CHAPTER 5 FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE AND SPEECH IN VERBAL ACTIVITY

Speech activity is a rather complex functional system, i.e., a multidimensional activity that temporarily combines different forms of speech to achieve a certain goal , speech operations of different types, and means of generating and perceiving speech.

In this regard, consideration of the basic functions of speech and the forms of speech determined by them is important for understanding the nature and specific features of speech activity.

The functions of speech activity (functions of language and speech) are primarily its social and individual-personal purpose, the role that the RD plays in the implementation of the main types of human activity and social activity.

General and particular RD functions are distinguished. The first of them act in any speech act, regardless of the specifics and the situation of speech communication in which it takes place. Private functions, by contrast, are largely dependent on the specifics of a particular version of speech communication.

The general functions of language and speech in the RD should include (1) communicative, (2) representative (nominative), (3) intellectual (generalizations, cognitions, etc.) and (4) emotive (i.e. serving to express emotions) .

The activity of communication is carried out on the basis of a number of functions (nomination, generalization, knowledge), which are realized by speech.

The central function of language and speech is communicative, which is realized through the expression of thoughts (transmission of the message) and the impact on oneself and on other people. Impact is a genetically primary form of the communicative function of speech. A person speaks primarily to influence the behavior, thoughts, consciousness and feelings of other people through speech. But even when a person is left alone and uses speech, say, for the needs of his own thinking (speech-thinking activity), he carries out “self-communication”, dialogue (communication) with himself.

“What is the social meaning of speech? In that it provides any other human activity, planning, regulating, controlling it, etc., ”indicates A.A. Leontyev (127, p. 93).

From the first and main - communicative - function of speech, its qualities such as social conditionality, activity, intention, intentionality follow . Speech in human society could arise only with the active orientation of the person's speech behavior in a team towards the expression of their intentions and desires. Speech in the process of social communication is always used by a person to achieve any result. The statement can not be carried out without intentions, without activity, without intentions.

Thus, initially speech appears in its social function of communication, which is embodied in two forms - communication and influence on oneself and on others. On this basis, speech acquires another function — the function of regulating one’s own behavior, the behavior and activities of other people. The regulatory function of speech is also manifested in the organization and integration of other mental processes (148, 187).

The regulatory function of speech and language in the psychology of speech is usually differentiated:

- on self-regulatory - with the help of speech own behavior is planned. (For example, someone says to himself: "Do not worry! Everything is in order"; or: "First I will cross the square, then I will go to the left, turn the corner");

- individually regulatory function - speech impact on one person;

- collective regulatory - with the help of speech the impact is carried out on a group of people. For example, a conversation with friends, a public lecture, a speech on the radio, an article in a journal, etc. The derivative of a regulatory regulatory function is used to control the behavior of communicators who participate in speech communication (“do as I want”). For example: “Go!”; "Read this book!"

From the regulatory function, the planning function is closely related to it - the person’s planning his activities and behavior in society, the activities and behavior of the people around him.

Another major function of language and speech in human speech activity is the intellectual function of generalization. “Communication,” pointed out L. S. Vygotsky, “based on a rational understanding and on intentional transfer of thoughts and experiences, necessarily requires a known system of tools. Such a tool is generalization. Higher forms of psychological communication are possible only due to the fact that a person with the help of thinking generally reflects reality ”(43, p. 50–51). Generalization, in turn, is possible only if the word (as the main sign of the language) has a value. In the psychology of speech, value is defined as a generalized and stable reflection of the subject content included in the social and practical human activity (136).

Due to the meaning of the words, and the associated generalizing function of speech and language, speech activity acquires another important one - the cognitive, or cognitive function. A language sign - a word representing a generalized reflection of the surrounding objective reality, acts as a universal tool of knowledge of a person’s surrounding world (111, 128, etc.).

A general intellectual function (combining the functions of generalization, cognition and reflection) can act in two basic variants: intellectual collective and intellectual individual functions.

The intellectual collective, in turn, has 3 options:

• language and speech act as a means of social experience;

• speech and language play the role of a social cognitive tool;

• language serves as a means of reflecting the characteristics of the national culture.

The intellectual individual function can also be realized in different ways: in the first case, language and speech serve for the individual as a way to carry out intellectual mental activity and expression of thought; in the second, speech activity is used by an individual to master social-historical experience.

