Vera Avdeeva
Consultation “Language as a social phenomenon. Functions of the language. Interaction of language and society"
I. Language as a social phenomenon
From the moment of its inception, at all stages of its existence, language inextricably linked with society. This connection is two-way character: language does not exist outside of society and society cannot exist without language. Main purpose language- serve as a means communication between people. Language“arises only from need, from urgent necessity communicating with other people" With development society, complication of forms public life, enrichment and development of consciousness develops and becomes more complex language. Language used by society in absolutely all areas of activity. In order to live comfortably in society, talk to other people, move up the social ladder, you need to master tongue.
Language occupies a special place among others social phenomena thanks to the special role it plays in society. What language has in common with other social phenomena and how is it different from them? What is common is that language- a necessary condition for the existence and development of human society. Language functions, its patterns functioning and historical development are fundamentally different from others social phenomena.
An essential feature that allows us to attribute language to the category of social phenomena, it turns out his ability to serve society. But language serves society differently. The fact that language serves society, in itself is not yet a decisive criterion for classification language to the category of social phenomena. Service society can machines, and even separate natural phenomena, put at the service of man. The whole question is how language serves society and to what extent it serves it.
“In this regard, it cannot be identified with any of the social phenomena. Language is neither a form of culture, nor an ideology of a certain class, nor a superstructure in the broadest sense of the word. Language has the ability to reflect changes in life society in all its spheres, which thus distinguishes it from others social phenomena" One of the most characteristic features language, allowing us to count it social phenomenon, is the fact that society creates language, controls what has been created and consolidates it in the system of communication means. The right to create and shape language belongs to society. Language is a product of society, it is for this reason that it deserves the name social phenomenon to a greater extent than any other phenomenon, serving society.
Society- a system of diverse relationships between people belonging to certain social, professional, gender and age, ethnic, ethnographic, religious groups, where each individual occupies his specific place and, because of this, acts as a bearer of a certain social status, social functions and roles. Language performs in society certain social functions.
II. Language functions
Researchers language disagree on the issue of quantity and nature functions. The tongue serves many functions(scientists identify up to 25 functions of language and its units, Main the function of language is to be a means of communication. To the main language functions include communicative, cognitive, cumulative (otherwise - accumulative). Language provides people with the opportunity to understand each other and establish joint work in all spheres of human activity.
1. Communication language function– basic social language function.
Communication is communication, information exchange. Language arose and exists, so that people can communicate. Information is information that is understandable and important for the behavior of the person to whom it is addressed. Speech serves as a means of transmitting information from person to person. This function speech becomes possible for implementation because information can be stored in speech, in the words used in it. By exchanging words, perceiving them as concepts that carry certain information, people thus exchange the knowledge contained in these words. Communicating with each other, people convey their thoughts, feelings, emotional experiences, expressions of will, influence each other in a certain direction, achieve mutual understanding.
2. Cognitive language function
Cognition and study of the world around us largely occurs with the help of language. Communication people presupposes certain knowledge about the surrounding reality, and one of the universal and effective means of understanding the surrounding world is language. Thus language performs cognitive or cognitive, function.
3. Cumulative (accumulative) language function.
Language in this function acts as a link between generations, serves "storage" and means of transmission extra-linguistic collective experience. Most vividly cumulative function manifests itself in the field of vocabulary, since it is it that is directly related to objects and phenomena surrounding reality. Cumulative function is reflection, fixing and saving in linguistic units of information about human activity, information about the world, which is obtained by all members of a certain ethnolinguistic, cultural- linguistic community of people.
Despite differing opinions on the issue of classification language functions, all researchers unanimously agree that there are two undeniably important functions, which language performs in the life of mankind - cognitive and communicative.
III. The relationship between language and society.
Once language exists only in society, he cannot help but depend on society. Development society stimulates the development process language and speeds up or slows down language changes, contributes to the restructuring of some participants language system, their enrichment with new elements. Language depends on the form of the state and the nature of economic formations. Each socially– economic formation creates a certain way of life society, which manifests itself in a whole complex of interconnected phenomena
Society there has never been and never will be an absolutely homogeneous group. There is differentiation caused by various reasons.
This may be a division along estate, class, property and professional lines, which is subsequently reflected in language
Social factors influencing development languages are:
Changing the range of speakers language,
Spread of enlightenment
The development of science, the movement of the masses,
Creation of a new statehood,
Changes in forms of legislation and office work, etc.
