Section I. Definition of a linguistic sign

The language that a person uses in everyday communication is not only a historically established form of culture that unites human society, but also a complex sign system. Understanding the sign properties of a language is necessary in order to better understand the structure of the language and the rules of its use.

The words of human language are signs of objects and concepts. Words are the most numerous and main signs in a language. Other units of language are also signs.

Sign is a substitute for an object for the purpose of communication; a sign allows the speaker to evoke an image of an object or concept in the mind of the interlocutor.

The sign has the following properties:
- the sign must be material, accessible to perception;
- the sign is directed towards the meaning;
- the content of a sign does not coincide with its material characteristics, while the content of a thing is exhausted by its material properties;
- the content and form of the sign are determined by distinctive features;
- a sign is always a member of a system, and its content largely depends on the place of a given sign in the system.
The above properties of the sign determine a number of requirements for the culture of speech.
- Firstly, the speaker (writer) must take care that the signs of his speech (sounding words or writing signs) are convenient for perception: sufficiently clearly audible, visible.
- Secondly, it is necessary that the signs of speech express some content, convey meaning, and in such a way that the form of speech makes it easier to understand the content of speech.
- Thirdly, it is necessary to keep in mind that the interlocutor may be less knowledgeable about the subject of the conversation, which means that it is necessary to provide him with the missing information, which only in the opinion of the speaker is already contained in the spoken words.
- Fourthly, it is important to ensure that the sounds of spoken speech and the letters of writing are clearly distinguished from each other.
- Fifthly, it is important to remember the systemic connections of a word with other words, take into account polysemy, use synonymy, and keep in mind the associative connections of words.

Thus, knowledge from the field semiotics(sciences of signs) contribute to improving speech culture.

Language sign Maybe code sign and text sign.
- Code signs exist in the form of a system of units opposed in language, connected by a relationship of significance, which determines the content of signs specific to each language.
- Text characters exist in the form of a formally and meaningfully related sequence of units. Speech culture presupposes the speaker's attentive attitude to the coherence of the spoken or written text.

Meaning - this is the content of a linguistic sign, formed as a result of the reflection of extra-linguistic reality in the minds of people. The meaning of a language unit in the language system virtually, i.e. determined by what the unit can stand for. In a specific utterance, the meaning of a linguistic unit becomes relevant, since the unit correlates with a specific object, with what it actually means in a statement. From the point of view of speech culture, it is important for the speaker to clearly direct the interlocutor’s attention to updating the meaning of the statement, to help him correlate the statement with the situation, and for the listener it is important to show maximum attention to the communicative intentions of the speaker.

Distinguish substantive and conceptual meaning.
- Subject meaning consists in the correlation of a word with an object, in the designation of an object.
- Conceptual meaning serves to express a concept reflecting an object, to specify a class of objects denoted by a sign.

The iconic nature of language

The relationship between language and thought is an area of joint research in philosophy, psychology, sociology, semiotics, philology, logic, rhetoric, art history, pedagogy, linguistics and many other sciences. The relationship of language to thought has long been studied by these sciences, it was begun by ancient philosophy, but the complexity of the subject, the hiddenness of the subject from direct observation, the practical impossibility of experimentation leave this relationship essentially unclear. At the same time, interest in this subject of research has always been great. A positive solution to this problem could have the most beneficial consequences.

The problem of the relationship of thought to language in linguistics is considered in three aspects: 1) the problem of thought and thinking from the point of view of linguistics; 2) the problem of the linguistic form of thought; 3) the problem of reflecting reality by thought, organized by linguistic form.

Every thought contained in a statement is formed according to the laws of the sign material in which it is embodied in a given statement. Thus, in painting, dance, music, drawings, thought takes the appropriate form. Therefore, it is customary to talk about thinking in linguistic form, in the form of art or technology. The features of the linguistic form of thought are learned in comparison with the forms of thought represented in non-linguistic signs.

Signs are divided by material and purpose. There are relatively few basic sign systems, without which society cannot arise and culture develop, but on their basis new signs and sign systems develop.

According to folklore and ethnography, there are sixteen sign systems necessary for the formation and initial life of society: folk signs, folk fortune-telling, omens, body plasticity and dance, music, fine arts, ornament, folk architecture, applied arts, costume and tattoo, measures , landmarks, commands and signals, rituals, games, language. Not even the most primitive society can do without this complex of sign systems*.

*(These data were fully confirmed when analyzing dictionaries. The dictionary of any language shows that if we single out the semantic field of “semiotics”, then the main system of classes of semiotic phenomena is reduced to the sixteen named.)

