Scientists linguists are studying. What does linguistics study? Internal structure of linguistics
What does linguistics study? What does linguistics study? What “sections” can it be divided into?
- LINGUISTICS (from the Latin lingva - language) is the science of language, Russian synonyms LINGUISTICS or LINGUISTICS. There are general, comparative and specific linguistics. It includes many sections and subsections: history of language, phonetics, grammar, lexicology, dialectology, translation theory - you can’t list everything.
- Linguistics studies language. Phonetics, morphology, syntax, punctuation….
- Linguistics, or 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. Linguistics is part of semiotics as the science of signs.
The term linguistics comes from the Latin word lingua, which means language. Linguistics studies not only existing (existing or possible in the future) languages, but also human language in general. In the broad sense of the word, linguistics is divided into scientific (that is, involving the construction of linguistic theories) and practical.
Theoretical linguistics studies the laws of language and formulates them as theories. It can be descriptive (describing real speech) and normative (indicating how to speak and write).Linguistics involves observation; registration and description of speech facts; developing hypotheses to explain these facts; formulation of hypotheses in the form of theories and models describing language; their experimental verification and refutation; predicting speech behavior. The explanation of facts can be internal (through linguistic facts) or external (through physiological, psychological, logical or social facts).
Since language is a very diverse and complex phenomenon, several aspects can be distinguished in linguistics:
General linguistics studies the common features of all languages, both empirically (inductively) and deductively, exploring general trends in the functioning of language, developing methods for its analysis and defining linguistic concepts.
Part of general linguistics is typology, which compares different languages regardless of the degree of their relationship and draws conclusions about Language in general. It identifies and formulates linguistic universals, that is, hypotheses that hold true for most of the described languages of the world.
Particular linguistics (in older terminology, descriptive linguistics) is limited to the description of one language, but can distinguish different language subsystems within it and study the relationships of similarities and differences between them.
Comparative linguistics compares languages with each other. It includes:
1) comparative studies (in the narrow sense), or comparative historical linguistics, which studies the relationships between related languages;
2) contactology and areal linguistics (arealogy), which studies the interaction of neighboring languages;
3) comparative (contrastive, confrontational) linguistics, which studies the similarities and differences of languages (regardless of their relationship and proximity).Sections of linguistics
Within linguistics, sections are distinguished in accordance with different aspects of the subject.
Grammar (deals with the study and description of the structure of words and inflections, types of phrases and types of sentences)
Graphics (explores the relationships between letters and signs)
Lexicology (studies the vocabulary of a language, or vocabulary)
Morphology (rules for constructing nominative units (word forms) from the simplest significative units (morphemes) and, conversely, dividing word forms into morphemes)
Onomastics (studies proper names, the history of their origin and transformation as a result of prolonged use in the source language or in connection with borrowing from other languages of communication)
Orthography (spelling, a system of rules that determine the uniformity of ways of conveying speech in writing)
Pragmatics (studies the conditions under which speakers use linguistic signs)
Semantics (the semantic side of language)
Semiotics (studies the properties of sign systems)
Stylistics (studies the various expressive capabilities of language)
Phonetics (studies the features of speech sounds)
Phonology (studies the structure of the sound structure of a language and the functioning of sounds in the language system)
Phraseology (studies stable figures of speech)
Etymology (studies the origin of words)
The profession of a linguist is incredibly in demand these days. Without knowledge of at least one language, it will be difficult for any modern person to enter our world of globalization. But linguists are people who speak at least three languages, but they know not just languages, but something more. So what do linguists do? What types of linguistics are there? What is the difference between linguists and translators and philologists? Let's look at all the answers to the questions in this article.
In contact with
Activities of linguists
A linguist is a person who studies or has already studied linguistics (in other words, linguistics). A linguist understands how they are structured, their features in particular and in general, what is their difference, what is the history, features of speech sounds, from the point of view of acoustics and articulation, and much more.
Linguists also study long-extinct ancient languages to understand language change in general. For example, Sanskrit, Latin. Linguistic students at Russian universities also study Old Church Slavonic and Old Russian in order to understand what changes their native speech has undergone and to identify the nature of exceptions to the rules in modern Russian. For all this we need linguistics. And, of course, in addition to linguistics and linguistics, specialists study several more languages.