The impact of these factors on language varies in form, and in strength. Let us illustrate this with an example. After the October Revolution, a process of democratization took place language: if previously literary tongue owned mainly by the bourgeois - noble intelligentsia, now to the literary language the masses of workers and peasants are beginning to join in, bringing into the system of literary language their characteristic speech characteristics and skills.
This leads to the borrowing of some dialecticisms and argotisms into the literary vocabulary. (Examples: lack, malfunction, bow, etc.) New synomies arise ranks: shortage - shortage - deficiency; Communication - contact - union - bond, etc.
The influence on development is equally indirect and complex. language and other social factors. One of the important stages in the development of its components functional-communication systems, is the transition from capitalist society to socialist. Growth of culture, development universal literacy, compulsory secondary education expand the circle of literary speakers language, are reflected in its composition and relationships with other components (components) national language.
Social differentiation language may also reflect stratification society. For example, special terminology due to specifics. Outwardly identical words have different meanings in different professions. Some differences in language may be related to the gender of the speakers. So, in Yana Indian language living in northern California (USA, same items and phenomena are called differently depending on who is talking about them - a man or a woman.
Impact of development society, the specific historical conditions of life of peoples also affects the relations between languages. For example, in feudal in society the connection between languages is weak, cases of mass bilingualism, i.e. the use by the people or a significant part of them of two (and more) languages, are observed mainly as collisions languages winners and losers. In capitalist society connections between speakers of different languages become closer, facts of borrowing words from one language to another, cases of mass bilingualism are becoming frequent. At the same time, inequality is clearly visible during this period. languages, especially in multinational states where advantages are specifically created language dominant nation.
“Demographic changes can also be reflected in certain ways in language. For example, the strong increase in the urban population in our country compared to the pre-revolutionary period expanded the scope of use of urban koine, and to a certain extent contributed to the expansion of the scope of use of literary language and limited the use of dialect speech. At the same time, the influx of rural populations into cities due to the development of industry had a certain influence even on literary language. Researchers of the history of Russian literary tongue mark, that in the 50-60s there was again some looseness in the verbal use of non-literary words and phrases and, in particular, elements of vernacular. This is evident in the wide inclusion of vernacular words.”
In connection with the development of productive forces society, general culture of science and technology, new concepts and terms arise that require linguistic expression. Some old terms need new interpretation, and the area of special vocabulary is expanding. The influx of new terminology is accompanied by the disappearance of those terms that do not reflect the current level of development of sciences.
Along with the influence independent of the will of individual people society into language conscious, purposeful influence of the state is also possible (And society as a whole) for development and functioning of language. This effect is called language policy. Language politics can concern a variety of aspects linguistic life of a given society. For example, in multilingual countries the choice language or dialect, which should become state-owned, is carried out consciously, with the direct participation of the authorities and other social institutions. The activity of specialists in the development of alphabets and scripts for previously unliterate peoples is conscious and purposeful. Improving existing alphabets and writing systems, for example, repeatedly carried out reforms of Russian spelling, is another type of human intervention in life language. Development and complication language clearly manifested in the development of special functional-communication systems that serve different groups of media language, which leads to the identification of territorial and social dialects, literary language and other forms of implementation language.
All these forms are different and in different historical periods of human development society, and in different specific socio-historical conditions of the existence of one or another language. They are not the same functions, internal structure and relationships between them.
Of course, there is no social impact on language, spontaneous or conscious, cannot cancel the inherent language internal laws.
Language, as a social phenomenon, occupies its own special place among other social phenomena and has its own specific features.
The scientist and researcher Reformatsky says that what language has in common with other social phenomena is that language is a necessary condition for the existence and development of human society and that, being an element of spiritual culture, language, like all other social phenomena, is unthinkable in isolation from materiality.
He also does not deny the fact that language as a social phenomenon is not just unique - in a number of significant ways it differs from all social phenomena:
- 1. Language, consciousness and the social nature of work activity are initially interconnected and form the foundation of human identity.
- 2. The presence of language is a necessary condition for the existence of society throughout the history of mankind. Any social phenomenon in its existence is limited in chronological terms: it is not originally in human society and is not eternal. Unlike non-primary or transitory phenomena of social life, language is primordial and will exist as long as society exists.
- 3. The presence of language is a necessary condition for material and spiritual existence in all spheres of social space. Any social phenomenon in its distribution is limited to a certain “place”, its own space. Language is global, omnipresent. The areas of language use cover all conceivable social space. Being the most important and basic means of communication, language is inseparable from all and any manifestations of human social existence.
