A philologist is a specialist in the field of philology. Philology is a kind of collection of several disciplines into one large group that studies culture through writing. The main disciplines included in this group:

Literary studies;

Linguistics;

Russian language and culture of speech;

Textual criticism and more.

Linguistics

A linguist is a person who knows everything about language: its structure, laws of development and relationships between different languages. Unlike a linguist, a philologist does not deal with the language itself; he is a specialist in texts and everything connected with them. There are only a few philologists in Russia. Not so much the philologists themselves, but real and worthwhile people in the field of philology. And here a question arises for universities teaching philology. How do they distinguish between these 2 different professions or, on the contrary, see their commonality.

What is their difference anyway? Confrontation between linguistics and philology:

1. Linguistics studies languages, and philology is the science of words, mostly artistic.
2. For a linguist, language is the very goal and basis, and for a philologist it serves as a tool with which texts are processed.

There is one more nuance: a linguist is not a philologist, but any philologist is a linguist. This means that a linguist and a philologist are two different professions that have a common focus.

Who is a philologist?

We have already answered who a philologist is. A philologist is a specialist in the field of language culture and literacy.

Now let's summarize. Who is a philologist and what does he do? A philologist studies:

Language functionality;

Internal structure;

The nature of creation;

Historical movement throughout the years;

Division into classes: applied and theory, general and specific.

Philologists work in research centers, educational institutions, libraries and editorial offices. This means that philologists will always be in demand as a philologist-teacher, librarian, editor, journalist, speechwriter or copywriter, and a specialist in scientific research. In addition, philologists can also be found in modern agencies. As they say, who cares what. Therefore, you should not be surprised that a person with such a high, intelligent and competent profession can be found anywhere.

We can conclude that a philologist is a specialist in texts. And he does what he likes: advertising, journalism, etc. The scope of employment can be limitless, so it is better for young people who have recently graduated from secondary school to think about such an attractive profession. There are a lot of lawyers and accountants, but there are only one or two philologists.

Philologist-teacher. Requirements

A philologist must have the following qualities: knowledge of scientific language; attentiveness; resistance to stress; excellent memory and hearing; perseverance and patience; competent speech, both written and oral; broad-minded; analytical mind; initiative and energy. There is only one limitation in the medical sense - a philologist-teacher should not have neuropsychic disorders.

Philologist teaching Russian language and literature

A person with the education of a philologist can easily teach in educational institutions with a specialty - philologist of the Russian language and literature, teacher. Moreover, these could be primary classes, secondary specialized schools, and even universities. After completing three university courses, a student can officially get a job as a teacher. In addition, as you know, although thousands of philologists graduate every year, they are in no hurry to find work as teachers. This increases demand. The shortage of teachers makes it possible to easily enter many educational institutions. In some diplomas, in the specialty column they write “Philologist, teacher of Russian language and literature.”

Philologist in research activities

Who is a philologist and what does he do? Philologists are graduated from higher educational institutions, which means their activities may well be related to science. Research activities for a philologist include:

Explanation and restoration of old manuscripts;

Creation of reviews;

Study of literature and historical data about the language.

Philologists who love their field will not be bored in this area. There are still a lot of things and writings that still need research to this day. As a place of work, philological scientists choose educational institutions where they can further improve themselves. Enroll in graduate school, defend your candidate's and doctoral dissertations, etc.

Philologists in the media

The gates of journalism open for a philologist graduate. If this is close to him, then he can safely apply for the position of proofreader, editor, journalist, reporter, editor-in-chief, production editor. The main requirement of all media is the ability to competently, clearly and with a clear arrangement of expressing one’s thoughts both in writing and orally. And, of course, a philologist falls under these criteria. Each of them must be literate in speech and text, be able to express and formulate thoughts on paper, or be good at presenting an idea to people through TV screens or on the radio. And here everyone needs to choose their own. What's better? Traveling and business trips or quiet work in the office at your desk? Proofreaders and production editors work in the offices. Their main task is to correct and rewrite an already formulated text on paper or electronically.