Against this background, the special role of language becomes clear. The differences between language and non-linguistic systems are as follows. Language presented in speech sounds; this means that, unlike other sign systems, it can be used at any time. Language natural according to the material. Because of this, in addition to the independent task of embodying special meanings, language connects all sign systems with each other. Using the tongue appointed and the content of the signs of all other systems is explained.

Sound form, universality of use and the ability to assign and explain all other types of signs require language to have special ways of forming thought. Oral language usually depends in its content on all other sign systems (directly reflecting the world and organizing people's activities). In this sense, the content of linguistic signs is, as it were, secondary. Language is not only a “cognitive” system, but also one that explains the results of cognition, not only organizes joint actions, but also creates conditions for their organization, not so much predictive as providing a forecast and disseminating the results of a forecast made using another sign system.

Language is a means of communication between other sign systems. Thus, with the help of language, folk signs are assigned, omens are explained, objects of fortune-telling are established and the results of fortune-telling are explained, arts and practical training are taught, measures are introduced, the meaning of landmarks is established, and the content of commands and signals is explained. All this means that language must have the ability to: 1) explain reality; 2) teach other signs; 3) give a command, give a guideline and serve as a measure - and all this in conditions where every member of society is both the creator of a verbal sign and its audience.

The ancients divided sign systems into virtually the same categories as ethnography and lexicography, but called them arts. The musical arts were distinguished: music, dance (and pantomime), image and ornament; practical arts: crafts, including construction; applied arts: costume, measures, guidelines, signals according to the nature of the craft; the art of divination: omens, omens, fortune telling; the art of education (pedagogy) and logical arts: rhetoric, grammar, analytics (logic), stylistics, i.e. philology as a complex of knowledge. Logical (i.e. linguistic) arts stand out due to their special role. If the illogical arts must be taught to the professional, then the logical arts must be taught to every citizen.

The development of signs and the emergence of new semiotic systems is associated with the development of language. History shows that only inventions in the field of material of linguistic signs lead to the formation of new sign complexes and systems. Therefore, linguistic signs contain both images of other signs and images of actions with these signs, and hence images of the world explained by signs. Having become a common property and being understood uniformly, the language must convey all the meanings specialized in different sign systems. Therefore, language allows abstract operations with meaning—reasoning—that are separated from reality. For this purpose, language requires signs with a common characteristic meaning. This - conceptual meaning.

Abstract the nature of linguistic signs is explained by the fact that the need to serve as an intermediary between sign systems requires the language to interpret both “eternal” (from the point of view of a person’s life span) signs (for example, images) and signs that “die” at the moment of creation and perception (for example , music), as well as signs that are renewed with each use (for example, measures). Therefore, the content of linguistic signs should not depend on the ephemerality of sound material, but should be suitable for constant use, and therefore be free from attachment to place and time.

But the mere abstractness of meaning would make the language unusable if it were not possible to link these abstract meanings with place and time. The correlation of meanings with place and time is accomplished in statements by using special words and forms with the meaning of place and time, for example, adverbs, prepositions, tense and aspectual forms of verbs and adverbial nouns.

Abstract meanings of place and time cannot be specified in a statement if it does not indicate the relationship of speech to reality, i.e. values modalities, expressed in forms of speech, questions, motives, narratives, denials and statements, indications of desirability-undesirability, possibility-impossibility, conditionality-unconditionality and other meanings (transmitted in the latter case by specialized forms and intonation). The need for modal forms is also caused by the fact that musical, practical and prognostic signs, united by language, have different orientations towards reality.

Referring to place and time and to reality the content of a speech act requires specifying the meanings of persons, since the subjectivity of the speech act allows listeners to assess its reliability. Hence, in the act of speech the category is necessarily expressed faces through verb forms, pronouns and pronominal nouns.

Thus, the characteristic features of linguistic signs that distinguish them from all others are the following: the abstractness of the meaning of individual linguistic elements and the concretization of their meanings in a statement; 2) special expression by special elements of meaning: time, place, modality, person; 3) the opportunity, thanks to this, to make differentiated judgments about the past and future in isolation from direct events and situations and from sign phenomena.

On the other hand, the subject-thematic content of signs unites language with the meanings of other sign systems. According to the subject-thematic orientation, the general meanings of speech are contrasted in two directions - poetry and prose. Prose addressed to values practical arts, and poetry- to values musical arts. The meanings of linguistic signs are close to poetry (artistic-figurative) and close to prose (object-figurative). In the content of each sign, even in the meaning of grammatical forms, there are both sides - both poetic and prosaic. Thus, the meaning of the gender of nouns in a figurative sense indicates gender, and in a conceptual sense - to the class of nouns. This double orientation is true for the meanings of significant words. Two types of imagery are associated with the fact that language, being oriented towards practical semiotics, towards systems such as drawings, measures, signals, creates object images, and being oriented towards music, body plasticity, painting, it creates artistic images. To create figurative meanings, language resorts to the means of onomatopoeia, sound symbolism, etymology of internal forms, idioms, phraseology, and figurative compositional and stylistic forms of speech. Both poetry and prose operate not only with images, but also with concepts. To create them, the language resorts to various types of determining the meanings of words (by interpretation, through a synonym, enumeration by analogy, etc.) up to the direct correlation of a word with the object that this word names.

