Dictionary of linguistic terms

The magical function of the tongue

Special case appealing and incentive function. The addressee of the speech in the case of using M.f.ya. - higher powers. Manifestations of magical function include: taboos, taboo substitutions, vows of silence, conspiracies, prayers, oaths, deification, oath. In some religions sacred texts, The Scriptures are considered to be inspired, dictated from above. M.f.ya. universal. Magic formulas can be constructed as curses and abuse. A number of traditions are known for ritual profanity in wedding and agricultural ceremonies. Some abusive expressions go back to ritual spells.

Dictionary of sociolinguistic terms

The magical function of the tongue

The magical function of language is a special case of the inviting-motivating function, with the difference that in the case of verbal magic, the addressee of speech is not a person, but higher powers. Manifestations of the magical function include taboos, taboo substitutions, as well as vows of silence in some religious traditions; conspiracies, prayers, oaths, including deification and oath; In some religions, sacred texts, the Scriptures, are considered inspired, dictated from above. A common feature treating the word as a magical force is an unconventional interpretation language sign, i.e. the idea that a word is not symbol some object, but its part, therefore, for example, pronouncing a ritual name can evoke the presence of the one named by it, and making a mistake in a verbal ritual means offending, angering or harming higher powers. All cultural areas known in history preserve, to one degree or another, the traditions of religious and magical consciousness. Therefore, the magical function of language is universal, although its specific manifestations in the languages ​​of the world are infinitely diverse. Often the element of magic itself has already disappeared from some similar words and expressions (Russian) thank you), in other cases it is quite noticeable, for example, Don’t be remembered by night, don’t be remembered by the wrong person, don’t speak hand in hand, don’t croak - you’ll invite trouble. Magic formulas that had ultimate goal positive result(fertility, health), were often constructed as a curse and abuse. A number of traditions are known for ritual profanity in wedding and agricultural ceremonies. Some abusive expressions go back to ritual spells.

In messages focused on the addressee, the function of regulating his behavior comes to the fore (by inducing him to action, to answer a question, by prohibiting action, by communicating information in order to change the addressee’s intentions to perform a certain action, etc.) In Jacobson’s work, this the function is called differently: conative (English - ability to volitional movement) or appellative (Latin to appeal, call, incline to action); sometimes it is also called an inviting-motivating or voluntarily (Latin will, desire, desire) function.

Phatic(contact-mounted) function. The goal is to establish contact, establish an acquaintance, and continue it. The phatic function is mainly realized in greetings, congratulations, and the ability to conduct small talk.

Conative the function of speech is the expression in the speech of the speaker of his attitude towards the addressee (listener), the desire to influence him, to form a certain character of the relationship.

Functions of language: emotive, aesthetic, magical, metalinguistic.

Emotive function of language. It appears if the statement directly expresses a subjective attitude towards what is being said, that is main goal of this message - to be emotionally realized. The emotional effect is realized with the help of: intonation, interjections of speech, the use of words with connotations.

Connotation is additional emotional assessments in the meaning of words.

Denotation is the objective meaning of a word. The denotation indicates what the word means.

Aesthetic(poetic, prosaic) function. The function is associated with an attentive attitude to the message for the sake of the message itself. Features of this function: it destroys automaticity everyday speech, introduces words that do not lie on the surface of speech consciousness, so speech becomes bright, fresh, unpredictable.

Magical(spell) function. This is a special case of the relative function with the difference that the addressee is not people, but higher powers. The manifestation of this function is taboos, prayers, oaths, vows. A non-conventional interpretation of a linguistic sign, according to which the word (name of a thing) is fused with the thing.

Metalinguistic(language comment) function. Associated with any difficulties in communication when verbal commentary is required.