IT and the Internet are the place of work for competent philologists

Nowadays, tempting offers for philologists are appearing on the Internet. Today there are a lot of sites offering philologists to show themselves. Every day thousands of new sites appear on the Internet that need optimization, new unique texts to promote the site and its high-quality content. And here you simply cannot do without competent people who accurately express their thoughts. So, the positions of philologists on the Internet are: SEO specialist, who adapts the written text to the requirements of SEO marketing, a technical writer (technical editor), who describes products and services, a copywriter or rewriter, who creates and corrects content for websites.

Famous philologists

1. Latyshev Vasily Vasilievich (born in 1855).
2. Grimm Friedrich-Melchior.
3. Likhachev Dmitry Sergeevich.
4. Rosenthal Dietmar Elyashevich.
5. Renan Joseph Ernest.
6. Shares Lucius.
7. Galileo Galilei.
8. Gasparov Mikhail Leonovich.
9. McLuhan Marshall.
10. Ivanov Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich.
11. Tolkien John Ronald Ruel.

Bottom line

Philology is a very interesting science, which is very popular today. Philologists are literate and educated people. A philologist is not necessarily a teacher; he can be a journalist, a researcher, or an advertising agent. But this is not the limit.

Greek philologia - love of words), in modern humanities, a complex of sciences that study language, speech and various verbal texts. Philology is a general designation for two sciences: linguistics and literary criticism, connected by a single subject of study - the word. In other words, philology is “a community of humanitarian disciplines - linguistic, literary, historical, etc., that study history and clarify the essence of the spiritual culture of humanity through linguistic and stylistic analysis of written texts. The text in the totality of its internal aspects and external connections is the original reality of philology” (S. S. Averintsev). In antiquity and the Renaissance, philology was understood as an auxiliary discipline, the purpose of which is the critical study, commentary and publication of classical texts that enjoy indisputable literary authority, therefore philological considerations were expressed in philosophical writings. Philology as an independent discipline was formed in antiquity in the 3rd–1st centuries. BC e. (elements of philology are inherent in ancient Indian and ancient Chinese cultures). But in the Middle Ages, philology again became a part of philosophy. The revival of philology as an independent discipline occurs during the Renaissance in the works of humanist philologists, the Italian poet F. Petrarch (1304–74) and the Dutch thinker and writer Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469–1536). A new period in the development of philology – the 18th century. in Germany: philology is still understood as a commentary on ancient literary monuments, but F. A. Wolf (1759–1824) calls philology the entire set of sciences about the ancient era, including history, the history of philosophy, and the history of art. In the 19th century in the works of German scientists G. Usener, E. Rohde, W. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, ancient history was separated from philology and turned into an independent science. Under the influence of romanticism in Germany, in addition to classical philology, which studied the Greek and Latin languages ​​and monuments of ancient literature, the so-called. new philology, dedicated to the study of new national languages ​​and literary monuments created in them: folk and medieval. These are German studies (brothers J. and V. Grimm), Slavic studies (A. Kh. Vostokov in Russia, V. Hanka in the Czech Republic), oriental studies.

According to the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, 26% of school graduates choose to major in philology. But few people understand what lies ahead.Foxtime figured out what philology is and what you can do after graduating from the Faculty of Philology.

What is philology?

Philology is a cycle of humanities that are united by one goal: the study of the culture of a people through written and oral speech. A graduate of the Faculty of Philology becomes a journalist, translator, works as a proofreader in a publishing house, and conducts literary and linguistic research.

Philological sciences

Philological sciences study language from all possible angles, and the task of philologists is to convey information to the public masses in an accessible way. Before defining philology, it is important to understand what sciences are included in the philological cycle.

Classical philology is a complex of sciences about the literary heritage of Greece and Rome. Students study ancient Greek and Latin and become familiar with the texts of ancient public figures. The direction is suitable for those who are interested in the history of ancient languages.

Communication Science studies problems of information exchange. Suitable for those who dream of becoming a journalist and working in socio-political media.

General linguistics explores linguistic patterns. Suitable for those interested in studying linguistic processes from ancient times to the present day. Graduates work as editors, translators and teachers of Slavic languages, which is in demand with the active growth in the number of educational institutions with an ethnocultural component.