Linguistics should not be confused with other specialties. What is the difference between a philologist and a translator? All specialists work with languages, but in different ways. Translators- these are people engaged in oral, written or simultaneous translation from or into another language. A philologist- a person who studies various literary works, expressed, respectively, through different languages and all related sciences. Philologists study literary criticism more, and linguists study linguistics more..
It is worth noting that linguistic specialties are in great demand, so salaries are quite high and vary depending on the place of work. Specialists who know foreign languages are needed everywhere. Specialists study the structures of languages and their characteristics, but if you believe modern realities, they can work anywhere and not exactly in their specialty.
Before moving on to the list of professions for linguists, let’s consider the main areas of linguistics to see the diversity of the specialty.
Directions
Specialists can be divided into narrower classes:
- According to the language being studied. Typically, students of language departments study any foreign language and almost always English. Therefore, language specialists are distinguished: Japaneseists, Arabists, Russianists, Sinologists.
- By region: Africanists, orientalists.
- By sections of linguistics: lexicologists, phoneticians and more.
It is worth highlighting one more linguistic direction, not so often found in universities - fundamental and applied linguistics. What it is? The fact is that linguistics intersects not only with other linguistic sciences, but also with applied ones, such as mathematics and programming. The question may arise as to how this can be connected, but there is still a direct connection.
Thanks to the junction of such seemingly different areas, the world knows: machine translation, computer lexicography, psycholinguistics, linguodidactics and much more. In other words, applied linguistics seeks practical, rather than theoretical, ways to solve problems, as well as practical methods for implementing linguistics in other fields.
Who can they work for?
So, what kind of job can a graduate specialist find? As already mentioned, the choice is extensive, since everything related to languages is required everywhere.
The list of works is not limited to this. Since linguist is a broad concept, the choice of future professions is incredibly large. Anyone who knows languages will never get lost and will always find a suitable job.
How to become a linguist?
To become one, you need to pass exams and enter a university in the linguistic field you need.
Usually you need to pass the Unified State Exam after 11th grade: Russian, English and social studies, history or literature (depending on the university). To enroll in the “fundamental and applied linguistics” major, you must take Russian, English and specialized mathematics.
Before enrolling, you need to decide which languages you want to study. Universities usually post information about their fields of study and the languages they teach. Thus, you can enroll in Oriental Studies, African Studies and any other. Or choose more traditional directions.
Note that linguistic areas differ in specialty and bachelor's degrees.
The term linguistics comes from the Latin word lingua, which means "language". Therefore, linguistics is the science that studies language. It provides information about what distinguishes language from other phenomena of reality, what its elements and units are, how and what changes occur in language.
In linguistics, the following sections are distinguished: 1. Lexicology, the subject of which is the word, is the study of the vocabulary of a language. Lexicology establishes the meaning of words and the use of words in speech. The basic unit of this section is the word.
- 2. Phraseology studies stable expressions such as “beat the buck” used in a given language.
- 3. Phonetics is a branch of science that studies the sound structure of a language. The basic units of phonetics are sound and syllable. Phonetics finds practical application in orthoepy - the science of correct pronunciation.
- 4. The section of graphics, closely related to phonetics, studies letters, i.e., the image of sounds in writing, and the relationship between letters and sounds.
- 5. Word formation is a branch of the science of language that studies the ways and means of forming new words, as well as the structure of existing words. Morpheme is the basic concept of word formation.
- 6. Grammar studies the structure of language. It includes two sections:
- a) morphology, which studies inflection and parts of speech found in a given language;
- b) syntax, studying phrases and sentences.
- 7. Spelling is a branch of science that studies the rules of spelling.
- 8. Punctuation studies the rules of using punctuation marks.
- 9. Stylistics is the study of speech styles and means of linguistic expression and the conditions for their use in speech.
- 10. Speech culture is a branch of linguistics that studies the practical implementation of literary language norms in speech.