Polysemy, synonymy and homonymy equally serve to create figurative and conceptual meanings, while being used differently in prose and poetic texts. The figurative-conceptual structure of subject-thematic meanings allows the language to develop its own means of symbolic expressiveness, which, on the one hand, form the basis of works of musical arts, and on the other, are the basis for the construction of languages of logic, mathematics and programming.

If it is necessary to describe abstract and concrete situations, linguistic meanings aimed at the language itself, or grammatical meanings, and lexical meanings aimed at objects of reality, signs and actions with objects of reality and signs are distinguished. These are the linguistic forms of thought inherent in language solely due to its place among sign systems and material structure. These forms of thought reveal the sign nature of language.

Language is often characterized as the main means of communication between people. This statement is absolutely true. Communication is usually understood as the process of interaction between members of human society, during which information is transmitted, as well as the impact on people’s behavior and emotions.

And, of course, language plays a vital role in such interaction. At the same time, this characteristic cannot yet serve as a definition of language, since it does not include a number of very important features.

In this and the next two paragraphs we will analyze these features in detail and thus establish what the essence of language is.

First of all, it should be noted that language consists of signs. A sign is usually understood as a material object that is deliberately used to designate some other object, sign or situation. Commenting on this definition, it should be emphasized that it contains indications of the following three most important properties of the sign.

1. Signs are material objects, that is, objects that can be perceived through the senses. In human society, there are widespread signs designed to be perceived by sight (for example, traffic lights, traffic signs, musical notation, mathematical symbols) or hearing (for example, beeps made by cars, a telephone ringing, meaning “ another subscriber is calling you”, a buzzer that sounds after picking up the handset and signals that the connection to the telephone exchange has been made and you can dial the number, an intermittent signal meaning “the called subscriber is busy”). A more peripheral position is occupied by signs intended for perception through touch. Here, as an example, we can cite the Braille alphabet - a raised dot font for writing and reading the blind, invented by the French teacher Louis Braille.

2. Signs must necessarily denote other objects, signs or situations, that is, entities that are not identical to these signs themselves. So, under normal circumstances, a pot of flowers standing on the windowsill is not a sign. However, when, as was the case in the film “Seventeen Moments of Spring,” there is an agreement between the inhabitants of the apartment and its potential visitors that the flower will be placed on the windowsill if the safe house does not fail, the flower pot certainly becomes a sign.

3. Signs are used to designate objects, signs or situations intentionally. Not all scientists agree with this statement. However, if you do not take this sign into account, you will have to admit that clouds in the sky are a sign of approaching rain (or perhaps a sign of a change in weather, the onset of autumn, the need to take an umbrella with you, the cancellation of a planned walk, etc. - a list of possible “meanings” of the clouds in this case are easy to continue), the end of the paste in the fountain pen is a sign that its owner wrote a lot (or that he needs to rest, or maybe, on the contrary, go to the store, buy a new refill and continue working) , the pallor of our interlocutor is a sign of his illness (or perhaps fatigue, strong excitement, or the fact that it is better to postpone the conversation), etc. The fact is that, observing certain objects or phenomena, people are able to do a variety of and There are often very numerous conclusions about the causes and possible consequences of the presence of these objects, and therefore the qualification of such objects and phenomena as signs can lead to an exorbitant expansion of the scope of the concept “sign”. Considering the above, it is more convenient to call signs only those objects that are deliberately used to designate something.

any other objects, and in other cases talk not about signs, but about signs or symptoms.

It is easy to see that a sign is a two-sided unit: it consists of a material object and the content transmitted through this object. In this case, the material side of the sign is usually called the plan of expression (or, otherwise, the form, or the signifier) of the sign, and the content expressed by this sign is the plan of content (or the content, or the signified) of the sign.

Now, to prove that language really consists of signs, let’s imagine the following situation: your interlocutor uttered the sentence I caught a cold in Russian.

Obviously, this sentence is nothing more than a sequence of sounds perceived by the organs of hearing, and this sequence is important not in itself, but because with its help the person deliberately makes you imagine a situation that can be described something like this: ' The speaker is currently ill because at some point prior to communication his body was exposed to hypothermia.' It is quite obvious that this, like any other sentence of language, is a sign.

