths accumulated by mankind.
According to Kozlova M.S., a person may not burden his brain with detailed calculations, but he cannot “forget”, cannot “give”, for example, to the machine the basic principles of thinking, the main achievements of knowledge, just as he cannot “forget” the rules logical thinking. Then he just won't be human. Of course, it cannot be said that all those who do not know arithmetic are not people, but a society in which the rules of arithmetic are forgotten is not a human society.
We touched upon a very complex problem in general. What is the minimum knowledge that any person in our world of auxiliary means of thinking should have? Recently, the problems of education have been widely discussed on the pages of newspapers and magazines. And often there is indignation at the fact that we force schoolchildren and female students to memorize, say, formulas that can be found in any mathematical reference book.
There is some truth in these ailments. Of course, it's a pity when a student's precious time is wasted on notorious cramming. But where is the line between unnecessary and necessary? Well, we have removed from the program Newton's binomial, and the truncated cone volume formula, and the structural formula of sucrose, and, finally, Einstein's formula for the dependence of mass and energy. Made learning much easier. And at the same time they would have "achieved" ... a complete stupefaction of the mind of a schoolboy. Of course, if in the future he will be a doctor, a linguist, even a chemist, and in his life there will suddenly be a need to find out what E \u003d ms is 2, then he will simply take the book off his shelf (or send a request to the information center if this happens in a hundred years). And not much to lose. However, creative activity in the field of physics, astronomy and many other sciences will be closed to him for a long time, if not forever, because creative, scientific work always involves the automation of some knowledge, their subconscious, intuitive rather than conscious accounting. A person cannot advance science if he has to look into a reference book for every reference. He cannot move it forward even if he has to carry all the knowledge with him, in his head: then he will know "everything", but he will be able to know very little.
3.6 Self-regulation as a function of "language"
So a person cannot and should not know "everything"?
Therefore, there must always be a balance, i.e., some knowledge must be acquired by a person "in the old fashioned way" - with the help of lectures, textbooks, books and deposited in his brain as a kind of bargaining chip. True, one can try to mechanize the very process of imparting knowledge, using not textbooks, but "teaching machines". So far, such attempts remain at the level of playing pedagogy. And ultimately, not by "programming" learning, but only by managing the assimilation process, one can ensure the required result.
In the same way, it is not possible to "take away" from a person the function of self-regulation inherent in language. The fact is that it ensures the existence of human consciousness. A person, says L. S. Vygotsky, becomes for himself what he is in himself, through what he presents for others; Simply put, only the use of language - first to the function of regulating other people's actions, and then in the function of regulating one's own actions - forms the consciousness of a person.
3.7 Function - tools for learning "language"
human language onomatopoeia speech
This function was considered by: Academician I. Artobolevsky and Doctor of Technical Sciences A. Kobrinsky. They expressed their thoughts in a paradoxical but very interesting way. They write that by "natural full-fledged living being" we mean, in particular, such a creature that continuously grows and develops, which, at the age of one, cries for unknown reasons and soils diapers; who at the age of 3 to 5 asks sometimes wise, sometimes meaningless questions, who at the age of 15 gets twos and fives in school, begins to be interested in poetry and sometimes washes his neck without special reminders; who, at the age of 20, works at a machine tool, passes exams, breastfeeds a child; who, at the age of 30, drives tractors and designs satellites: who, throughout his life, is necessarily connected by thousands and thousands of ties, with thousands and thousands of other full-fledged living beings; which dies at the end of life, because the process of dying is still one of the inevitable life processes.
We agree to recognize as alive and full-fledged such an artificial being, which, being included in a society of similar natural full-fledged living beings (based on the above formulation), throughout its life from birth to death, will be able to exist and act in accordance with the laws of this society, on equal rights with all its members, working, moving, thinking and resting in the same way as on average others work, move, think and rest ... "
It is clear from what has been said above that the function of language as a tool links the individual personal mind with the "collective" mind, the public mind. It is this that forms, first of all, the specificity of the language, which allows us to call it a social phenomenon, ensures the process of formation of social consciousness, socio-historical experience at the expense of "individual" consciousness, "individual" activity.