- 4. Language is dependent and independent of society. The globality of language, its inclusion in all forms of social existence and social consciousness give rise to its supra-group and supra-class character. However, the supra-class nature of a language does not mean that it is non-social. Society may be divided into classes, but it remains a society, that is, a certain unity of people. While the development of production leads to social differentiation of society, language acts as its most important integrator. At the same time, the social structure of society and the sociolinguistic differentiation of the speech practices of speakers are to a certain extent reflected in the language. The national language is socially heterogeneous. Its social structure, i.e. the composition and significance of the social variants of the language (professional speech, jargons, vernacular, caste languages, etc.), as well as the types of communicative situations in a given society are determined by the social structure of the society. However, despite the possible severity of class contradictions, social dialects of a language do not become special languages.
- 5. Language is a phenomenon of the spiritual culture of humanity, one of the forms of social consciousness (along with everyday consciousness, morality and law, religious consciousness and art, ideology, politics, science). The uniqueness of language as a form of social consciousness lies in the fact that, firstly, language, along with the psychophysiological ability to reflect the world, is a prerequisite for social consciousness; secondly, language is a semantic foundation and a universal shell of various forms of social consciousness. In its content, the semantic system of language is closest to ordinary consciousness. Through language, a specifically human form of transmission of social experience (cultural norms and traditions, natural science and technological knowledge) is carried out.
- 6. Language does not relate to ideological or ideological forms of social consciousness (unlike law, morality, politics, philosophical, religious, artistic, everyday consciousness).
- 7. Language preserves the unity of the people in their history despite class barriers and social cataclysms.
- 8. The development of language, more than the development of law, ideology or art, is independent of the social history of society, although, ultimately, it is conditioned and directed precisely by social history. It is important, however, to characterize the extent of this independence. The connection between the history of language and the history of society is obvious: there are features of language and linguistic situations that correspond to certain stages of ethnic and social history. Thus, we can talk about the uniqueness of languages or linguistic situations in primitive societies, in the Middle Ages, and in modern times. The linguistic consequences of such social upheavals as revolutions and civil wars are also quite obvious: the boundaries of dialect phenomena are shifting, the previous normative and stylistic structure of the language is being violated, political vocabulary and phraseology are being updated. However, at its core, the language remains the same, unified, which ensures the ethnic and cultural continuity of society throughout its history.
The uniqueness of language as a social phenomenon, in fact, is rooted in its two features: firstly, in the universality of language as a means of communication and, secondly, in the fact that language is a means, not the content and not the goal of communication; the semantic shell of social consciousness, but not the content of consciousness itself. A language in relation to the spiritual culture of a society is comparable to a dictionary in relation to the whole variety of texts built on the basis of this dictionary. The same language can be a means of expressing polar ideologies, contradictory philosophical concepts, and countless versions of worldly wisdom.
So, language acts as a universal means of communication between people. It preserves the unity of the people in the historical change of generations and social formations, despite social barriers, thereby uniting the people in time, in geographical and social space.
Lecture No. 2
I. Social essence of language.
II. The difference between language and other social phenomena.
III. Functions of the language.
IV. Language and speech.
V. Language and thinking.
I. The question of the essence of language has several mutually exclusive solutions in the history of linguistics:
1. language is a biological, natural phenomenon that does not depend on humans. This point of view was expressed, for example, by the German linguist A. Schleicher.
Recognizing language as a natural (biological) phenomenon, it should be considered on a par with such human abilities as eating, drinking, sleeping, etc. and consider it inherited, inherent in human nature itself. However, this contradicts the facts. Language is acquired by a child under the influence of speakers.
2. language is a mental phenomenon that arises as a result of the action of the individual spirit - human or divine.
A similar opinion was expressed by the German linguist W. Humboldt.
This statement is hardly true. In that case
humanity would have a huge variety of individual languages.
3. language is a social phenomenon that arises and develops only in a collective. This position was substantiated by the Swiss linguist F. de Saussure. Indeed, language arises only in a collective due to the need for people to communicate with each other.
Different understandings of the essence of language gave rise to different approaches to its definition: language is thinking expressed by sounds(A. Schleicher); language is a system of signs in which the only essential thing is the combination of meaning and acoustic image(F. de Saussure); language is the most important means of human communication(V.I. Lenin); language is a system of articulate sound signs that spontaneously arises in human society and develops, serving for the purposes of communication and capable of expressing the entire body of knowledge and ideas about the world(N.D.Arutyunova).