Applied linguistics solves modern language problems, such as computer textual criticism and machine translation. Researchers compile electronic dictionaries and thesauri. Students explore the major applications of modern linguistics and identify connections with new information technologies. Graduates work in the information fields, conduct forensic linguistic examinations, and teach at schools and universities.

Literary criticism studies works of art, finds connections between the literary heritage of different countries and peoples, and highlights the techniques used by the author. The direction will be of interest to applicants who are ready to devote themselves to the study of literature.

Textual criticism studies texts of works, restores and interprets ancient manuscripts. The direction is suitable for future employees of research institutes and publishing houses.

Folkloristics - science at the intersection of literary criticism, music and ethnolinguistics. Students become familiar with the movement of an artistic system through time in a national perspective, develop skills in analyzing works at different levels, which will subsequently allow them to study the folklore of remote areas and teach in higher educational institutions.

Translation also referred to as philology. Graduates of the direction translate foreign works and adapt literary translations for the Russian reader. Translators from Slavic and Oriental languages ​​are especially in demand.

Text / Siluyanova Antonina

What is modern philology?

To get an answer to the question posed, let’s start from the definition of philology formulated at the turn of the 1960s-1970s by S.S. Averintsev. With some variations, it was published in the “Great Soviet Encyclopedia” (3rd edition. T. 27), “Brief Literary Encyclopedia” (M., 1972. T. 7), and the “Russian Language” encyclopedia (M., 1979) , “Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary” (M., 1990), etc. The definition is as follows: “PHILOLOGY (Greek philologia, lit. - love of the word, from phileo - love and logos - word) - a community of humanitarian disciplines -- linguistics, literary criticism, textual criticism, source studies, paleography, etc., studying the spiritual culture of humanity through linguistic and stylistic analysis of written texts. The text in the totality of its internal aspects and external connections is the original reality of philology”6.

Let us comment on this definition. It

• 1) establishes the status of philology (philology is a “commonwealth of the humanities”) and the composition of its constituent sciences (linguistics, literary criticism, textual criticism, source studies, paleography, etc.);
• 2) answers the question of what philology studies (the object of study of philology is the “spiritual culture of humanity”);
• 3) names the research methods (this is “linguistic and stylistic analysis”);
• 4) indicates the research material (“written texts”).

So, the main question is what does philology study: spiritual culture? Text? Or something else?

The definition states that philology studies the spiritual culture of humanity. This statement is fully consistent with the philological tradition (the second chapter of the book will be devoted to its consideration). At the present stage of development of science, spiritual culture, like other types of culture, has become the object of a separate humanitarian science - cultural studies.

So what does philology study if culture is the object of cultural studies? Yu.S. Stepanov (b. 1930) in his definition of philology writes that philology studies the text: “PHILOLOGY (Greek philologia lit. - love of the word, from phileo - love and logos - word) is an area of ​​​​humanitarian knowledge that has its own the direct object is the main embodiment of the human word and spirit - tek st)"7. Let us agree with this: all modern philological sciences - linguistics, literary studies, folkloristics - deal with text, oral or written, printed or virtual.

At the same time, let us ask ourselves the question: is text only studied by philology? The answer depends on what is meant by the object of philology. We will proceed from the fact that the objects of philology are such facts, sides, facets, etc. reality, which is isolated and processed by the philological mind and with which all philological sciences and disciplines deal (cf. Late Lat. objectum - subject, from Lat. objicio - throw forward, oppose). There is such a unique set of objects that no branch of modern science except philology deals with. This totality includes natural language, text and homo loquens (from Latin homo - man, loquens - participle of loquor - to speak, talk, i.e. man in his functions of speaking and writing, listening and reading; Russian. equivalent: “person speaking” in a broad sense).

In fact, homo loquens is not the object of any sciences other than philology. Philological sciences cannot do without the figure of homo loquens: he appears as a storyteller and singer, author and reader, television show host and radio journalist, creates text and consumes it, he is “present” in oral, written and, of course, electronic text.. .