Chapter 4. "Language" and Society
4.1 The place of "language" in the life of society
Language, being a specifically social phenomenon, serves the whole of society as a whole, and not just one class as part of a class society. "Language serves society as a means of communication between people, as a means of exchanging thoughts in society, as a means of giving people the opportunity to understand each other and to establish joint work in all areas human activity, both in the field of production and in the field of economic relations, both in the field of politics and in the field of culture, as in public life, and in everyday life. "(Mechkovskaya N.B.) .
If the language were a class language, how could we understand, without any translation, the language representative of other classes? Only N. Ya. Marr could come to the conclusion that the noble class of the Russian people understood the language of the Georgian nobles more than the language of the Russian peasants. "Language serves as a means of communication between people, serving all classes of society and even all social formations, being the product of a number of epochs during which it takes shape, enriches, develops, polishes. Create a language not by one class, but by the efforts of all classes, the efforts of hundreds of generations, for the satisfaction of society as a whole, otherwise it could not be a means of communication. Consequently, as a means of communication of the whole society, language cannot (without losing the character of language) be class. For without a common language for the whole society, communication between its members is impossible, the exchange of thoughts is impossible .
And the exchange of thoughts is constant and vital necessity, since without it it is impossible to establish joint actions of people in the struggle against the forces of nature, in the struggle for the production of the necessary material goods, it is impossible to achieve success in the production activities of society, which means that existence itself is impossible social production.
If language were a class language and each class had its own, special language, unknown and misunderstood by other classes, then how would we, the people of a socialist society, understand, for example, our great Russian writers, counted on the traditions of the old noble (class) culture, noblemen by origin, A.S. Pushkin, I. S. Turgenev, L. II. Tolstoy and others?
Of course, the division of people into classes was also reflected in the language, but it did not, however, make it a class language. The language remains common to the people, uniform for the whole society, no matter what classes the people are divided into. It does not cease to be nationwide, despite the fact that certain social groups are not indifferent to the language. They use the language in class interests, impose their own special vocabulary, their own specific words and expressions on it, try to separate themselves from others in their language. social groups.
No wonder the Russian nobility sought to use the French language for communication in a narrow circle, in order to hide their thoughts from people of the "lower classes". Anyone who spoke French was considered a person of his circle, and who could not speak French, or use certain words, he was a non-secular person. However, those individual words and expressions that were used at the top of the noble society and the bourgeoisie cannot be considered a language. They are only an offshoot of the language, jargon or class dialect.
It is impossible, firstly, because these dialects and jargons do not have their own grammatical structure, and the main vocabulary - they borrow them from the national language. It is impossible, secondly, because dialects and jargons have a narrow sphere of circulation among members of the top of this or that class and are completely unsuitable as a means of communication between people for society as a whole. Consequently, what is not essential for the whole society as a whole, but matters only for the upper strata of society or for a narrow group of people, which has no social significance, cannot be considered elements of the national language.
From what has been said above, it follows that language occupies one of the most important steps in the life of society.
4.2 Language and its role in society
Now let's find out what role language plays in the life of society, based on the views of Mechkovskaya N.B. and Leontiev A.A.
"Language is the most important means of human communication," - this is how V. I. Lenin defines language, "... language, being an instrument of communication, is at the same time an instrument of the struggle and development of society," says I. V. Stalin.
Marx and Engels several decades ago, in their definition of language and consciousness, pointed to their connection, inseparability: “The curse of “burdening” it with matter, which appears here in the form of moving layers of air, sounds, in a word, in kind of language. Language is as ancient as consciousness; Language is just a practical consciousness, existing also for other people, and only thereby also existing for me, a real consciousness, and, like consciousness, language arises only from a need, from an urgent need to communicate with other people.
This definition of language points to the inseparable connection and unity of language and thinking, to the essence and nature of language, to the causes of the emergence of language and thinking, to the subjective and objective in language.
The first thought that originated in a person took shape, putting on a linguistic shell. It is impossible to think without language, and one can speak only when the process of thinking takes place. Language and thought are inextricably linked, and one cannot exist without the other. "Bare thoughts, free from linguistic material, free from linguistic natural matter - do not exist."
The practice of life with irrefutable logic proves that language does not exist without thought, and thought is necessarily embodied in linguistic natural "matter", since language is the immediate reality of thought, and in society its production, joint work, its progress is carried out through language as a tool development and struggle, because there is no more effective direct and rational way to exchange thoughts than language.