The sign aspect of natural language is usually understood as the correlation of linguistic elements (morphemes, words, phrases, sentences, etc.), and, consequently, the language as a whole, in one form or another and degree of mediation, with an extra-linguistic series of phenomena, objects and situations in objective reality . The sign function of linguistic units further includes their ability to generally express the results of a person’s cognitive activity, to consolidate and store the results of his socio-historical experience. Finally, the sign aspect of language is the ability of linguistic elements, due to the meanings assigned to them, to carry certain information and perform various communicative and expressive tasks in the process of communication. Consequently, the term “sign”, as well as the synonymous term “semiotic”, are polysemantic, they contain different contents and, in relation to natural language, they can be attributed to four different functions of linguistic elements: designation function (representative), generalizing (epistemological), communicative and pragmatic. The direct connection of language with thinking, with the mechanism and logic of cognition, the unique property of human language to serve as a universal system for designating the entire diversity of the objective world - all this has made the sign aspect of language the subject of study of various sciences (philosophy, semiotics, logic, psychology, linguistics, etc.), due to the generality of the object, they are not always clearly demarcated from each other.
The concept of a language system as a subject and object of linguistics is associated primarily with the definition of the openness and heterogeneity of this system. Language is an open, dynamic system. Language as a system is opposed to a specific language. Just as the models of his units are opposed to the units themselves, which are generated by these model models. The system of a language is the internal organization of its units and parts. Each unit of language is included in the system as a part of the whole; it is connected with other units and parts of the language system directly or indirectly through linguistic categories. The language system is complex and multifaceted, this applies to both its structure and functioning, i.e. use and development. The system of a language determines the ways of its development, but not its specific form, because in any language, its norm, systemic (structural) and asystemic (destructural) facts can be found. This arises both as a result of the failure to realize all the capabilities of the system, and as a result of the influence of other languages and social factors. For example, nouns of the Russian language potentially have a 12-element declension paradigm, but not every noun has the entire set of word forms, and there are nouns that have a large number of word forms [cf.: about the forest and in the forest, when the prepositional case splits into explanatory and local]; indeclinable nouns in the Russian language are an asystemic phenomenon, an anomaly (outside the literary norm, the pressure of the system is easily detected when they say: “came to the meter”, “went to the meter”, etc. The unrealization of the system is manifested not only in the fact that some facts are not covered by the paradigm, are released from the system, but also in the structure of the paradigms themselves, in the presence of defective paradigms and model models. In modern theories of systems, various types and types of systems are analyzed. Systems that have the property of optimality and openness are important for linguistics. dynamism is characteristic of language as a system. The dynamism of the system is manifested in contrast to its linguistic tradition, enshrined in the literary language, the stereotype of speech activity. Potentiality as a manifestation of the dynamism and openness of the language system does not contrast it with language with its categories and specific units.
The origin of human speech is a very complex question; it is studied not only by linguistics, but also by other sciences - anthropology and zoopsychology, biology and ethnography. The origin of language cannot be methodologically correctly considered in isolation from the origin of society and consciousness, as well as man himself. F. Engels wrote that man, like countless classes, orders, families, genera and species of animals, arises through differentiation: when the hand “differentiated from the leg and a straight gait was established, then man separated from the monkey, and the foundation was laid for the development of articulate speech and for the powerful development of the brain, thanks to which the gap between man and ape has since become impassable." Both K. Marx and F. Engels emphasized that the emergence of language as practical consciousness is possible only in society, as a result of production and labor activity. “First, work, and then, along with it, articulate speech, were the two most important stimuli, under the influence of which the monkey’s brain gradually turned into the human brain, which, for all its similarities with the monkey’s, far surpasses it in size and perfection. And in parallel with the further The development of the brain was accompanied by the further development of its closest tools - the sense organs."
Tribal languages were different even within relatively small territories, but as marriage and other contacts between clans expanded, and then economic ties between tribes, interaction between languages began. In the subsequent development of languages, processes of two opposite types are found:
convergence - the bringing together of different languages and even the replacement of two or more languages with one;
divergence - the splitting of one language into two or more different, although related, languages. For example, a language first breaks up into dialects, and then they develop into independent languages.