In the texts below, which are parodies of the speeches of famous politicians, those features of their speech are clearly visible, behind which the speaker is clearly visible. These texts were composed by journalist Maria Vardenga (quoted from: Chudinov A.P., Chudinova E.A. Rhetoric and culture of speech: a collection of exercises. Ekaterinburg, 2001. P. 17).

The first phrase from “Hero of Our Time” by M.Yu. is parodied. Lermontov: “I was traveling on crossroads from Tiflis.” Below, see the parody texts and the names of their “authors”:

V.V. Zhirinovsky: I was traveling by train from Tiflis. Tiflis is the capital of Georgia. Georgia is a country in the Caucasus. The Caucasus is a hot spot. A point is a mathematical concept. I have two higher educations, and I know mathematics.

I.V. Stalin: I was going home, comrades. Home, comrades, I rode on horses, which were changed at every station. That’s why, comrades, they are called relays. And I, comrades, was traveling from Tiflis.

L.I. Brezhnev: Comrades! The multi-million army of Soviet communists and all progressive humanity watched with deep excitement as the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR left Tiflis on a friendly visit. At the airport he was seen off by the leaders of sunny Soviet Georgia, representatives of the working class and peasantry.

(We invite the reader to determine for himself which features of the speech of political figures are parodied by the journalist.)

Natural language is a purely human “tool”: without it there is no person, therefore there is no text.

A text is a message that a speaker and writer creates through the means of language for a listener and reader, even if the listener and reader is the speaker and writer himself. Such “coincidence” occurs, for example, in notebooks, in situations of reasoning out loud...

Each of the philological sciences is addressed to the entire set of objects. They are the ones who are included in the philological ones. Another thing is that each of them studies different aspects of these objects.

Thus, linguistics studies language as a certain separate object of reality in its entirety (in the modern state and in history, at rest and in action), as the material from which texts are “woven”, and the texts themselves in their diversity; finally, it is linguistics that considers language as something without which man is unthinkable, and man in his ability to act through language and this activity itself.

Literary studies studies that part of the totality of texts “woven” by man through language, which represent the unity of the art of fiction and the art of words (this part of the texts forms fiction); language for literary criticism is interesting as the art of words; man is both the subject of artistic research and the researcher himself, i.e. the writer, the author, and the one for whom this artistic research is carried out (the reader).

Let's return to culture. Now the question arises: if culture is not the object of study of philology, then what is their relationship? The self-determination of culture as a subject of study of a special science, cultural studies, does not at all negate the close relationship between culture and the objects of philology.

What is culture? If it is “a very complex set of ideas, organized into a code of relations and values: traditions, religion, laws, politics, ethics, art - everything that a person, wherever he is born, is imbued with to the very depths of his consciousness and that guides him behavior in all forms of activity,”8 then it, culture, together with nature and society, constitutes the environment in which man, language, and text develop and function. “We live in a world of culture” (Yu.M. Lotman). This means that the essence of natural language, text, and especially homo loquens is largely determined by culture. There is one more side to this relationship: the text, the language, and the person as a whole is the main embodiment of the human spirit (see the above definition of philology given by Yu.S. Stepanov).

A striking illustration of the interaction between culture and language is the research of the outstanding linguist of our time, Anna Wierzbicka (b. 1938). In the book “Language. Cognition. Culture" (Russian translation - M., 1997. pp. 33-88), it shows that "the features of the Russian national character are revealed and reflected in three unique concepts of Russian culture." This is the soul, fate, longing. They “constantly arise in everyday speech communication”, “Russian literature returns to them repeatedly.” The scientist identifies a number of semantic properties that are especially noticeable when analyzing the named words. One of these semantic properties is emotionality. So, in the Russian language, when comparing it with English, one sees a wealth of “active” emotional verbs: “rejoice, yearn, miss, sad, worry, worry, be upset, mope, despondency, be proud, be horrified, be ashamed, admire, admire, rejoice , to be angry, angry, anxious, indignant, indignant, languish, nervous, etc. “...The idea that Russians actively and quite consciously “surrender to the power” of the elements of feelings often finds explicit (see: English explicit - - clearly, openly expressed. - A.Ch.) confirmation in the language itself, which is clearly seen from the following examples:

Often gives in to despondency, indignation about what is happening in the world (Tolstoy).

