The historical aspect of the study of linguistics

The subject of study is constantly changing. In China, in the Mediterranean, ethnic language is being studied. Purpose: to create rules for the use of language.

The ancient Chinese tradition is the science of how to write. In ancient India, the language had a sacred function, so the creation of grammar that could preserve this function was urgent. In the Mediterranean was the Greek-Latin tradition, which became the basis for European grammar.

In the period of Antiquity , when linguistics was not distinguished from philosophy and logic, its subject was considered to be the single universal methods of expressing thought. Therefore, the main question that philosophers posed was: the link between the name and the thing.

Two areas of knowledge stood out:

1. The theory of naming - ancient philosophy, the problem of the name, the name of the instrument (the word, naming a thing, is a tool for naming things). The name was sacred. In addition, the name explained the behavior of the named object. It was necessary to properly use this word.

2. Grammatical art - does not recognize the sacral function of language. It is believed that the relationship between the thing and the name is conditional.

In his writings, Aristotle was the first to divide: the letter, the syllable and the word; name and bump, bundle and member (in grammar); logo (at sentence level).

Antique grammar identified sounding and written speech. She was interested primarily in written speech. Therefore, in antiquity a written grammar was developed and dictionaries existed.

In the Middle Ages, man was considered the center of the world. There were questions: is there a human language in general, and what is its attitude towards man and the world?

The essence of language was seen in the fact that it united the material and the spiritual principle (its meaning).

In addition, the language distinguishes a person from the outside world. Since man is the unity of the spiritual and material principles.

The patrists saw two functions of the language : communicative (transfer of the movement of the soul of one person to another) and cognitive (capture in the mind).

The peasant concept prevailed: language is not capable of conveying the secrets of divine revelation.

Two directions appeared : hermeneutics (which was engaged in the study of canonical texts) and exegesis (which was engaged in the study of authenticity and the conditions for the creation of monuments).

Later, science ceases to be interested in canonical texts, and is interested in secular.

In the Renaissance , the main question arises: the creation of a national literary language. But before it was required to create a grammar. The grammar of Port-Royal, created in 1660 (named after the monastery), was popular. She wore a universal character. Its authors compared the general properties of different languages.

In the XVIII century , the grammar of Lomonosov. The focus is on the theory of parts of speech. Lomonosov connected grammar with stylistics (he wrote about the norms and the variation of these norms). He drew attention to the fact that the language develops with society.

Many languages ​​are similar to each other, therefore Lomonosov expressed the opinion that languages ​​can be related. He compared the Slavic and Baltic languages, and found similarities. Lomonosov laid the foundations for comparative historical study of languages. A new stage of study has begun - a comparative historical one.

The science of language is interested in language as such. The founders of the comparative historical method are Franz Bopp, Rast, Jacob Grimm, Vostokov.

The main task was considered - to open laws governing the language and language development. Scientists believed that it was necessary to study languages ​​in comparison with each other for structural reasons. The basis of this is a comparison of the grammatical system of different languages.

It was necessary to study the phonetic correspondences of different languages.

The purpose of the study: to trace the periods of development of each language, to reconstruct the original language.

The works of Wilhelm von Humboldt a (1767–1835) were of the greatest importance. He raised a number of fundamental questions: about the connection between language and society, about the systemic character of language, about the sign character of language, about the concept and problem of the connection between language and thinking.

His activities :

1. He defined the essence of language. Language is an indispensable and inalienable property of a person, which is closely intertwined with the spiritual development of mankind and accompanies it at every stage of its progress or regress, reflecting within itself every stage of culture.

2. The relationship of language and spirit of the people. Spirit - a set of intellectual values, thoughts, feelings of the people. It unites the nation, is the fundamental principle of the world. But we, observing language, can comprehend its spirit. "The language of a people is its spirit."

3. Communication language and thinking. Thinking without language is dark, not shaped. A person without language cannot think and develop. “Language is an organ that forms thought.” As thinking develops, language develops.

4. Forms of language existence. You can consider language in a public (social) and individual form. Humboldt singled out individual and social languages.

5. Ways of language existence. On the one hand: language is a product of activity (ergon), and on the other hand, language is activity itself (ergya).

6. He distinguishes between language and speech. Language is the mass of everything that is produced by speech activity. Speech - in the mouth of the people. The language provides words and regulatory schemes. In speech, we combine these words arbitrarily.

7. Delimited the external and internal forms of the language. The external is sound, and the internal is sensual impressions and involuntary movements of the spirit. Language is the unity of the outer and inner sides.

The importance of the works of Wilhelm von Humboldt lies in the fact that he defined the essence of the language and answered questions about the nature of the language.

In parallel with this concept, a natural science (or historical) arises. Her representative is August Schleicher.

He understood language as an organism: since it is born, lives, is experiencing a climax and dies. He discovered the concepts of the genealogical tree, the branch, the family. In addition, he created a morphological classification of languages. Through her, he described the evolution of languages. I took the root as a basis - a part of a word expressing a meaning and a suffix - a part of a word expressing its attitude. He considered how roots and suffixes are organized morphologically.

And identified the types of languages :

1. Isolating or monosyllabic languages: they were accompanied by the addition of roots, and the relations between the roots were expressed by word order, intonation, or supersegmental units (Chinese, Vietnamese).

2. Agglutinating (agglutinative): suffixes mechanically glued to the roots (Turkish).

3. Inflectional languages ​​(or flexing languages): in such languages, the root and affix are fused together.

Evolution occurred in the language: 1- crystal; 2- plant; 3 animals.

Mladogrammatism (psychological direction): language is a product and belonging of an individual's mental activity. Language can be studied on its specific manifestations. In each individual act of speech activity language development is carried out. So the main principle of the study is the principle of historicism.

Mladogramatics have studied the phonetic laws and the laws of analogy in grammar. These are their merits. They were interested in the causes, nature, nature of the flow of phonetic laws: the law of open syllable, palatalization, the transition to the ego , the fall of the reduced. The law of analogy is the unification of the forms of declension and the elimination of alternation. Disadvantages:

1. Mladogramatics have accumulated a lot of material, but did not substantiate it, did not bring it into the system.

2. They tried not to learn the whole language, but in parts.

Kazan linguistic school . The main thing in it is Ivan Alexandrovich Baudouin de Courtenay (1845-1929). He distinguished between synchrony and diachronic. In the diachronic he singled out (tasks of the diachronic):

1. The reasons for the development of the language (the convenience of a native speaker).

2. Identify chronological stratification of languages.

Courtenay coined the term “ chronological layer ”. It means that signs accumulate, and the language moves to a new layer - a set of new facts at a certain stage of the language, a change of chronological layers.

In synchrony, it is important to study the internal structure of the language (task). Baudouin de Courtenay singled out two aspects in the internal structure of the language: the material and the relative. Material - all units that make up the language. Relative - the relationship between units.

Boduena de Courtenay was more interested in the material side of the language. Created the theory of the material side. He singled out language units (phonemes) and speech units (sounds).

Reasons for the allocation of linguistic units (signs of linguistic units):

1. The abstract nature of language units.

2. Functional load.

Baudouin singled out: phoneme, morpheme, word, sentence. And one of the first to describe the symbolic nature of language units. And this made a significant contribution to the study of language.