Each of these definitions emphasizes different points: the relationship of language to thinking, the structural organization of language, the most important functions, etc., which once again demonstrates the complexity of language as a system that works in unity and interaction with consciousness and thinking.
II. From the point of view of the science of society, language has no analogues. It is not only unique, but in a number of significant ways it differs from all social phenomena:
1. language, consciousness and social nature of work activity
form the foundation of human identity.
2. the presence of language is a necessary condition for the existence of society throughout the history of mankind. Any other social phenomenon in its existence is limited in chronological terms: it is not originally in human society and is not eternal. So, for example, the family did not always exist, there was not always private property, the state, money, etc. Language originally will exist as long as society exists.
3. the presence of language is a necessary condition for material and spiritual existence in all spheres of social space. Any social phenomenon in its distribution is limited to a certain space, for example, science does not include art, and art does not include production, etc. Language is used in all spheres; it is inseparable from all manifestations of human existence.
4. language is dependent and independent of society. On the one hand, the social division of society is reflected in language, i.e. the national language is socially heterogeneous. But, on the other hand, social dialects of a language do not become special languages. Language preserves the unity of a people in its history.
5. The uniqueness of language as a form of social consciousness is that through language a specifically human form of transmission of social experience is carried out.
6. language does not relate to ideological or ideological forms of social consciousness, in contrast to law, morality, politics, religion and other types of consciousness.
III. Being a social phenomenon, language has the properties of social purpose, i.e. certain functions.
The most important functions of the language are the functions communicative And cognitive.
Communicative ( lat. communicatio"communication" ) function– the purpose of language to serve as the main means of human communication. The derivatives of this function are the following:
contact-making (phatic) function– the function of attracting the attention of the interlocutor and ensuring successful, effective communication;
appellative(lat. appellatio"appeal, appeal" )function – function of calling, incitement to action;
conative(lat. conatus"tension, effort") function – function of assessing the communication situation and focusing on the interlocutor;
voluntary(lat . volens"willing") function – influence function associated with the will of the speaker;
epistemic(ancient Greek) episteme"knowledge") or cumulative (lat. cumulare"accumulate") function - the function of storing and transmitting knowledge about reality, cultural traditions, history of the people, national identity.
Cognitive(lat. cognoscere"to know") or epistemological(Greek gnoseos"cognition") function– the function of being a means of obtaining new knowledge about reality and consolidating the results of knowledge in language, the function of thinking. This function of language connects it with human mental activity; the structure and dynamics of thought are materialized in units of language.
Derivatives of this function:
axiological(Greek axios"valuable") function – the function of forming an assessment of objects in the surrounding world and expressing them in speech;
nominative(lat. nominatio"naming") function – function of naming objects of the surrounding world;
predicative(lat. praedicatio"utterance") function – function of correlating information with reality, etc.
In addition to the main functions of language, they sometimes distinguish emotional or expressive function - purpose of being a means of expressing human feelings and emotions; poetic function - the function of creating an artistic image using language; metalinguistic function - function of being a means of exploring and describing language in terms of the language itself.
IV. Extremely important for the development of linguistics was the distinction between the concepts of “language - speech - speech activity”. As the history of linguistics shows, these concepts were often not distinguished. W. Humboldt also spoke about the need to differentiate them: Language as a set of its products differs from individual acts of speech activity.(Humboldt von W. On the differences in the structure of human languages and its influence on the spiritual development of mankind // W. von Humboldt. Selected works on linguistics. M., 1984, pp. 68-69).
The theoretical justification for this position was given by F. de Saussure and L.V. Shcherba.
A Swiss linguist wrote about it this way: In our opinion, the concept of language does not coincide with the concept of speech activity in general; language is only a certain part – indeed, the most important part – of speech activity. It is a social product, a set of necessary conventions adopted by the team to ensure the implementation and functioning of the ability for speech activity that exists in every native speaker...(F. de Saussure. Works on linguistics // Course of general linguistics. M., 1977, p. 47).
According to Saussure, in their existence these phenomena are interconnected, but not reducible to each other.
L.V. Shcherba proposed to distinguish three aspects of language: speech activity (i.e. the process of speaking and understanding), the language system (i.e. the grammar of the language and its dictionary) and linguistic material (i.e. the totality of everything spoken and understood in the act of communication) .