S.L. Rubinstein (187 et al.) Pointed out that the word, being an objective reflection of an object, is connected with it by an internal connection according to the general content. This connection is mediated through the generalized content of the word - through the concept or through the image. At the same time, the word in the human mind replaces the displayed objects (objects, phenomena), replaces them as objects of perception, eliminates the need for their direct perception and manipulation with them; the word represents objects (in particular, when solving intellectual problems), denoting the object itself or its properties, attributes, qualities. Such subject relatedness of the word underlies the primordial origin of the nominative function of speech. The nominative function is formed in the ontogeny of speech based on the selection of the essential features of the object and the actual name, the designation of these signs, and often becomes the name of the whole object (for example, the word “candle” means the selection of an essential sign — light, shine; and nights, etc.). The word as a name and indication is the primary function in the ontogenetic development of speech, from which all others can be derived (42, p. 225).

Many researchers consider the nominative (representative) function as the main function of the language, based on the fact that the language is given to man primarily for naming, for designation. It is common for a language to call (designate) not only individual objects, actions, processes, states, signs, qualities, and relationships, but also certain events as a combination of certain phenomena. (A textbook example: “Lived”, “were”, “grandfather”, “woman” = “Once upon a time, there were grandfathers and women. They had Ryaba chicken. A chicken egg was laid ...”)

At the same time, the nature of the nomination in speech activity depends on very many factors: on the form and goals of non-speech activity; the situation in which non-speech and speech activity occurs, from the communicative attitude, the nature of the speaker's interaction with the listener, the scope and depth of their knowledge, the context in which one or another language unit is included, and so on. Therefore, for example, in one case we say: “Socrates”, in the other - “Plato's teacher”, in the third - “The author of Kratyla, in the fourth — the Man who ...”, etc.

Each of the considered general functions receives a specific expression in different forms of speech: verbal, the so-called. "Kinetic" and written. For example, the verbal appeal-call “Go!” In oral speech is expressed by a sequence of sounds and a corresponding prosody, in kinetic speech - by a gesture, in written language - by appropriate graphic means.

Along with the functions common to both speech and language, there are a number of functions inherent only in speech. Live speech usually expresses immeasurably more than it denotes. The original, specific meaning is revealed not only through the meanings and meaning of words, but to a greater extent through emotional and expressive means (intonation, voice modulation, rhythmic-melodic component, pause, etc.). These features of the speech structure of S.L. Rubinstein defined as emotional and expressive function of speech.

Emotionally expressive (otherwise emotive) speech function is included in its semantic content. Often, understanding the meaning of words used in communication is insufficient, and then it becomes necessary to interpret the expressive components of speech, such as facial expressions, gesture, intonation, “semantic pauses”, etc., which reveal the meaning of speech and are important expressive means of expression. In humans, the expressive components of speech are included and pass into its semantics (content and meaning), they express the speaker's will, convey the semantic nuances of speech, and thus enter its structure and semantic content.

Depending on the nature of emotions, emotive function can be divided into expressive so-called. "Sthenic" and "asthenic" emotions. [114] At the same time, moral, intellectual, aesthetic, and other emotions also appear in speech. Of course, different properties of emotions are reflected in speech: their intensity, stability, modality (for example, joy, sadness, surprise, anger , etc.).

It should be emphasized that the above functions of language and speech in speech activity are often combined, and one from the other are often inseparable. Indeed, using speech, a person always represents something (calls, represents, denotes), communicates, expresses and communicates any thought, while realizing rational and emotional components of activity. True, in some cases the communicative function may prevail, in others - intellectual, in the third - emotive. For example, friends exchange life news - in this case, the communicative function prevails. A student solves a scientific problem by involving a language to solve it — the main thing is the intellectual function. The student after the exam exclaims: “Passed!” In this case, probably, the emotive function predominates. As for the general nominative (representative) function, it is present in an “equal” state in any act of speech.

In addition to the functions mentioned above and the inherent speech activity in general, speech, as A.A. Leontyev, performs a number of other functions, more characteristic of lively speaking; these functions do not necessarily appear in every utterance (127, 133). In this regard, in psychology of speech and psycholinguistics (127, 243, etc.), along with the general, private functions of speech are also distinguished. These include:

• Actually nominative, that is, naming function , designations - in the narrow sense (as opposed to the general nominative-representative function). In this case, in one or another speech statement, something is stated - “it is”. Therefore, the nominative function itself can also be defined as stating. For example, the naming (listing) of objects in the room, or a statement of a phenomenon: “Did Peter come?” - “Came”; "Evening"; "Hot", etc.

• Voluntary (derived from emotive) - the function of expressing the speaker's feelings and feelings - serves to express desires (“I want!”), For example: “Give me a pencil!”; "It would be nice to take a walk in Neskuchny garden."