It should be added to the above that signs, which, in turn, are composed of smaller signs, are usually called complex signs, and those signs whose components are not signs are called simple signs. It is easy to notice that sentences, as a rule, are complex signs, since they consist of simpler signs - words. In the sentence we are considering, there are two simpler signs - words: the sequence of sounds, denoted by the letter I, denotes the speaker, and the sequence of sounds corresponding to the chain of letters caught a cold - being in an illness resulting from hypothermia.

However, a word is, as a rule, a complex sign, since it, in turn, consists of the shortest meaningful units - morphemes. Thus, as part of the word caught a cold (pro-stud-i-l-0-sya), one can distinguish the prefix pro-, expressing the idea of penetration through, the root -stud-, expressing the idea of cold, the suffix -i-, indicating that this form belongs to past tense or infinitive, the suffix -l- expressing the meaning of the past tense, the significant absence of the endings -a or -o (or, as is commonly said, the zero ending) expressing the meaning of the masculine gender (otherwise it would be caught a cold or caught a cold), and , finally, the reflexive suffix -sya, expressing the idea of directing the action towards its producer himself.

A morpheme is no longer a complex, but a simple sign. Of course, any morpheme can be decomposed into its constituent sounds, but each of these sounds (for example, the sounds denoted by the letters s, t, y, d in the root -stud) by itself does not convey any content. Thus, sounds are no longer signs, but those elements from which the plan for expressing linguistic signs is built.

Speaking about signs in general, we have already noted that different signs can be designed for perception with the help of different senses, and above all with the help of hearing, vision or touch. As for the signs of human language, they are all intended for perception through hearing, that is, they are sound signs.

What has just been said may be objectionable. After all, as you know, linguistic communication is also possible in written form, and in this case letters are used, i.e., not audio, but graphic signs, which are designed not for auditory, but for visual perception. In answering this objection, it should first of all be emphasized that the original form of existence of any language is sound. Human language arose about 500 thousand years ago, while writing began to emerge only about 5 thousand years ago. Any language can and could have existed before the creation of writing for it, and proficiency in any language does not necessarily imply the ability to read and write in this language (this is how small children or illiterate people speak their native language).

That's not even the main thing. Written signs are not identical to the signs of natural human language: writing is a completely separate, artificial sign system, invented by people, which is designed to graphically record sound speech in order to preserve it over time or transmit it over a considerable distance. It was shown above that sound is not a linguistic sign, since no content is assigned to individual sounds. However, the situation is completely different with the minimum unit of writing - the letter. Letters are signs, since each of them serves to designate sound units of language.

If we talk not about writing, but directly about language, then the main conclusion we came to in this paragraph
fe, is that language is not just a means of communication between people, but a means that consists of sound signs.

The evolution of ideas about the symbolic nature of language

Introduction

Conclusion

Introduction

The topic of the proposed work is “The evolution of ideas about the symbolic nature of language.”

The relevance of the work is due to the increased interest in the chosen topic, as well as the fact that language remains a central theme throughout its history.

The purpose of this study is to depict the sign as a sign system.

The objectives of the study are to determine the linguistic sign, its representation in language, as well as the image of the sign as a sign system of language.

The object of research is the linguistic system of the language.

The subject of research is the sign in the language system.

The novelty of the work lies in the study and presentation of the sign in the linguistic system of the language.

The theoretical and methodological basis consists of research on the theory of the issue: J. Grima, L. Hjelmslev, F. Saussure.

The structure of the work consists of an introduction, three sections, conclusions and a list of references. The first section provides a definition of a linguistic sign. The second section of the work examines the essence of sign representation in language. The third section considers the image of a sign as a sign system of language.

The list of used literature consists of eight items. The volume of work is eighteen pages.

Section I. Definition of a linguistic sign

The iconic nature of human language is one of its universal features and main features. The ancient Hellenes, nominalists and realists - followers of two diametrically opposed philosophical movements of the Middle Ages, the classics of comparative and typological linguistics - inexpressively proceeded from the concept of a sign in their scientific disputes about the essence of things and their names. Since the times of Baudouin de Courtenay and F. de Saussure, all any significant theories of language in modern linguistic science have rested on the concept of sign.

Language is one of the functions of the human body in the broadest sense of the word” (I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay).

What is considered symbolic in a language? The sign aspect of natural language is usually understood as the correlation of linguistic elements (morphemes, words, phrases, sentences, etc.). The sign function of linguistic units further includes their ability to generally express the results of a person’s cognitive activity, to consolidate and store the results of his socio-historical experience.