Language and speech, forming a single phenomenon of human language, are not identical to each other. Language is a system of signs used by humans to communicate, store and transmit information. Speech- specific speaking, occurring over time and expressed in audio or written form. Speech is the embodiment, the realization of language.
Language and speech each have their own characteristics:
1. language is a means of communication, speech is the type of communication produced by this means;
2. the language is abstract, formal; speech is material, it concretizes everything that is in language;
3. language is stable, passive and static, while speech is active and dynamic, characterized by high variability;
4. language is the property of society, it reflects the “picture of the world of the people speaking it,” while speech is individual;
5. language has a level organization, speech – linear;
6. language is independent of the situation and setting of communication, while speech is contextually and situationally determined.
7. speech develops in time and space, it is determined by the goals and objectives of speaking and the participants in communication; language is abstracted from these parameters.
Concepts language And speech are related as general and particular: the general (language) is expressed in the particular (speech), while the particular is the form of existence of the general.
Speech activity – a type of human activity that is the sum of the acts of speaking and understanding. It - in the form of speech actions - serves all types of activities, being part of work, play and cognitive activities.
V. The problem of language and thinking is one of the most complex and controversial in the theory of linguistics. In different periods of the history of the science of language, it was solved differently: representatives of some directions (for example, logical) identified these concepts; supporters of others (psychological) tried to resolve this issue on a hierarchical plane, justifying the primacy of either thinking in relation to language, or language in relation to thinking; representatives of structuralism believed that the structure of language determines the structure of thinking and the way of knowing the external world.
A scientific solution to the question of the relationship between language and thinking gives reflection theory, according to which thinking is the highest form of active reflection of objective reality, carried out in various forms and structures (concepts, categories, theories), in which the cognitive and socio-historical experience of mankind is fixed and generalized.
This theory considers language and thinking in a dialectical unity: the tool of thinking is language, as well as other sign systems.
Attitude "language - thinking" studies cognitive linguistics. Cognitivists consider a single mental-lingual complex as a self-organizing information system that functions on the basis of the human brain. This system provides perception, understanding, evaluation, storage, transformation, generation and transmission of information. Thinking within the framework of this system is a process of thought generation that constantly occurs in the brain, based on the processing and transformation of information received through various channels. In order for thinking to take place, it must have certain tools that would ensure the division of the flow of impulses coming to the brain from the senses. Language acts as such a tool. The main function of language in relation to thinking is to separate information, i.e. in the form of subject images and meanings.
When studying the thought processes of speech formation, relationships are established between logical and linguistic categories in speech: “concept (representation) – word, phraseological unit”; “judgment (inference) - proposal.”
Concepts how a form of abstract thinking is realized in speech through words and phrases (phraseologisms), and such forms of thought as judgments and inferences have as their material shell various types of sentences of human speech.
Nominative units of language (words and phrases) are not just a way of materializing ideas and concepts, but reflect specific, standardized forms of knowledge about objects and phenomena of the objective world, accumulated as a result of social practice. These types of knowledge are called concepts. Concepts are the smallest units of information based on objective images of the surrounding world.
The centuries-old process of formalizing and expressing thoughts through language also determined the development in the grammatical structure of languages of a number of formal categories, partially correlated with logical categories (categories of thinking). For example, the formal categories of a noun, adjective, numeral correspond to the semantic categories of an object or phenomenon, process, quality, quantity.
Thus, language as a sign system is the material support of thinking; it materializes thoughts and ensures the exchange of information. Thinking reflects reality, and language expresses it. The connection between these phenomena allows language to carry out communicative and cognitive functions: language not only conveys messages about objects and phenomena of the external world, but also organizes knowledge about the world in a certain way, dividing and consolidating it in consciousness.