But, while asserting the connection between language and thought, we must firmly remember the need not to understand this connection as an identity.
In order to properly understand the role and significance of language for society, it is necessary to establish how the processes of thinking and its forms proceed in organic connection with the process of speech in cognition. We must always proceed from the fact that "neither thought nor language form in themselves a special kingdom, they are only manifestations of real life." How does the learning process take place?
Sensation, thought, consciousness are the highest product of matter organized in a special way. This specially organized matter is the human brain capable of thinking. Thinking is the process by which the objective world is reflected in consciousness. On the basis of the statements of the classics of Marxism, we can imagine how a person's knowledge occurs through direct perceptions and sensations and through indirect logical verbal thinking.
The sound side of the word is the material substratum of the language, its sensual basis, its "natural matter". The word and the sentence, as the basic units of the language, are physically reproducible and perceived. Without this, the language could not become a means of communication: the speaker could not formulate and formulate his thought, and the listener could not perceive the meaning of speech without sounds.
Of course, human thoughts can be expressed in other ways: through painting, music, dance, gesture. However, none of these methods has become such a comprehensive way that could convey thought in all its abstraction. Only sound language, the language of words, is capable of being such a perfect form of expression and formation of thought.
Through the transfer of meanings, the language is enriched with new concepts-words when certain conditions development of material and spiritual culture society. Therefore, the language and its functions play the role of communication, cognition, perception, development of thinking, etc. The role of "language" is very important both for the Man and for the whole society as a whole.
Conclusion
I have made attempts to study the topic: "Language: essence, origin, functions, role and place in the life of society". In conclusion, I would like to make small generalizations on the issue under consideration, that is, to summarize and establish whether I have answered the questions I have posed.
As for the question of the origin of the language, it seems to me that the most reliable version of the origin of man is the theory of onomatopoeia, which M.S. Kozlova adheres to, where she says that at first people cuckooed, yelped, crowed, growled. And when we saved up words, then the life of our ancestor became easier.
Another argument in favor of the theory of onomatopoeia: if people learn language by imitating the sounds of other people, then who could the first people imitate? Only the sounds of nature.
What is the essence of language? These are, from different points of view, definitions: language is a system of interrelated categories, which allowed a person to create and maintain a sign system of language (linguists); language is the ability to express one's thoughts reflected in consciousness, with the help of the nature of meanings, which, on the one hand, reflects, on the other hand, fixes a certain view of the world (philosophers). Does an ideal language exist?
I tried to consider this question, as a result of which she came to the conclusion that the problem of an ideal language has not yet been solved, but attempts to resolve it have already been made, using the example of Russell, Wittgenstein.
There are two different concepts speech and language. Speech - this is a specific speaking that takes place in sound or written form, this is everything that is said and written. Language is a system of signs and ways of connecting them, which serves as an instrument for expressing thoughts, feelings and will of people and is the most important means of human communication.
The language is capable of: reproduction, a tool of thinking, inner speech, universal human experience, self-regulation, a tool of cognition, which are inherent not to man, but to Man.
The exchange of thoughts is a constant and vital necessity, since without it it is impossible to organize joint actions of people in the struggle against the forces of nature, in the struggle for the production of the necessary material goods, it is impossible to achieve success in the production activities of society, which means that the very existence of social production and society itself is impossible. From what has been said, it follows that the place that language occupies in the life of society is on one of the highest levels of humanity.
Language and its functions play the role of communication, cognition, perception, development of thinking, etc. The role of "language" is very important both for the Man and for the whole society as a whole.
Bibliography
- Donskikh O.A. "To the origins of language", 1988
- Leontiev A.A. "Language and human mind", M., Politizdat, 1965.
- Kozlova M.S. "Philosophy and language", M., 1972
- Mechkovskaya N.B. "Language and Religion", M., 1989.
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Language is a peculiar set of sounds and symbols, each of which has a certain meaning. Language is an important tool for human interaction and communication. Thanks to language, we can express our thoughts in a material speech form.
Language is not only a means of communication, it is also the historical memory of every nation. Each language reflects the spiritual culture, the centuries-old history of each nation.
Language is a social phenomenon, because outside of social relations it is impossible to master it. A person does not have the gift of speech from the moment of birth. After all Small child begins to speak only when he succeeds in learning to repeat the phonetic sounds that the people around him make, and thanks to the ability to think, he gives them the correct meaning.