The sign aspect of language includes the ability of linguistic elements to carry certain information and perform various communicative and expressive tasks in the process of communication. Consequently, the term “sign”, as well as the synonymous term “semiotic”, are polysemantic, they contain different contents and, in relation to natural language, they can be attributed to four different functions of linguistic elements: designation function (representative), generalizing (gnoseological), communicative and pragmatic. The direct connection of language with thinking, with the mechanism and logic of cognition, the unique property of human language to serve as a universal system for designating the entire diversity of the objective world - all this has made the sign aspect of language the subject of study of various sciences (philosophy, semiotics, logic, psychology, linguistics, etc.), due to the generality of the object, they are not always clearly demarcated from each other.

The semiotic concepts formulated during the logical analysis of language, being applied for various research purposes in linguistics, have somewhat advanced the study of the sign aspect of language, giving rise to new linguistic directions, starting with the creation of the “algebraic” theory of language by L. Hjelmslev, where language is reduced to formal logical construction, and ending with the generative grammar of N. Chomsky, the theoretical justifications of which, in a certain sense, go back to the same source.

The concepts of “sign system”, “sign” in relation to natural language have a certain meaning only in the case when they are defined purely linguistically and when behind the presumption about the sign character of the language as a whole or its individual level there is a holistic theory of language, built on the results of the study of these its properties and formulated due to clear implications of the concept of a linguistic sign. Where these terms are used without a system of linguistic definitions attached to them, they remain empty labels. It is this fact that often creates a situation of mutual misunderstanding in linguistics: the less justifiably and definitely some terms “sign”, “sign”, “sign system” are used without studying their specifics, the more categorically others reject the very idea of sign representation - the main property of natural language, - also without referring to the study of this property of language.

The division of the signifier and the signified sign into components, the opposition of signs and non-signs (figures) occupies a significant place in the development of the problem of the sign nature of language. In addition to the wide range of issues associated with the name of F. de Saussure, in the development of the theory of the sign essence of natural language in our time the following problems are discussed: the difference between linguistic signs and “natural signs”, the typology of signs, types of meanings, the creation of the foundations of linguistic semiotics and much more other. The linguistic development of the problem of the sign nature of language, begun by F. de Saussure, is represented today by a wide variety of points of view, which will be touched upon to one degree or another during the discussion of individual problems.

Section II. The essence of sign representation in language

Sign representation is a specific form of objectification of the real world, inherent only to man as homo sapiens, a powerful means of his reflective and communicative activity. “Any ideological product is not only a part of reality - natural and social - like a physical body, an instrument of production or a product of consumption, but, in addition, unlike the listed phenomena, it reflects and refracts another reality located outside it. Everything ideological has meaning: it represents, depicts, replaces something located outside of it, that is, it is a sign. Where there is no sign, there is no ideology."

The main ontological feature of any sign is the function of representation, its replacement of another object. “A sign is characterized primarily by the fact that it is a sign of something.” Along with objective reality - things, phenomena, their relationships, there is a world of signs - ideal reality, which is a reflection, a peculiar (often with distortions, refractions) designation of the first.

Within the realm of signs itself, sometimes called “poetic space,” there are profound differences. As V.N. Voloshinov writes, “this includes an artistic image, a religious symbol, a scientific formula, a legal form, etc.” Sign representation can be different both in its very essence and in form.

A certain single material object can be a signal or symptom, cause a certain physico-chemical reaction, a purely physiological or mental action, as with light, sound and other signals; something can be a symbol, a sign of another phenomenon, object, causing by association a certain feeling, idea, image or concept, as, for example, in the case of banners, orders, coats of arms, etc.

The main properties of any sign are as follows:

The sign must, on the one hand, be accessible to perception by the addressee (have the property of perceptivity).

The sign, on the other hand, must be informative, i.e. carry semantic information about the object.

From the point of view of F. de Saussure, the author of the bilateral theory of sign, there are two sides to a sign: the signified (signifie, significant, image of an object, idea, concept, content, meaning in traditional use) and the signifier (signifiant, significant, exponent, expression) .

Both sides, in his opinion, are mental. The sign as a whole is also psychic. Such a sign, naturally, cannot be perceived. Consequently, it is not the virtual linguistic sign that is perceived, but the speech sign that realizes it. As for the denotation or referent, it is not taken into account in F. de Saussure’s scheme.

The connection between the signified and the signifier, according to F. de Saussure, is conventional (conditional) or, in other terminology, arbitrary (arbitrary): each language relates signifieds and signifiers in its own way. The conventionality of a sign characterizes it as a social phenomenon. Symptoms are not conventional, both sides of which are in a natural, cause-and-effect relationship (a person is sick - his temperature rises). Being conventional, a sign can at the same time be motivated. R.O. draws attention to this. Yakobson, Yu.S. Maslov, A.P. Zhuravlev, S.V. Voronin and other linguists: they note that in fact, in many linguistic signs both sides are more closely connected, and this connection can be explained by the factors of onomatopoeia, sound symbolism, word-formation and semantic motivation.