Language arises, develops and exists as a social phenomenon. Its main purpose is to serve the needs of human society and, above all, to ensure communication between members of a certain social group. The concept of society is one of the most difficult to define. Society- this is not just a set of human individuals, but a system of diverse relationships between people belonging to certain social, professional, gender and age, ethnic, ethnographic, religious groups, where each individual occupies his specific place and, because of this, acts as a bearer of a certain social status, social functions and roles. An individual as a member of society can be identified on the basis of a large number of relationships that connect him with other individuals. The peculiarities of an individual's linguistic behavior and his behavior in general are largely determined by social factors. The question of the connection between language and society still remains controversial in science. However, the most widespread point of view is that The connection between language and society is two-way. Language as a social phenomenon occupies its own special place among other social phenomena and has its own specific features. What language has in common with other social phenomena is that language is a necessary condition for the existence and development of human society and that, being an element of spiritual culture, language, like all other social phenomena, is unthinkable in isolation from materiality. So, language acts as a universal means of communication between people. It preserves the unity of the people in the historical change of generations and social formations, despite social barriers, thereby uniting the people in time, in geographical and social space.. Language is capable of reflecting changes in the life of society in all its spheres, which significantly distinguishes it from all other social phenomena. Language cannot be indifferent to the fundamentally social divisions that arise within the society served by a given language. “Where separate classes and groups are distinguished in the structure of society,” writes R. Shor in this regard, “serving various production purposes, the language of this society breaks down into corresponding social dialects. Wherever there is a division of labor (and such a division is observed everywhere, coinciding among the peoples of primitive culture with the differentiation of the sexes, hence the emergence of special “female languages”), each branch of production is forced to create its own special stock of “technical terms” - the names of tools and work processes , related to its role in production and incomprehensible to members of another production group.” For a detailed description of language as a social phenomenon and to identify its specificity in this regard, it is necessary to consider language in the following aspects: 1) the specificity of language service to society, 2) the dependence of development language from the development and state of society, 3) the role of society in the creation and formation of language. Language cannot be indifferent to the fundamentally social divisions that arise within the society served by a given language.
Linguistic phenomena generated by social differentiation of society are divided into the following three groups: 1 social and special use of languages;
2.creation of special “languages”; 3. social and professional differentiation of the national language. The influence of general culture on the development and functioning of language should not be underestimated. The development of the productive forces of society, technology, science and general culture is usually associated with the emergence of a large number of new concepts requiring linguistic expression. The influx of new terminology is at the same time accompanied by the disappearance or relegation to the periphery of some terms that no longer reflect the current level of development of sciences.
It has long been known that language is far from socially uniform. Linguistic research, taking into account the dependence of linguistic phenomena on social phenomena, began to be conducted with greater or less intensity already at the beginning of this century in France, Russia, and the Czech Republic. In 1952, the American sociologist G. Curry introduced the term “sociolinguistics” into scientific circulation.“Since language is possible only in human society,” wrote I. A . Baudouin de Courtenay, - then, except mental side, we must always note the social side in him. Linguistics should be based not only on individual psychology, but also on sociology.” Such outstanding scientists of the first half of the 20th century, like I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, E. D. Polivanov, L. P. Yakubinsky, V. M. Zhirmunsky, B. A. Larin, A. M. Selishchev, G. O . Vinokur in Russia, F. Bruno, A. Meillet, P. Lafargue, M. Cohen in France, C. Bally and A. Seschee in Switzerland, J. Vandries in Belgium, B. Havranek, A. Mathesius in Czechoslovakia and others have a number of ideas without which modern sociolinguistics could not exist. This is, for example, the idea that all means of language are distributed among spheres of communication, and the division of communication into spheres is largely socially conditioned (S. Bally); One of the founders of modern sociolinguistics
American explorer William Labov defines sociolinguistics as the science that studies “language in its social context.” If we decipher this definition, we must say that the attention of sociolinguists is drawn not to the language itself, not to its internal structure, but to how the people who make up this or that society use the language. In this case, all factors that can influence the use of language are taken into account - from various characteristics of the speakers themselves (their age, gender, level of education and culture, type of profession, etc.) to the characteristics of a specific speech act. In contrast to generative linguistics, presented, for example, in the works of N. Chomsky , sociolinguistics deals not with an ideal native speaker who produces only correct statements in a given language, but with real people who in their speech can violate norms, make mistakes, mix different language styles etc. It is important to understand what explains all such features of the actual use of language. So, the object of sociolinguistics is language in its functioning
. And since language functions in a society that has a certain social structure, it is possible to speak about sociolinguistics as a science that studies language in a social context.
Sociolinguistics studies the various influences of the social environment on language and on people's speech behavior.
General linguistics analyzes the linguistic sign itself: its sound and written form, its meaning, compatibility with other signs, its changes over time. Sociolinguistics focuses on how people use a linguistic sign - all the same or differently, depending on their age, gender, social status, level and nature of education, and the level of general culture.