Basic functions and styles of literary language

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1.5 Magical function of the tongue

Manifestations of the magical function of speech include conspiracies, curses, oaths, including deification and oath; prayers; magical “predictions” with a characteristic hypothetical modality (fortune telling, sorcery, prophecies, eschatological visions); “doxology” (doxology), addressed to higher powers - necessarily containing exalting characteristics and special formulas of praise - such as, for example, Hallelujah! (Hebrew: Praise the Lord!), Hosanna! (a Greekized Hebrew exclamation with the meaning Save!) or Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee!); taboos and taboo substitutions; vows of silence in some religious traditions; in religions the Scriptures are sacred texts, i.e. texts attributed to divine origin; they can be considered, for example, to have been created, inspired or dictated higher power. A common feature of treating a word as a magical force is the non-conventional interpretation of a linguistic sign, i.e. the idea that a word is not a conventional designation of some object, but a part of it, therefore, for example, pronouncing a ritual name can evoke the presence of the one named by it, and making a mistake in a verbal ritual means offending, angering higher powers or harming them.

Verbal and non-verbal means implementation of the contact-establishing function in the newspaper "Sport-Anshlag"

The language is multifunctional and can participate in different processes. We are interested in the process of establishing contact with the reader through language. Language can do this when it performs a phatic function. But it is a private function...

The communicative function of language is due to the fact that language is primarily a means of communication between people. It allows one individual - the speaker - to express his thoughts, and another - the perceiver - to understand them, that is, to react somehow...

Basic Features and Styles literary language

The cognitive or cognitive function of language (from the Latin cognition - knowledge, cognition) is associated with the fact that human consciousness is realized or recorded in the signs of language. Language is a tool of consciousness...

Basic functions and styles of literary language

The accumulative function of language is associated with the most important purpose of language - to collect and store information and evidence. cultural activities person. Language lives much longer longer than a person, and sometimes even longer than entire nations...

Basic functions and styles of literary language

Linguistic scientists also sometimes highlight, and not unreasonably, the emotional function of language. In other words, signs and sounds of language often serve people to convey emotions, feelings, and states. As a matter of fact, it is from this function that most likely...

Basic functions and styles of literary language

The poetic function corresponds to the message, i.e. The main role is played by the focus on the message as such, outside of its content. The main thing is the form of the message. Attention is directed to the message for its own sake. As the name suggests...

To study the category of emotivity in language, it is important to determine the place of the emotive function of language among other functions. “The functions of language are a manifestation of its essence, its purpose and action in society, its nature, i.e....

Representation of negative human states in English

Emotional function language is understood as the ability to express various feelings and emotions using a variety of linguistic means. There is an opinion among linguists that the emotional function of language should be one of the main...

Stylistic functions synonyms in journalistic texts

This function is one of the most important functions of synonyms for journalistic text. Repeating the same word makes speech colorless and inexpressive. Here you can refer to Komsomolskaya Pravda...

Stylistic functions of synonyms in journalistic texts

Due to the fact that the clarification function is used most often for highly specialized terms, it is rarely found in journalism. The authors prefer not to resort to such terms, but to immediately replace them with a synonym...

Russian language functions

Main function language - communicative. Language serves, first of all, as a means human communication. We live in a society and communicate in a certain society in certain space V certain time. Thus...

Russian language functions

Communication between people presupposes certain knowledge about the surrounding reality, and one of the universal and effective means knowledge of the surrounding world is language. Thus, language also performs cognitive or cognitive...

Russian language functions

Collection and information content are those essential properties of a linguistic sign that underlie it most important function along with communicative: functions of cumulative...

Jakobson considered the magical function to be a special case of inviting and motivating, with the difference that in the case of verbal magic, the addressee of the speech is not a person, but a higher power. Manifestations of the magical function include taboos, taboo substitutions, and vows of silence in some religious traditions; conspiracies, prayers, oaths, including deification and oath; in religions the Scriptures are sacred texts, i.e. texts attributed to divine origin: may be considered, for example, to have been inspired, dictated, or written by a higher power. A common feature of treating a word as a magical force is the non-conventional interpretation of a linguistic sign, i.e. the idea that a word is not a conventional designation of some object, but a part of it, therefore, for example, pronouncing a ritual name can evoke the presence of the one named by it, and making a mistake in a verbal ritual means offending, angering or harming higher powers.