Both sides of the sign mutually imply each other. And at the same time, they can, as it were, “slide” relative to each other (the property of the asymmetry of the sides of a sign, established by Sergei Osipovich Kartsevsky): the same signified can correlate with several signifiers (synonymy), the same signifier can correlate with a number of signifieds ( synonymy, homonymy).

Being an element of a certain semiotic system, a sign is characterized by the relationships it enters into with other signs. Syntagmatic relations characterize the associative (combinatorial) capabilities of a sign. Signs enter into paradigmatic relationships within the framework of a class, or set, of elements from which a given sign is selected. Systemic connections create the basis for recognition (identification) of a given sign in a specific communicative act and its differentiation from other signs, both “neighbors” in a given linear sequence, and within the set of possible candidates for the same position in this linear sequence.

The distinctiveness of signs, from the point of view of many researchers, is their main property, which forms the basis for the most important of the semiotic principles on which structural linguistics is oriented. The opposition and systemic interdependence of signs lead to the possibility of so-called zero signs (or rather, signs with zero signifiers). The participation of a sign in different oppositions helps to identify its differential features.

Signs of natural languages and other semiotic systems built on their basis, for example, the so-called conventional signs of the languages of science (chemistry, mathematics, logic, etc.), being representatives, substitutes of concepts, ideas, influence the meaning that is assigned to them in a given system. “A sign is a material, sensually perceived object (phenomenon, action), acting in the process of cognition and communication as a representative (substitute) of another object (objects) and used to receive, store, transform and transmit information about it.” The essence of sign representation is “the substitution and generalization of things.”

Signs in the broad sense of the word may include signs, signals, symptoms, conventional signs and signs themselves (linguistic signs). A characteristic feature of signs (signs, indicators, indices, symptoms) is that they serve cognitive purposes, indicating the properties of objects, the causes of processes, etc.

The main function of these signs is cognitive-pragmatic. Signs-signs are characterized by three main points: accessibility, observability of the sign itself, the lack of direct observability of what it points to, the importance of what the sign is an indicator of. For example, we are interested not so much in the fact of the presence of a symptom of a disease, but rather in what disease it is a symptom of; What concerns us is not the fact that the mercury column in the thermometer has dropped, but the indication that the temperature has dropped.

Understanding the very phenomenon of sign representation, its modeling, the definition of a sign and its meaning depend on how the sign system of a language is interpreted and what aspect of the language - dynamic or static, activity or structural - is taken as a basis. The interpretation of the “sign quality” of a natural language also depends on how the language itself is defined - as knowledge or as reality, as a summative system of means, expressions, or as a sign activity that regulates the internal (mental) and external behavior of a person. If the definition of language as a sign phenomenon is based on communicative and pragmatic functions, which are most fully revealed in speech activity, then signity appears in the form of a sign process, sign acts (semiosis, acte semique); if language is qualified as “an instrument of formation and a means of functioning of a specifically human form of reflection of the reality of a socio-psychic, or conscious form of reflection,” then signification appears in the form of a special “sign activity” objectified in language. In the case when language is considered as a certain given, the sum of means of expression, designation and generalization of objects and phenomena of the objective world, then signification is defined in the form of a system of substantial signs.

sign system language glossematic

Section III. Representation of a sign as a sign system of language

The most complex and developed sign system is formed by language. It has not only exceptional structural complexity and a huge inventory of signs (especially nominal ones), but also unlimited semantic power, that is, the ability to transmit information regarding any area of observed or imaginary facts. Linguistic signs provide the process of encoding - decoding mental (mental) elements and structures.

Almost any information conveyed through non-linguistic signs can be conveyed through linguistic signs, while the reverse is often impossible.

It is possible to divide linguistic signs into classes of complete signs, i.e. communicatively complete, self-sufficient (texts, statements), and partial signs, i.e. communicatively not self-sufficient (words, morphemes). Linguistics has traditionally focused attention on nominal signs (words). The newest semiotics focuses its attention on the utterance as a complete sign, with which not a separate element of experience is correlated, but a certain holistic situation, a state of affairs.

The closest sign system to language is writing, which, interacting with the original primary sound language, can serve as the basis for the formation of a written language as the second incarnation of a given ethnic language. For a linguist, human audio language is of primary interest.

Human language as a sound sign system arises during the formation of society and from its needs. Its appearance and development are determined by social factors, but at the same time it is also determined biologically, i.e. its origin presupposes a certain stage of development of anatomical, neurophysiological and psychological mechanisms that elevate humans above animals and qualitatively distinguish human sign communication from the signal behavior of animals.

A classic example of such an understanding of language as a sign system is the glossematic theory of language.