Let's take for example the word production. Describing it from the point of view of general linguistics, it is necessary to indicate the following: a feminine noun, first declension, inanimate, not used in the plural form, three syllables, with emphasis on the second syllable in all case forms, denotes an action on the verb mine (coal mining) or the result of an action (Production amounted to one thousand tons or, in another meaning: The hunters returned with rich booty).Sociolinguist will also note the following properties of this noun: in the language of miners it has stress on the first syllable: production and is used in both singular and plural: several loots. People of the same profession or the same narrow social circle often form rather closed groups that develop their own language. In the old days, the jargon of the ofeni was known - itinerant traders, who, with their incomprehensible manner of speech to the uninitiated, seemed to fence themselves off from the rest of the world, keeping the secrets of their trade secret. Nowadays, the language of programmers and all those who professionally deal with computers has also turned into a kind of jargon: they call the monitor an eye, the disk - pancakes, the user - user, etc. Each language has various forms of addressing the interlocutor. There are two main forms in the Russian language: “ty” and “you”. An unfamiliar or unfamiliar adult should be addressed as “you” (the same applies to older people, even acquaintances), and addressing them with “you” is a sign of a closer, cordial relationship. The study of social conditions influencing the choice of forms of personal address (and, in addition, greetings, apologies, requests, farewells, etc.) is also an area of interest in sociolinguistics. Sociolinguists also set themselves the following task: to regulate the development and functioning of language (languages), without relying entirely on the spontaneous flow of linguistic life.
Language is the most important means of human communication. Language is a necessary condition for the existence and development of human society. The main function of language is to be a means of communication.
Language serves society in absolutely all spheres of human activity. Therefore, it cannot be identified with any other social phenomenon. Language is neither a form of culture, nor the ideology of a particular class, nor a superstructure in the broadest sense of the word. This feature of language follows entirely from the features of its main function - to be a means of communication.
An essential feature of language as a social phenomenon is its ability to reflect and express social consciousness.
When characterizing language as a social phenomenon, one should also take into account its dependence on changes in the state of human society. Language is capable of reflecting changes in the life of society in all its spheres, which significantly distinguishes it from all other social phenomena.
Language depends on the nature of economic formations and the form of the state. For example, the era of feudalism was characterized by the disintegration of countries into many small cells. Each feud and monastery with its surrounding villages represented the state in miniature. This structure of society contributed to the emergence of small territorial dialects. Local territorial dialects were the main form of language existence in feudal society.
Differences in the social organization of society in the past may be reflected in the state of dialects existing at the present time. P. S. Kuznetsov notes that in the territory of our old southern provinces (Central Black Earth Strip), where landownership was especially developed, a large number of small local dialects have been preserved.
Each socio-economic formation creates a certain way of life of society, which is manifested not in one particular phenomenon, but in a whole complex of mutually determined and interconnected phenomena. Of course, this unique way of life is reflected in the language.
Human society does not represent an absolutely homogeneous group. There is differentiation caused by various reasons. This may be differentiation along class, estate, property and professional grounds, which is naturally reflected in language.
Along with specific professional vocabulary associated with the needs of a particular industry, special vocabulary appears, typical of various argots, jargons, etc., cf., for example, student, thief, soldier, and other jargons.
Social differentiation of language usually affects only the area of vocabulary. There are, however, isolated cases when it also covers the area of the grammatical structure of the language.
Class differentiation of society can be the reason for the creation of significant differences between languages, or rather, styles of languages. Characterizing the state of Indian languages in the early 30s, A.P. Barannikov, a Soviet philologist and Indologist, noted that modern literary languages of India are adapted to serve the interests of the ruling classes and most of them are little understood by wide circles of the proletariat and peasantry. The reason for this is that lexical elements used by wide circles of the population have been expelled from many literary languages and replaced with words from the literary languages of the ruling classes of feudal India, i.e. from Sanskrit (for Hindus) and from Persian and Arabic (for Muslims).
Demographic changes can also be reflected in language in certain ways. For example, the influx of rural populations into cities due to the development of industry had a certain impact on the literary language. Researchers of the history of the Russian literary language note that in the 50-60s there was some looseness in the verbal use of non-literary words and phrases and, in particular, elements of vernacular.
A demographic factor such as high or low population density can facilitate or hinder the spread of phonetic changes, grammatical innovations, new words, etc.