There are also several models of language development during their contact:
- A) based on the substrate (lat. substratum - litter, bottom layer). For example, the language of the indigenous population was forced out of use by the language of the conquerors, but left its mark in the language of the aliens (material borrowings, word-formation, semantic tracings, etc.). A striking example from the history of the development of languages is modern Romance languages (French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese). There are certain similarities in them, but also obvious differences; these are DIFFERENT LANGUAGES, since during their formation, folk Latin, from which they come, was superimposed on different substrates (substrates) and was acquired differently by different peoples.
- C) on the basis of a superstrate - the layering of alien features on the original basis of the local language. The winner in the battle of languages is the local language. A striking example of superstrate influence is the French layers in the English language, which penetrated into it after the Norman Conquest and were preserved, due to the long dominance of the French language in England, at the level of vocabulary, phonetics, and spelling.
A special case is the formation of Koine - a common language that arises on the basis of a mixture of related dialects, of which one turns out to be leading and is used for economic and other contacts.
Lingua franca (Latin “common language”) is the transformation of one of the languages in contact into a more or less regular means of interethnic communication, which does not displace other languages from use, but coexists with them on the same territory. Thus, for many Indian tribes on the Pacific coast of America, the lingua franca is the Chinook languages, in East Africa - Arabic. Until now, the Russian language plays the role of lingua franca when communicating between representatives of the former republics of the USSR. In most countries of medieval Europe, the language of religion and science was medieval Latin - a language that continued the traditions of classical Latin.
Once I saw an unusual scene. A group of Moscow schoolchildren walked along Volkhonka Street. Noticing on one of the houses the sign “Russian Language Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences,” they were surprised - the idea seemed so strange to them that an entire institute could study a language that even they understood!
But there is nothing strange. Many scientists have devoted their lives to studying what language is - how it works, how it functions, and what it is needed for. The science that deals with all this is called linguistics or linguistics - from the Latin word “lingua”, which means “language”. This book is about her and what she studies.
Linguistics did not appear because someone wanted to think about language. Like all sciences, it was born from the needs of practice. This happened for the first time in ancient India. You probably know that Indians have sacred books - the Vedas, written back in the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. e. Centuries passed, the language changed, and in the end, by the beginning of our era, it became difficult for Indians to understand their sacred books. There was a need to compare the language of the Vedas and the language that people spoke in everyday life, so that the Brahmin priests could be specially taught to read the sacred books. This is how the science of language began.
But linguistics became a science in the true sense of the word only 150 years ago, when its subject was clearly delimited from the subjects of other sciences. It became clear that linguistics is not a part of philosophy and not a part of history, that it does not coincide with literary criticism, logic, or psychology, although all these sciences study language to some extent. Special techniques and methods were developed that made it possible to learn as much about language in a century and a half as humanity could not learn in two thousand years.
How does the approach of linguistics to language differ from the view of other sciences?
All other sciences study language not in itself, but as a means, an instrument of some specific activity. Let's say a psychologist is interested in language as a tool of thinking, as a support for memory, as a subject of study in school. The logician deals with language as a form of logical statements. For a literary critic, language is the primary element of any work. For a historian, this is the key to ancient monuments: inscriptions, letters, etc.
For a linguist, the ways of using language in different areas of human life and activity are less important. You can compare a linguist with a physicist: in essence, a logician and a psychologist, a literary critic and a historian, use the fruits of the work of a linguist just as an engineer uses the fruits of the work of a physicist.
Let's try to figure out what a linguist sees in a language. First of all, let's talk about the essence of language, about its most important properties. They are often limited to what they believe: language is a tool of communication, a tool of communication. This is, of course, true, but does not exhaust all linguistic problems. The most important thing for a person is that language is both a tool of communication and a tool of generalization. It allows us to convey to each other the most complex ideas and concepts and at the same time makes it possible to consolidate these ideas and concepts in certain external forms of words, phrases and sentences, generally understandable and generally accepted, and to operate freely with them.
And the language is designed in such a way that it can perform these functions in the best possible way. How exactly is it structured, what is its internal organization?
