Language is the oldest and most important property of man, as a biological species, which distinguishes it from other living beings. In linguistics, the science of language, the following definition is used: language is a symbolic system created naturally or artificially, with the help of which people communicate and formalize their mental activity.
Origin of language
The education and formation of the language, along with work, played a key role in the development of man as a rational being. One of the most important issues regarding the origin of a language is its ability to reflect reality. Words, as signs of language, do not resemble the subject that they denote. Nevertheless, a distinct image of an object arises in the mind of a person when he hears or sees a word denoting it.
To understand how a language appeared, the sound complex of which in itself does not reflect anything, scientists are developing various theories of the origin of the language. Onomatopoeic theory considers the origin of the first words as the reproduction of sounds and noises of nature. However, it cannot explain the presence of different sound shells of the same phenomenon in different languages. According to the interjection theory, the basis of the initial word is an emotional exclamation or cry denoting a person’s state. This theory, in turn, does not explain the whole diversity of the language, which could not come only from interjections.
Some scientists suggest that the first words were nouns, a person initially sought to reflect objects and phenomena of reality. Others believe that verb forms are primary, a person first of all performed an action and built a picture of the world on its basis.
Thus, each theory of the origin of a language depends on the function that is assigned to it.
Language features
The essence of the language, its basic characteristics are manifested in its functions. Among the large number of language functions, the most significant are distinguished.
- Communicative function. By definition, language is the primary means of communication between people.
- Mental or cognitive function. Language serves as the main means of formation and expression of mental activity.
- Cognitive function. The language allows you to create new words and concepts, and also acts as a means of storing and transmitting information.
- Other functions (fatic, emotive, appeal, aesthetic, etc.).
Language and speech
The term language cannot be equated with the concept of speech. First of all, language is a means of communication, and speech is its embodiment. The main characteristic of a language is its abstractness and formality, while speech is characterized by materiality, because it consists of articulated sounds that are perceived by the ear.
Unlike a stable and static language, speech is an active and dynamic phenomenon. It is worth noting that language is a public domain and reflects a picture of the world of the people speaking it, and speech, in turn, is purely individual and reflects the experience of a particular person. Language, as a complex sign system, has a level organization, and linear organization is characteristic of speech. And finally, the language does not depend on the specific situation and situation, but speech is determined by context and situational. Thus, we can say that language refers to speech as a general to a particular.
Language Units and Levels
The basic units of the language are phoneme, morpheme, word and sentence. In accordance with each unit, a separate language level is formed. So the lowest level is phonetic, which consists of the simplest language units - phonemes. The phoneme itself does not matter and acquires a meaning-distinguishing function only as part of a morpheme. Morpheme (morpheme level), in turn, is the shortest significant unit of language. Distinguish word-building (form words) and grammatical (form forms of the word) morphemes.
The word (lexical-semantic level) is the main meaningful unit of the language, which may have syntactic independence. It serves to designate objects, phenomena, processes and properties. Words are divided into certain groups: a system of parts of speech (based on grammatical signs), a system of synonyms and antonyms (based on semantic relationships), a group of archaisms, historicisms and neologisms (in a historical perspective), etc.
A sentence (syntactic level) is a combination of words expressing a certain thought. The sentence is characterized by semantic and intonational completeness and structurality. Highlight simple and complex sentences. It should be noted that the unit of each level of the language is an element of building the unit of the next level.
World languages
According to various estimates, there are about 7000 languages in the world. All of them are divided into the following groups:
- common and non-common;
- written and non-written;
- “Living” and “dead”;
- artificial and natural.
On the basis of linguistic kinship, a genetic classification of languages has been created, according to it, there is another definition of language. This is primarily related to a particular ancestor language. As a rule, Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan and Ural-Altai language families are distinguished. All languages of one family are based on one parent language.
Russian language
Russian is one of the East Slavic languages, is part of the Indo-European language family and is a language of world significance. Russian is the national language of the Russian people. The Russian language uses writing, which is based on the Russian alphabet dating back to the Cyrillic alphabet. Moreover, in Russian letters are not designated all, but only the basic sounds of speech. So the number of letters in the alphabet is 33, and the sound system contains 43 sounds, of which 6 vowels and 37 consonants. Classification of sounds of the Russian language is based on the articulation properties of speech sounds. In this case, the sounds are distinguished by the way they are pronounced and by the sections of the speech apparatus involved in their pronunciation.
There is also a classification of the sounds of the Russian language according to acoustic features. This takes into account the participation of voice and noise in the formation of sound. Russian is one of the most difficult languages to learn in the world.
Thus, the following definition can be given: "Language is a complex multi-valued concept in which it is considered primarily as a multi-level sign system, which is in organic unity with human thinking."