Often the name acted as a talisman, i.e. as an amulet or spell that protects against misfortune.

Apocrypha<Семьдесят имен Богу>(manuscript of the 16th-17th centuries. Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery) advised to write down, learn and carry with you 70 for self-defense<имен>(symbolic and metaphorical names) Christ and 70<имен>Mother of God: “Whenever you see these signs and the names of dreams, when you read the names, you will be undefeated in the army and you will be delivered from all the enemy, both from the vain of death and from the fear of the night and from the action of sotonin... And these are the names of the Lord numbering 70. Yes, you can imitate them and carry them with you honestly, power, strength, word, belly, mercy will be freed from all evil...” (cited with graphic simplifications according to the edition; Tikhonravov N.S. Monuments of renounced literature. - St. Petersburg, NbE. T. 2, P 339).

In ancient times, when choosing a name for a born child, a person often seemed to play hide and seek with the spirits: then he kept the “real” name secret (and the child grew up under a different, not “secret” name); then they named the children the names of animals, fish, plants; then they gave it a “bad name” so that evil spirits would not see its bearer as valuable prey. The future prophet, founder of Zoroastrianism Zarathushtra (Zarathustra) received this name-amulet at birth: in the Avestan language the word Zarathushtra meant<староверблюдный>.

A consciousness that believes in the magic of words not only puts up with the incomprehensible and dark in magical texts, but even needs the semantic opacity of key formulas (see pp. 72 - 75, 83 - 85).

The unconventional perception of a sign, like the belief in the possibility of verbal magic, belongs to the phenomena of the right hemisphere nature. The non-conventional interpretation of the sign is close to aesthetic perception words. The non-conventional understanding of the word is known in child psychology: “the word is identified with the thing” (K.I. Chukovsky) - for example, a preschooler may believe that in the sentence There were two chairs and one table there were only three words or that the word candy is sweet.

The non-conventional interpretation of the sign as a whole is also close to some philosophical and cultural concepts that believe in the meaningful inexhaustibility of the word and in the determining influence of language on the worldview or ethnic psychology, for example like ancient theory“fusey” (from the Greek physis - nature), according to which the name of a thing corresponds to its “nature”; like the ideas of W. von Humboldt and A. A. Potebnya and their development into the theory of “linguistic relativity” by E. Sapir and B. Whorf; ideas of linguistic philosophy of L. Wittgenstein and J. Moore about the “guilt” and “illnesses” of language as a source of human errors and pseudo-problems; as philosophical hermeneutics, which considers “listening to language” to be true knowledge and sees in language “the most intimate womb of culture,” “the house of being” (M. Heidegger).

All cultural areas known in history preserve, to one degree or another, the traditions of religious and magical consciousness. Therefore, the magical function of speech is universal, although its specific manifestations in the languages ​​of the world are infinitely diverse and amazing. Often the moment of the magic itself has already faded away (cf. Russian, thank you from God forbid), in other cases it is quite noticeable, for example: don’t be remembered at night, don’t speak hand in hand, be remembered in the wrong way, don’t croak - you’ll invite trouble, Belarusian. if not Pragavarits, etc.

Surprise (for modern consciousness) traces of verbal magic is associated with what is in the depths human psyche polar entities can be identified or interchanged (life and death, good and evil, beginning and end, laughter and crying, etc.). The ambivalence of the symbolism of the unconscious led to the fact that condemnation turned into praise, the wish for failure was considered a condition for success (cf. no fluff on the front, etc. Therefore, magical formulas that had a positive result as the ultimate goal (fertility, health) were often constructed as a curse and abuse In a number of traditions, ritual foul language is known in wedding and agricultural rituals. Some abusive expressions go back to ritual spells. On the other hand, the very persistence of curses was explained by Bakhtin by the ancient ambivalence of foul language: in the depths of the people’s subconscious it is not only blasphemy and humiliation, but also praise and exaltation. D.S. Likhachev, observing the manifestations of the magical function in the thieves' argot, associated it with the emotional and expressive richness and general atavistic nature of the thieves' speech.

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