One of the most important concepts of modern linguistics is the concept of a language unit. You have already encountered various linguistic units in your practice. Examples of such a unit are a word, sentence, syllable, stem, suffix or ending, and finally, a separate sound. Linguists study what individual “bricks” a speech utterance is made of (or, if you like, into what “bricks” it can be broken up), and what relationships these units have to each other in language and in the flow of speech. For example, the various grammatical forms of a word - stol, table, table, etc. - form a system with each other, which is called the case system, and all the sounds form a system called the sound or phonological system. The main difference between the sounds of different languages lies not in how similar or dissimilar these sounds are to each other, but in what relationships they are in. In the Russian language, all consonants are divided into hard and soft, but in English, French, and German there is no such opposition. And a Russian unconsciously controls himself in the process of speaking, so as not to say, say, SO instead of STOL - it will turn out to be a different word; and an Englishman can soften his L as much as he likes - this will make the English word sound strange to the Englishman’s ear, but nothing will change in the meaning of the word.
An example of how units are connected to each other in the flow of speech is the rules of word structure. Let's say a syllable like VSPYAT' is not so unusual in Russian, but is completely impossible in some other languages.
In the Polynesian languages of the islands of Oceania, it is impossible because there are no syllables ending in a consonant there at all: the city of GO-NO-LU-LU, the islands of TU-A-MO-TU.
In Vietnamese - because a syllable in this language never begins with several consonants and cannot end with any consonant except nasals: Ly Toang Thang.
We can assume that larger units - words - are built from smaller ones - sounds. This whole “building” consists of successive “floors”: grammatical units (roots, suffixes, endings) are made up of sounds; from these, in turn, a word is built; from the words of a sentence. Such “floors” in linguistics are called levels of language: level of sounds, level of words, etc.
And depending on what level of language we study, linguistics is divided into separate disciplines or branches.
It is best to start listing these components of linguistic science with phonetics, which studies sounds. They often talk about two independent areas: phonetics and phonology. Phonetics deals with the study of what the sounds of a language are, without paying attention to their relationships in the system of language. And phonology is primarily interested in the system of sounds. Each of these two disciplines examines the same sound from different angles. Let's say the last sound in a word pillar for a phonetician it is no different from the last sound in a word pop. And the phonologist will see two different units here: for him B in the word pillar- this is the so-called positional variant of the sound, or phoneme, B, which is clearly heard in the form of the genitive case - pillar
The next “floor” - grammatical units - is studied by grammar. It, in turn, breaks down into word formation, which studies what grammatical units a word is made of, morphology and syntax.
The meanings of words and phrases are studied by semantics, or semasiology. And the relationships between different words within a language are studied by lexicology. Finally, a special area called stylistics deals with what words and constructions are commonly used in various communication settings: for example, at a meeting a person speaking uses more book words than during a conversation in the corridor, even if the conversation is on the same topic .
In order for science to be able to answer the question of how the languages of the world are grouped according to their family ties, what groups, or families, of languages exist on the globe, it first had to understand what related languages are and how one can find out whether they are related or not. This is done by the linguistic discipline called comparative historical linguistics. She developed a special precise method called comparative historical. Applying this method to various languages, it was possible, in particular, to establish that many languages, seemingly little similar to each other, are connected by a common origin from the same ancient language and, therefore, are related. They are united into so-called families. Several dozen such families have now been discovered.
Linguistics also deals with the history of a particular language, tracing how it developed from its original state (for example, the Old Russian language) to the modern one (for example, our modern Russian language). Its special branch, called dialectology, studies territorial varieties of language (for example, in one part of our country they speak Russian okaya (“in O yes"), and in the other - they akayut ("in A Yes").
Recently, a lot of new branches of linguistic science have appeared. No wonder. Now there is a general process of convergence of sciences that were previously considered different; borderline sciences appear: astrobiology, physical chemistry, biochemistry, etc. The same process gave rise to such directions, or areas, in the modern science of language as mathematical linguistics - it deals with the study of language using mathematical methods; sociolinguistics, which studies how the social structure of society is reflected in language, and other similar issues; psycholinguistics - she is interested in which units of language have their parallels in the activity of the cerebral cortex, the result of which is speech. And more recently, the first works on space linguistics have appeared, where the question of how we can read and decipher messages transmitted to us from other planetary systems by representatives of other civilizations alien to ours is being studied.