We should not give in to despondency in the event of any sudden loss... (Gogol).

Don’t give in to feelings of vexation... (Tolstoy).”

So, modern philology studies three objects: natural language, text and homo loquens as the main embodiment of the human spirit.

Written text as a material for philology. The definition of philology under consideration points to written texts as the material of philology. This instruction most of all refers to the time when the interest of philological sciences was focused on the study of “dead” languages ​​- ancient Greek, Latin, Gothic, Old Turkic, Old Church Slavonic, etc. The fact is that they can only be studied from written texts. The same situation occurs when studying the history of “living” (= modern) languages ​​and literary works of most writers and storytellers.

End of XX - beginning of XXI century. - a time when the relationship between philology and text changes radically. Firstly, philological sciences are not limited to the study of only written texts: the 20th century brought methods of audio and video recording of oral texts, a new type of texts - virtual - attracted attention to “mixed” texts (these are the majority of advertising texts, oral texts created and perceived in connection with the situation, and many others).

Secondly, philology turned to texts that are not traditionally recognized as “examples” of culture. “Exemplary” ones usually include, for example, works of literary classics (but not local and especially not novice writers), speeches of outstanding public and political figures (but not local politicians), etc. However, any text, let us repeat Yu.S. Stepanova, is the embodiment of the human spirit. The human spirit is embodied in different forms and contains different meanings: from high to low - manifested both in poetry, for example, I. Brodsky, and in propaganda appeals written on the walls of buildings and garages; in texts posted on the website of the President of Russia, existing in chats, blogs and Twitter...

So, the material of modern philology consists of all types of texts, regardless of their texture (Latin factum - processing, structure), their relationship to “high” culture. Therefore, in modern philology the term message is used to designate texts of any texture. This breaks the connection between the text and its belonging to the written type of texture. Therefore, we can say that the words of G.O. Vinokura: “Everything written, printed, said is the subject of philological commentary”9 sound prophetic.

Research methods in philology. From the methods of philology S.S. It is no accident that Averintsev singles out analysis.

Analysis (ancient Greek analysis - decomposition, dismemberment) as a method of philology aims to obtain an answer to the key question: how is “living meaning” (Gadamer) comprehended, i.e. How is the process of understanding carried out, what is the result of this process? In other words, analysis in philology is not just dismemberment, decomposition of the studied object into its component parts, but also the establishment of their role (functions) in solving the problem of comprehending meaning. Thus, the analysis of reviews of works in the genre of miniatures (on the website http: / / www.proza.ru /) forces us to look for those signals that the reader (more precisely: the Internet user) sees in the text under review and which, accordingly, serve as the basis for his review. They can

* lie in different planes of the thumbnail text. These are the linguistic and speech features of the text, the method of its computer representation, the meaning as perceived by the reader:

Forgive me, O God, for all my past sins

For all the bad things you have done, Jesus, I ask forgiveness.

For the pain and tears of loved ones and relatives,

For lies, betrayal and misunderstanding of others.

For not helping much,

To those who needed and suffered.

For hatred, for dislike,

I apologize again and again (Via Dolorosa).

Rec. just great!

Everything fits in these lines...

I think this is the confession of every person in this world... (Click-Click);

I do not wanna grow up. I'm scared. Really scary. Talking about adulthood, responsibility and decision-making unsettles me. I try to run away, hide, go to the bottom, but all my efforts are in vain. The burden of growing up follows me like a shadow. (Pingguinko Penguinko. I'm looking for And I don't want to grow up).

Rec. Interesting. For the first time I meet a person who would not like to grow up quickly (Ciao Bombino);

Based on life situations that lie behind the text:

<...>My knight, I will sing to you, How I killed my dream.

I entered into battle with her a long time ago, But it was not easy to fight...

So that the dream finds its end I took out the treasure chest from the oak tree.

In the night I guarded her with a sword... I killed what I protected so much.

I plunged my melancholy into my dream...

Now I’m a blind guslar, I’m singing... (In Dream. Epic). Rec. And I didn’t have to fight my dream,

I just overslept her, that’s all, I overslept that moment when she passed by my house, and that’s all...