• The appellate function of the PD is used to address the communicants, to call. For example: “Ivan Ivaaanovich, hello!”; "Ladies and gentlemen, wait a minute!"

• The essence of the informative function is to draw the attention of communicators to any fact, the phenomenon of reality. For example: “Look, what a beautiful car!”, Or: “Here is a dog running. One, without a master.

• Relative function that displays, communicates and relationships between objects of the surrounding reality. She has several options:

- The locactic-deictic function is used to indicate the location of an object (object) (“there”, “behind”, etc.).

- The diacritical [115] function, which serves to denote a particular non-speech situation and is clearly manifested in work activity. (For example, the well-known speech expressions of the type “Main”, “Vira” among port workers.)

• The labeling function associated with the use of names — names, place names (cities, streets, geographic areas) also plays an important role in live speech.

• Operational function serves to express actions, processes, states. For example: "The violinist plays"; "The ice melts"; "A bird crouched in a tree."

• Attributive — used to define qualitative relationships — someone (person): good, bad, strong, and so on.

• Affixative, i.e. expressing the statement of the indispensable existence of a fact. For example: “Planes fly”, “Water flows” (i.e., it has the quality of fluidity), “The table is standing”, etc.

• Negative, i.e., negation function (“something” does not exist, no action will take place, etc.).

• Quotation is the function of the question.

• Phatic function is used to establish contact. For example, at the first meeting, in order to establish contact, they often talk about the weather or are interested in whether the communicator watched a popular TV show, etc., although it is not these topics that interest communicators in the first place. Another example is the implementation of the actual function when talking on the phone (“Hello”, “Yes-yes”, “Listening to you”, etc.).

Along with these, some other particular functions of language and speech are realized in speech activity.

These include, in particular, co-operative speech, “reinforcing” some kind of non-verbal action (“Hey, dubinushka, let’s go!”), Functions of self-expression, magical, aesthetic , etc.

It should be emphasized that in any speech act, as a rule, several particular functions of speech are combined at once. For example, in the phrase “Look, what a beautiful car!” Given earlier, both informative and relative (attributive) functions appear (and possibly other functions, if, for example, you clarify the situation in which this phrase was uttered); of course, this phrase also contains common functions - communicative, intellectual, emotive, etc.

A rather peculiar and meaningful function of social intercourse is the deliberate absence of external speech, silence. For example: silence in some religions (Buddhism; Christianity - the feat of asceticism; and others.), Silence - taboo; silence as an ethical category (“Do good by silence”); silence in spiritual communion (“Let's shut up”; or - as in a famous song: “After all, sometimes silence is clearer to us than any words”); silence in the state of a beautiful moment (“Keep quiet!”); [116] silence as submission to a certain law, position; silence for pragmatic purposes (“If you keep silent, you will not lose"; "The word is silver, silence is gold"; "The word is not a sparrow, it will fly out - you will not catch it"); silence - hiding any information; silence from protest; silence as a means of “not blowing up” the situation; silence is a form of politeness; intentional silence - “they will not understand”, “it is not worth talking”; silence from embarrassment; silent means consent; silence as a long pause to underline a fragment of speech, etc.

It is curious that silence "manifests" itself in a letter. For example, someone does not send letters; omissions of words, for example, not quite normative vocabulary, in written texts, empty sheets in a book or pages in a newspaper, etc. The absolute absence of gestures (or some forms of gestures) in kinetic speech also demonstrates a certain "semantics" of silence.

If we bear in mind the whole diversity of manifestations of speech communication (functional and substantive heterogeneity of speech situations), it is necessary to identify some main characteristic of speech activity, which, on the one hand, would constitute its specific feature, distinguishing it from other, non-specifically human types of communication and on the other hand, it would cover all possible variants of its realization, all potentially possible speech situations. Such a desired characteristic of speech activity is the unity of communication and synthesis in speech communication.RD as an organic unity of communication and generalization is manifested in the simultaneous implementation of several functions of the language in it. In the sphere of communication, such a function is a communicative function - the transfer of information and the regulation of behavior. In speech activity, this function appears in one of three possible options:

- as an individual regulatory function, i.e., as a “selective influence function” on the behavior of one or several people;

- as a collective regulatory function in the conditions of the so-called mass communication, designed for a large and undifferentiated audience;

- as a self-regulatory function - when planning your own behavior and activities.

The second speech-specific function in the sphere of communication is the function of mastering the social and historical experience of mankind, within the framework of which the national-cultural function and others are also distinguished (95, 218, etc.).