For structural linguistics, which allows for the possibility of describing language as an immanent, self-contained system, the following properties of a linguistic sign are of fundamental importance:

§ its differential nature, making each linguistic sign a fairly autonomous entity and not allowing it, in principle, to be mixed with other signs of the same language; the same provision also applies to non-sign elements of the language (forming the plan of expression of the signs of phonemes, syllabems, prosodemes; forming the plan of content of signs of meaning / semanteme);

§ arising from paradigmatic oppositions between signs, the possibility of a sign having no material signifier (i.e., the existence within a certain paradigm of a linguistic sign with a zero exponent);

§ the two-sided nature of a linguistic sign (in accordance with the teachings of F. de Saussure), which encourages us to talk about the presence of one or another linguistic meaning only if there is a regular way of expressing it (i.e. a stable, stereotypical exponent regularly reproduced in speech), and also about the presence of a stereotypical signified in one or another exhibitor;

§ random, conditional nature of the connection between the signified and the signifier;

§ extreme stability over time and at the same time the possibility of changing either the signifier or the signified.

It is based on the last of these properties that we can explain why different languages use different signs to designate the same elements of experience and why the signs of related languages, dating back to the same source language, can differ from each other either in their signifiers or in their signifieds .

From a structural-linguistic (and, more broadly, lingo-semiotic) point of view, not only writing, but also all other parallel systems of human communication (sign languages, including communication systems between deaf-mute people - sign languages, systems) can be studied using linguistic research tools. sound signals, etc.; the figure shows an act of communication in American Sign Language). As a result, each of these systems can be represented by an inventory of its signs and an inventory of rules for their use.

I. Language is a system of meanings based on oppositions of signs that are relevant for speakers of a given language. A sign is a two-sided mental given, the relationship between its two differentially defined sides - the signifier and the signified; therefore, the distinctive features of the sign merge with it and exhaust it. The emphasis in determining the essence of the sign nature of a natural language is transferred exclusively to the structural and functional organization of language as a sign system. Communicative and pragmatic functions are relegated to the background. A typical representative of the understanding of language as an immanent structure is F. de Saussure.

II. Language is a formal-logical construction, strictly divided into language as a system and language as a process. A sign is defined functionally and represents the relationship of two func- tives - the form of content and the form of expression. Internal structural elements do not have a one-to-one correspondence between the plan of expression and the plan of content; they are classified as unfamiliar elements - figures of the plan of content and figures of the plan of expression. Linguistic elements are iconic only in their purposes, but not in their essence. Signs are elements of language that stand in relation to designation to objects and phenomena of the objective world.

III. Language is considered as a system of linguistic means that are in one-to-one correspondence with the subject range: a sign is understood substantially, one-dimensionally, and is reduced to the form of a sign (sign-expression). A classic example of such an understanding of the semiotic system of language is formal logical calculus and metalanguages of science.

IV. The definition of the essence of language is based on its pragmatic (behavioral) function; language is reduced to speech acts. A sign is defined as a one-sided physical reality that acts as a stimulus and causes a response. The essence of sign representation is defined exclusively in terms of the sign process, the constituents of which are: sign, interpretant, interpreter; The meaning of a sign is defined as goal-seeking behavior and is reduced to the relationship between the speaker and the listener.

The formulation of the problem and the development of methods for studying natural language as a semiotic system of a special kind is characterized today by the general desire to create linguistic semiotics, in the formation of the basic concepts of which all functions, different aspects of language, both its internal and external connections and relationships would be taken into account. “To define a sign system,” notes G.P. Shchedrovitsky, “means to define the entire set of relationships and connections within human social activity that transform it, on the one hand, into a special “organization” within the activity, and on the other hand, into an organic integrity and a special organism within a social whole. It is on this path that we first get the opportunity to combine the concepts of speech activity, speech and language developed in linguistics with the semiotic concepts of a sign and a sign system.”

Consideration of language as a complex structural and multifunctional social phenomenon is expressed in the creation of new semiotic concepts related only to natural language: the concepts of nominative and predicative signs, the opposition of signs and non-signs, figures, units of the second and first divisions of language, the distinction between substantial and operational signs, virtual and actual signs, invariant and variant in language.

Taking into account not only linear signs in a language, but also global signs puts the problems of so-called discrete linguistics on the research agenda.

Conclusion

The level of development of man and society, expressed in the types and forms of organization of people’s lives and activities, as well as in the material and spiritual values they create, is called culture. Considering culture from a semiotic position, one can interpret the entire set of material and spiritual values that form it as a kind of text that reflects, on the one hand, the results of social and practical activity, and on the other, the attitude of society to these results.