Best regards, Vyacheslav (Vyacheslav Cherkasov);

* be determined by the text as an undivided integrity:

One day the Candlestick said to the Candle:

• - Whatever you say, the owner can’t do without me!
• - Of course,” the Candle agreed, “if it weren’t for you, he would have burned his hand with my molten wax.”
• - What's true is true! - Candlestick exclaimed proudly. - My cause is noble and deserves respect! And you...” he sighed with bitter disappointment. - You keep shedding burning tears and shrinking in size. You will burn and there will be nothing left of you. And your tears won't help. Looking at your short life, I want to cry myself. - He even sobbed. - What can you do in such a short time? Consider it a useless existence...
• (Elena Gorisvet. Candlestick and candle).

Rec. Magnificent, very beautiful (Merhiy).

Thus, when studying a text, we actually turn to its author and reader - to those figures who are generalized by the concept of homo loquens. However, in order to answer why this or that signal is selected and how it can be used, other research methods should be applied in addition to the analysis (see Chapter 6 of the textbook). Here we emphasize two points: in philology, analysis is a fundamental, but not the only method of research; in modern philological sciences, analysis has become more diverse (there is linguistic, literary, philological, communicative, rhetorical, semiotic, hermeneutic and a number of others).

Finally, let us consider the status of philology, its place in the system of sciences. It is important that modern philology has already freed itself from the “captivity” of other humanities and has become an independent field of knowledge included in the humanities. What is her status?

An interesting thought on this matter was expressed by G.O. Vinokur: “philology is not a science, or more precisely... there is no science that, unlike others, could be designated by the word “philology” as its name”10. The same provision, only expressed in different words, is also contained in the definition of S.S. Averintseva. He qualifies philology not as a science, but as a community of humanities. This raises the question about the nature of the relationship between philological disciplines. What is philology: a community - a set of sciences / scientific disciplines - an “aggregate of information” (Hegel)? (Compared to the sciences, scientific disciplines solve more specific problems.)

The objective unity of the philological sciences, the commonality of their methods and research material allows us to negatively evaluate Hegel’s thesis about philology as an aggregate of information (cf.: Latin aggregatus - attached), i.e. as a mechanical formation, without internal connections between its component parts. The level of differentiation of sciences and scientific disciplines at the present stage of development of philology, the degree of their independence make it possible to recognize modern philology as a set of sciences and scientific disciplines. (Let us take into account that the concept of a collection is more neutral than a community.)

Thus, modern philology is a set of humanities and scientific disciplines that study, through analysis, natural language, text and homo loquens - “the main embodiment of the human spirit” (Yu.S. Stepanov).

Philology, including at the present stage of its development, is focused on the main problem of human existence - the problem of understanding. This idea was emphasized by S.S. Averitsev (see reading materials). At the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. the problem of understanding has become even more significant as modern man becomes more and more complex and individualizes; No wonder there is an expression: “The 20th century is the century of objections.”

Philology(from ancient Greek φιλολογία - “love of words”) is a branch of humanities whose main task is the study of texts. The text is interpreted and studied in philology as the main source of information about man, his consciousness, society, as the primary given of humanitarian thinking. This approach gives philology the right to claim the status of a fundamental humanitarian discipline. MM. Bakhtin in his work “The Problem of Text in Linguistics, Philology and Other Humanities” characterized written and oral text as the “primary given” of all the humanities, of humanitarian thinking in general (linguistic, literary, theological, philosophical, etc.). Humanitarian disciplines act as “thoughts about thoughts, experiences of experiences, words about words, texts about texts.” Whatever the goals of humanitarian research, its starting point can only be a text that appears in different guises (example texts, construction texts, high-quality or profane texts, etc.). “Humanitarian thought is born as a thought about other people’s thoughts, expressions of will, manifestations, expressions, signs, behind which stand manifesting gods (revelation) or people (laws of rulers, commandments of ancestors, nameless sayings and riddles, etc.). Scientifically accurate, so to speak, certification of texts and criticism of texts are later phenomena (this is a whole revolution in humanitarian thinking, the birth mistrust)". Acting as a science engaged in “certification” and “criticism of texts”, in ancient times philology was formalized as an independent branch of humanitarian knowledge, philological works appeared as “texts about texts”: “By focusing on the text, creating a service “commentary” to it (the most ancient form and the classical prototype of philological work), philology from this angle of view absorbs into its horizons the entire breadth and depth of human existence, especially spiritual existence.” Metaphorically, philology is defined as a “service of understanding,” which “helps fulfill one of the main human tasks - to understand another person (and another culture, another era), without turning him into either a “countable” thing or a reflection of one’s own emotions.”