The emergence of language
At the first stages of its origin, the language was inarticulate sounds made by primitive people and was accompanied by active gestures. Later, with the advent of Homo sapiens, language takes on an articulate form, thanks to his ability to think abstractly.
Thanks to language, primitive people began to exchange experiences and plan their joint actions. Articulate language brought ancient people to a new stage of their evolutionary development, and became another factor that could bring a person to a more highest level from other biological species.
Also during this period, the language is given a mystical coloration, ancient people believed that certain words have magical properties that help stop an impending natural disaster: this is how the first magic spells appear.
Functions of the modern language
The main functions of the modern language are communicative and mental. The main one, of course, is communicative: thanks to language, people can communicate with each other, transmit necessary information each other, to express their thoughts, feelings, wishes.
With the help of the mental function of language, a person not only has the opportunity to convey his thoughts to others, but also forms his own thoughts with the help of language.
Along with the above, there is also such a function of the language as epistemological or cognitive - a person analyzes all the information received from other members of society, thanks to this, a process is born scientific knowledge the surrounding world.
Language also has an aesthetic function, which is most often used in works of art. Due to its use in literature, such a language gives people a sense of aesthetic pleasure, it provokes them to emotions, makes the human soul worry.
Development of language and development of society
Language development is inextricably linked with the development of society. Language is a living organism that is influenced by historical, political and social changes in the life of the public.
Under the influence of time, some words die off and go out of use forever, instead of them new words come into the language that best meet the requirements of the time.
Language is, of course, a huge gift for humanity. Therefore, we must appreciate it, try not to clog it with profanity and parasite words, because by doing this we cause great harm, first of all, to the centuries-old culture of our people and our personality.
Speech and language play a very important role in our life. Knowledge of the language enables a person to live in society, communicate with other people, helps to understand oneself, one's thoughts and feelings. Language is primarily a means of communication.
Language is a system of signs of any physical nature, serving as a means of human communication, thinking, a way of expressing the self-consciousness of the individual . Human language will perceive a sign form that has the property of pointing to the world around.
In the proper sense, words (designations, names) allow you to transfer from generation to generation and store all the information previously accumulated by people. Therefore, language is necessary for humanity and historically conditioned. It is a complex system of codes, a system of signs and rules for their use. This system includes units of different levels: phonetic (sounds, intonation), morphological (parts of a word: root, suffix, etc.), lexical (words and their meanings) and syntactic (sentences). This system is described in grammars and dictionaries.
The totality of knowledge about the subject for different people may not be the same (depending on life experience, occupation, the presence of a certain education), and, nevertheless, due to its main function, the word acts as a kind of "causative agent" of general understanding. However, language is poorer than thinking: thinking directly reflects the world in all its richness and diversity, it has no restrictions.
Speech – historical form of human communication through language. Speech is understood as the activity of people in the use of a language code, the use of a sign system, speech is a language in action. In speech, language units enter into various relationships, forming countless combinations. Speech always unfolds in time, it reflects the characteristics of the speaker, depends on the context and situation of communication.
The product of speech activity is specific texts created by speakers in oral or written form. If a language exists regardless of who speaks it (in Latin or Sanskrit, for example, no one speaks for a long time), then speech is always tied to the speaker. Only the speech of an individual can be right or wrong, corrupted or improved. Language is an objective given; it is beyond our efforts to destroy or mutilate it; on the contrary, we choose the style of behavior in the language ourselves. For successful communication, the existence of a developed language is not enough. An important role is played by the quality of its use or the quality of speech of each speaker, the level of communicative language competence of the interlocutors.
Communicative language competence is understood as a set of linguistic (knowledge of the language system), sociolinguistic (knowledge of social norms: speech etiquette, communication norms between representatives of different ages, genders and social groups) and pragmatic (skills in using language tools for certain functional purposes, recognizing different types of texts , the ability to choose language means depending on the characteristics of the communication situation, etc.) knowledge and skills that allow one or another activity to be carried out using speech means.
Speech and language constitute a complex dialectical unity. Speech is carried out according to the rules of the language, and at the same time, under the influence of certain factors (for example, the requirements of social practice, the development of science, the mutual influences of languages, etc.), it changes and improves the language.