Population movement, expressed in relocation to new places, can contribute to the mixing of dialects or increased dialect fragmentation. The well-known researcher of Russian dialects P. S. Kuznetsov notes that the border of the Russian and Belarusian languages cannot be determined precisely enough. In the territory occupied by the Russian language, adjacent to the territory of the Belarusian language, there is a large number of dialects containing well-known Belarusian features and forming, as it were, a gradual transition from the Russian language to the Belarusian language. This is explained by the fact that the territory west of Moscow (for example, Smolensk land) was constantly the subject of struggle between the Russian and Lithuanian principalities. These lands repeatedly changed hands; they were part of either the Principality of Lithuania or the Russian state. It can be assumed that each conquest of this territory entailed an influx of Russian or Belarusian population. As a result of linguistic mixing, the area of transitional dialects arose.
The invasion of large masses of conquerors and the seizure of territories with a foreign-speaking population can also be the cause of language changes. Intensive colonization of various countries around the world greatly contributed to the spread of languages such as English and Spanish.
Mass penetration of a foreign-speaking population into territory occupied by another people can lead to the loss of the Aboriginal language. The history of various peoples provides numerous examples of such cases, cf., for example, the disappearance of the Gauls on the territory of France, the Celtiberians on the territory of Spain, the Thracians on the territory of Bulgaria, the Ob Ugrians on the territory of the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Scythians on the territory of Ukraine, etc.
The formation of literary language norms is not created without the active participation of various groups of the population.
Various social movements and views have a noticeable influence on the nature of language. During the years of the revolution, a conscious appeal to jargon and argot was cultivated as the “language of the proletariat,” as opposed to the old “bourgeois intelligentsia language.” A wide stream of various jargons, argotisms and provincialisms poured into the literary speech of the first post-revolutionary years. These layers of vocabulary also penetrated into fiction.
Many outstanding writers, playwrights, and artists played an important role in the development of one or another literary language. This is, for example, the role of Pushkin and a whole galaxy of classics of Russian literature in Russia, the role of Dante in Italy, Cervantes in Spain, Chaucer and Shakespeare in England, etc.
The presence of different class and nationalist interests in society can also affect the development of language. Indian language experts say that the two Indian languages Urdu and Hindi could be easily merged. The elements of the grammatical system of these languages are the same, the vast majority of the vocabulary is common. It is enough to limit the use of Sanskrit elements in Hindi, and Persian and Arabic elements in Urdu, and the conditions for the formation of a language would be created. However, it was beneficial for the imperialist bourgeoisie of England and representatives of the religious cult to maintain linguistic differences that have persisted to this day.
The development of the productive forces of society, technology, science and general culture is usually associated with the emergence of a large number of new concepts that require linguistic expression. New terms are created, some old terms receive new meanings, and the area of special vocabulary is expanded. The influx of new terminology is at the same time accompanied by the disappearance or relegation to the periphery of some terms that no longer reflect the current level of development of sciences.
The growth of culture contributes to an increase in the functions of the literary language. The expansion of the functions of the literary language and its dissemination among the broad masses of the population necessitates the establishment of uniform spelling and grammatical norms.
The emergence of an extensive system of linguistic styles and the establishment of linguistic norms contributes to the development of the so-called linguistic aesthetics, which is expressed in protecting the language or style from the penetration of everything that violates stylistic or linguistic norms.
The development of culture is naturally associated with increased contacts with various countries of the world, with the goal of exchanging experience in various fields of science and technology. On this basis, international terminology arises. Translation of technical and scientific literature inevitably leads to the emergence of common stylistic features and features in the social spheres of the language.
Among the most characteristic features of language as a social phenomenon is also the fact that society creates a language, controls what is created and consolidates it in the system of communicative means.
Every word and every form is created first by some individual. This happens because the creation of a certain word or form requires the manifestation of initiative, which, due to a number of psychological reasons, cannot be demonstrated by all members of a given society. However, the initiative of an individual is not alien to other members of society. Therefore, what is created by an individual can either be accepted and approved, or rejected by society.
Sometimes the factors that support a word or push it out of the language appear in a rather contradictory plexus. A slang word of low style can become the property of the literary language if one group of factors turns out to be more effective in this struggle.
There are areas of word creation where social affirmation plays almost no role. This refers to the creation of very narrow technical terms.
Despite the huge variety of intralinguistic and external linguistic factors that determine the fate of a newly emerged word or form, which cannot even be described in detail within the framework of this section, the decisive role always belongs to society. Society creates and shapes language in the true sense of the word. Language is a product of society. For this reason, more than any other phenomenon serving society, it deserves the name of a social phenomenon.