The object of study of philologists is all texts, regardless of their cultural status, quality, written or oral nature. However, sometimes the subject of philology is explicitly or implicitly limited to written texts (“The master of reading is the person whom we call a philologist. The very art of reading in the sense assumed here would rightly be designated in this case by the word “philology””) or texts that have a high cultural status (“The task of philology is, first of all, to separate works of literature that have cultural significance from those that do not.”).

Differences in the interpretation of the term “philology” in Western and domestic science

There is a significant difference in the understanding of philology in the domestic and Western traditions. In the Western understanding, philology is usually reduced to the study of the history of languages ​​and literatures, the interpretation of written evidence of bygone centuries and civilizations, as opposed to synchronic linguistics. Thus, in the Merriam-Webster explanatory dictionary, philology, on the one hand, is defined as “the study of literature and related disciplines, as well as the use of language in literature,” and on the other hand, it is interpreted as a partial synonym of the term “,” relating either to comparative historical linguistics, or to the study of language as a means of creating literary works and a source of information on the history of culture. At the University of Oxford, the corresponding department is called the Faculty of Linguistics, Philology & Phonetics, that is, linguistics and philology are considered as disciplines of the same order, while in Russia philology is a generic concept in relation to linguistics.

The distinction between philology and linguistics, characteristic of Western science, is based on the ideas of F. de Saussure, who drew a sharp contrast between these disciplines from the point of view of the diachronic/synchronous approach and attitude to language as a subject of study: “Language is not the only object of philology: it primarily sets itself the task of identifying, interpreting and commenting on texts. This main task also leads her to study the history of literature, life, social institutions, etc. ...Her interests lie almost exclusively in the field of Greek and Roman antiquities." Philology deals with language only “to compare texts from different eras, to determine the language peculiar to a given author, to decipher and explain inscriptions in archaic or poorly known languages,” while in linguistics “language is an integrity in itself, thus being the starting point (principe) of classification." Similar thoughts were expressed by other founders of the science of language, in particular W. Humboldt, G. Schuchardt. Currently, the opposition of philology and linguistics in Western science is supported by the presence of influential linguistic theories that show no interest in the study of texts (N. Chomsky's generative grammar, R. D. Van Valin's role grammar, etc.).

History of Philology includes the following stages, each of which is characterized by a different status of philology in the system of sciences, a different relationship between linguistics and literary studies in the system of philology, methodological features, specific research priorities and achieved results.

1. Scientific traditions of antiquity: ancient philology, ancient Indian philology, Arabic philology

2. Philology of the Middle Ages

3. Philology of the XVI-XVIII centuries.

4. Philology of the early 19th century.

5. Philology of the mid-19th century.

6. Philology of the late XIX - early XX centuries.

7. Philology of the mid-twentieth century.

8. Philology of the late 20th - early 21st centuries.

Practical philology and philological education

“Philology today seems to be not only the methodological basis of other humanities and social sciences, but also one of the practical services without which a modern developed society cannot exist.” The areas of professional activity of philologists in the modern world include both direct philological and general humanities research, and public linguistic communication, including intercultural communication, education, culture and management. The training of specialists in philology is carried out by philological faculties of universities. The objects of professional activity of philologists are:

Languages ​​(domestic and foreign, natural and artificial, ancient and new) in their theoretical and practical, synchronous, diachronic, sociocultural and ethnopsychological aspects;

Fiction (domestic and foreign) and oral folk art in their historical and theoretical aspects, taking into account the patterns of existence and development in different countries and regions; history of their scientific study; literary life in its connections with, culture and; the literary process and its individual forms and patterns;

Various types of texts - written, oral and electronic (including hypertexts and text elements of multimedia objects); written and oral communication.