As you can see, there is a lot to do in linguistics. This science is complex and interesting. The subject of her research - language - is at the center of many problems related to human life and activity in society. After all, as we know, it was labor and language that made man a man.
And such an abstract and at first glance unnecessary science as linguistics is actually immeasurably important. It helps us understand the laws of life and human development.
linguistics, linguistics) - the science of language, its structure, functioning and development: “the manifestation of the ordering, systematizing activity of the human mind as applied to the phenomena of language constitutes linguistics” (I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay). Language emerged from philosophy at the beginning of the 19th century, when it developed its own research methods, and the first among them was the comparative historical method, which explains the similarity of languages by the commonality of their previous development (F. Bopp, R. Rask, J. Grimm, etc. .). In the modern world, linguistics is divided into specific (studying the structure, functioning and development of a particular language) and general (studying language as a universal human phenomenon). On another basis, language is divided into diachronic language (the study of language in historical development, in evolution) and synchronic language (the study of language at a specific chronological point). The third opposition presented in today's linguistics is the opposition between descriptive linguistics (reflecting the real functioning of language) and normative (prescribing the use of some linguistic facts and not recommending the use of others). The fourth division of language is into internal (which studies the own laws of the structure and functioning of language) and external (which studies the interaction of language with other social and natural phenomena). The field of external linguistics includes, in particular, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, neurolinguistics, linguoculturology, and others, which have been rapidly developing in recent years. Literature includes a number of special sciences: phonetics and phonology, which study the sound structure of a language; semasiology, which studies the meaning of linguistic units; lexicology and lexicography, which deal with the word and its representation in the dictionary; etymology, which studies the origin of words and their parts; grammar, traditionally divided into morphology (the science of the structure of words) and syntax (the science of the structure of sentences), etc. Philosophical aspects of language were studied in ancient India (Yaska, Panini, Bharthari), China (Xu Shen), ancient Greece and Rome (Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, Donatus, etc. - see Language). Within the framework of the newest European tradition, W. Humboldt is considered the founder of the philosophical approach to language. Humboldt's concept of the “folk spirit,” as well as its inherent psychologism in the interpretation of the spiritual and cultural life of society, formed the basis of such modern scientific movements as ethnopsychology and linguistic neo-Humboldtianism. Among the most important philosophical problems of modern L. include, in particular: 1) the problem of the formation (formation) of language - both in terms of phylogenesis (the emergence of a human means of communication, in connection with the global problem of the origin of humanity, the determination of its ancestral home, the characteristics of the most ancient stage of development, general laws of evolution, etc. ), and in terms of ontogenesis (linguistic development of the individual, characteristics of the child’s language, social significance of language learning, etc.); 2) epistemological and cognitive aspects of the use of language, namely: the properties of language as a sign system, the relationship of the linguistic sign with the denotation (designated), the identity of the sign to itself (which becomes especially relevant in connection with the phenomena of polysemy and homonymy in language), the function of the sign as instrument of cognition (against the background of the general philosophical problem of the knowability/unknowability of the world), determination of the truth value of a statement, etc. (see Sign, Semiotics); 3) a complex of problems “language and society”: social functions of language (including communicative, regulatory, ethnic, etc.), the relationship between the categories of language and national-cultural mentality, classification of speech acts, genres and styles of speech (in connection with communicative intentions and role structure of communication), the structure and place of texts within various civilizations, etc. (see Discourse, Communication, Autocommunication). Many modern concepts of language have served as the actual basis for original philosophical theories or have their roots in specific philosophical teachings (see Language). Thus, the theory of linguistic relativity, developed by American linguists E. Sapir and B. L. Whorf, interprets language as a kind of frame through which a person perceives reality. The basis for this comparison was primarily observations of the structure of American Indian languages, which are fundamentally different from the European standard languages. (These differences, relating, in particular, to the characteristics of counting, periodization of time, lexical classifications, etc., are, according to scientists, reflected in the behavioral characteristics of the aborigines.) The final conclusion from these premises is global in nature: language has a direct influence on human activity. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis continues to cause active discussions among linguists today (see Linguistic relativity concept). At the same time, hyperbolization or absolutization of the role of language in the process of cognition is characteristic of various branches of logical positivism and analytical philosophy. Wittgenstein's postulate became widely known: “The boundaries of my language mean the boundaries of my world” (see Wittgenstein). At this point, representatives of existentialism and irrationalism join forces with positivists (see Heidegger). Many philosophers see in the text and the relationships between its units a kind of sample, a model for systematizing the world of culture in its development: “Language forces randomly presented elements to line up in a linear order” (Foucault). Similar premises determine the theoretical provisions of another “linguistic” branch in modern philosophy - general semantics (which has become most widespread in the USA). Here special attention is paid to the conventional nature of the linguistic sign. S. Hayakawa, one of the most prominent representatives of this trend, argues: social life is a network of mutual agreements, and its course depends on the success of cooperation through language. At the same time, the determining criterion in the classification of realities is not objective truth, but social expediency and linguistic experience: “We unconsciously put into the world the structure of our own language” (A. Kozybski). Linguistics of the 20th century. developed under the strong influence of the ideas of structuralism (see Structuralism, Poststructuralism). Saussure's Course in General Linguistics played a significant role in this. The principles of structuralism, which were further developed in the linguistic works of N.S. Trubetskoy, Jacobson, L. Elmslev, R. Barth, Chomsky and others, in particular, are as follows: “the properties of an individual sign are derived from the properties of the whole system”; “the differences between a sign and other signs are everything that makes it up”; “the state of the system (synchrony) is fundamentally opposed to its development (diachrony),” etc. In Leningrad at the end of the 20th century. structuralism takes the form of generative grammar and logical semantics; its principles are also used in functional grammar, structural typology of languages, and linguistic universals. In general, the modern situation in the humanities is characterized by the closest fusion and interpenetration of individual disciplines. Many linguistic concepts - for example, “word”, “name”, “statement”, “discourse” - become key for a variety of philosophical, psychological, and theological constructions. Thus, according to James, “the name of a thing characterizes the speaking subject to a greater extent than the thing itself.” For Russell, a name is only a definite or ambiguous “description of an object.” Wittgenstein wrote: "The name is not further decomposed by any definition; it is the primary sign." Losev characterized the name as “a tool for communicating with objects and an arena for an intimate and conscious meeting with their inner life.” The implementation of philosophical concepts in modern linguistics can be considered the study of linguistic aspects of the theory of possible worlds, the creation of a theory of speech acts, the identification of pragmatic presuppositions and postulates of speech communication (Austin, J.R. Searle, P. Grice, etc.), the development of fuzzy-set and probabilistic models of language (L. Zade, V.V. Nalimov, etc.), logical and philosophical justification of the nature of linguistic categories (Yu.S. Stepanov, N.D. Arutyunova, etc.), research in the field of semantic primitives, universal semantic code, international (auxiliary) languages (A. Wierzbicka, V.V. Martynov), etc. Among the generally recognized achievements of linguistics of modern times, which have general methodological significance, are the foundations of the genealogical and typological classification of languages (I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay, J. Greenberg, A. Isachenko, B.A. Uspensky, V.M. Illich-Svitych) , an idea of the level structure of language, supplemented by the principle of level isomorphism (Jakobson, E. Benveniste, V.A. Zvegintsev, V.M. Solntsev), the distinction between language, speech and speech activity (going back to Saussure), understanding the fundamental versatility of language (K .Bühler, Jacobson), the doctrine of the two sides of a linguistic sign and the relationship between the main components of its content plan (Morris, S. Kartsevsky, G. Klaus, etc.), the doctrine of oppositions and their types (N.S. Trubetskoy, Jacobson, E. Kurilovich, A. Martine), application of field theory to linguistic material (J. Trier, G. Ipsen, V. Porzig, A. V. Bondarko), etc. Verification of these theoretical principles occurs when solving various applied problems of L., including in the development of programs for automatic speech analysis/synthesis and machine translation, linguistic support for computer operations, new models of language teaching, etc. Indicative of the current stage of development of the humanities is also the desire presented in the literature to unite all “linguistic” branches of philosophical research under the general name of philosophical hermeneutics and philosophy of language. (See also Text, Intertextuality, Postmodernism, Language, Secondary Language, Metalanguage, Language-Object.) B.Yu. Norman