The semiotic approach to language played a significant role in the development of linguistic structuralism. Thanks to the understanding of language as a system of mutually opposed and distinguished elements, a number of strict structural methods of analysis were developed, structural models were built in the field of phonology, morphology, lexicology, syntax, mathematical linguistics received fruitful development, etc. But the possibilities of adequate knowledge of language were paralyzed by the desire of structuralists to study language in itself and for itself, in isolation from ethnocultural, social, mental, communicative-pragmatic, and cognitive factors.

Therefore, today the principles of semiotic-structural linguistics are used mainly to identify sets of invariant units of the internal structure of language (such as phonemes, tonemes, intonemes, morphemes, lexemes, schemes for constructing phrases and sentences) and provide a basis for compiling descriptive grammars.

As for the functional aspects of language, which determine its formal variation and exceptional ability to adapt to any communication situations in any cultural and social context, here we have to raise the question of a broader understanding of the subject of language, of turning to new approaches and ideas.

List of used literature

1. Abrahamyan L.A. Semiotics and related sciences. - “Izv. AN ARM. SSR", 1965, No. 2.

2. Bulygina T.V. Features of the structural organization of language as a sign system and methods of its research. - On Sat. “Materials for the conference “Language as a special kind of sign system”.” M., 1967.

3. Vetrov A.A. Semiotics and its main problems. M., 1968.

4. Grimm Ya. On the origin of language. “Anthology on the history of linguistics of the 19th-20th centuries,” compiled by V. A. Zvegintsev. Uchpedgiz, M., 1956, p. 58. The following is given: “Anthology”.

5. Elmslev L. Method of structural analysis in linguistics. - In the book: V. A. Zvegintsev. History of linguistics of the 19th-20th centuries in essays and extracts, part II. M., 1965.

6. Saussure F. Course in General Linguistics. M., 1933.

7. Shchedrovitsky G.P. On the method of studying sign systems. - In the collection: “Semiotics and Oriental Languages.” M., 1967.

8. Shchedrovitsky G.P. What does it mean to consider language as a sign system? In: “Materials for the conference “Language as a special kind of sign system”.” M., 1967.

2. Signs of a word (integrity, identity, variability, syntactic independence).

The word has a sign of completeness , which distinguishes it from a phrase. Completeness arises due to its semantic integrity and its belonging to a certain part of speech, due to the internal morphological unity of the word and the impossibility of dividing it into two or more equal parts, similar to dividing phrases into words. For example, limpiadientes- Toothbrush, limpia dientes– he brushes his teeth (in this case the words can change their forms, for example, limpian dientes).

The problem of word identity is the problem of the immutability of the same word when its form changes in different cases of use. Word identity - this is the possibility of its reproducibility, repetition in all its forms in countless acts of speech without losing the content assigned to it in the minds of native speakers. Example: trabajo, trabajas, he trabajado.

Variability consists in the presence of different variants of the same word, preserving a common root part and the same semantic origin. With such variations, the identity of the word is preserved.

Varieties of word variants:

1.Phonetic options. For example: zumo [θumo] / .

2.Phonetic-spelling options. For example: aloe / áloe.

3.Orthographic options. For example: whiskey / whiskey / güisky.

4.Morphological options. For example: vuelta / vuelto (surrender).

A sign of independence or the individuality of a word is also manifested in the fact that a word is always a grammatically formed lexical unit, correlated with a specific lexical-grammatical class of words. In other words, it is always a certain part of speech. Words turn out to be grammatically, both morphologically and syntactically, formed, in a certain way adapted to their joint functioning in coherent, meaningful speech. The word is given a certain completeness, allowing it to be distinguished from speech.

3. Lexical meaning. Motivated and unmotivated meaning. Correlation between meaning and concept. Folk etymology.

Lexical meaning – the semantic content of a word, formed on the basis of a concept that generally reflects in the minds of native speakers objects of a certain class, and various emotional-expressive, evaluative and other semantic shades (connotations).

For example, words cara, faz And jeta express in relation to a person the same concept “front of the head”, but cara– a more neutral word, conceptual core, faz has a solemn connotation, and jeta– dismissive and vulgar.

Lexical meaning can be motivated or unmotivated. It depends on the characteristics of the so-called internal form of the word – a way of representing the meaning of a word. Unmotivated words are arbitrary. For example, it is impossible, based on the sound and spelling, to explain why mesa- it is a table. But in motivated In words, the idea of the primary feature that formed the basis of the concept being formed has been preserved. For example, meseta- plateau.

Folk etymology (etimología popular) is an erroneous understanding of the unmotivated internal form of a word. For example, the word melancolí a motivated as malenconí a(from mal– illness and encono- anger, malice).

Section I. Definition of a linguistic sign

The iconic nature of language

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2. Signs of a word (integrity, identity, variability, syntactic independence).

3. Lexical meaning. Motivated and unmotivated meaning. Correlation between meaning and concept. Folk etymology.