The types of professional activities of a philologist and the competencies necessary for the successful implementation of this activity are determined by the State educational standards of a specialist, bachelor and master of philology.

Philological sciences

Traditionally, philology is divided into two main sections - literary criticism. The system of modern philology can be presented in more detail as follows:

Studying the history and current state of national literatures

Rhetoric

Synchronous and diachronic studies of national languages

Comparative literature

However, despite the “inevitable differentiation of linguistic, literary and other disciplines that emerged from the bosom of the once unified historical and philological science,” the essential unity of philology has been preserved to this day: “New opportunities, incl. and for the humanities, are associated with research at the level of “macrostructures” and “microstructures”: at one pole there are global generalizations, at the other - the identification of minimal units of meaning and meaning. But the traditional architectonics of philology, focused on the reality of the entire text and thereby, as it were, on human standards (as ancient architecture was focused on the proportions of the human body), resists such trends, no matter how fruitful they promise to be.”

At the end of the twentieth century, in linguistics, both domestic and foreign, the object of study was enlarged to the level of text. This does not mean that the text becomes the only subject of linguistics, displacing traditional objects of different linguistic levels from its field of view. There is an increased focus on the holistic speech work, on the communicative functions for which the elements of the language system are intended. Scientific thought moves in the direction from the language system to the text and from the text to the system, and the results of recent philological research clearly demonstrate the correctness of M.M. Bakhtin’s statement: “Understanding any work in a well-known language (even a native one) enriches our understanding of a given language as a system."

The enlargement of the object of linguistics led to a new rapprochement between linguistic and literary disciplines - a conscious unity of problems arose between them. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, “demarcation” aspirations gave way to interest in the textual potential of lexical and grammatical units and categories, attempts to discover the linguistic basis (criteria for selection, specific linguistic features) of such traditional categories of literary theory as style, genre, plot and composition, the desire to a scientific description of the connections between linguistic expression and the aesthetic impact of a literary work. Of the different points of view expressed at the beginning of the twentieth century on the ontological and epistemological relationship between language and literature and on the aesthetic function of language, the more insightful was the view of language as the material embodiment of the “image of creativity” (A. Bely), the understanding of which is necessary to determine “ special meaning of art." We can say that attempts at epistemological isolation of philological disciplines have been replaced by a desire to unite them on an ontological basis, which is, of course, more stable., semiotics, etc., as well as in mathematics and physics. Among the largest interdisciplinary problems in the solution of which modern philology takes part:

Determination of the historical homeland and settlement routes of the ancient Indo-Europeans, including the question of the origin of the Slavs;

Studying the influence of the information society on human consciousness;

Development of language legislation and language policy;

The basis of the interdisciplinary connections of philology is its essential integrating character and the general status of philology as a sphere not only of science, but also of culture: “Understanding a text is an understanding of the entire life of one’s era behind the text. Therefore, philology is the connection of all connections. Textual critics, source scholars, literary historians and historians of science need it, art historians need it, because at the heart of each of the arts, in its very “deepest depths,” lie the word and the connection of words. It is needed by everyone who uses language, words; the word is connected with any forms of being, with any knowledge of being: the word, and even more precisely, combinations of words. From here it is clear that philology underlies not only science, but also all human culture." Introduction to the study of philological sciences. (First issue. Problems of philology) // Problems of structural linguistics. 1978. M., 1981

Gindin S.I. Introduction to general philology // Author's educational programs in the humanities and socio-economic disciplines: psychology, pedagogy, linguistics, literary criticism. M., 1998

Likhachev D.S. On the art of speech and philology // Likhachev D.S. About philology. M., 1989

Rozhdestvensky Yu.V. General philology. M., 1996

Saussure F., de. Works on linguistics. M., 1977

Chuvakin A.A. Language as an object of modern philology? // Bulletin of the Buryat State University. Philology. Issue 7. Ulan-Ude, 2007. P.64-69