1. The general concept of language as a phenomenon of cultural and historical development

One of the most important features of speech activity, distinguishing it from other types of activity, is the special character of its tools, which are signs of the language.

Speech communication is carried out according to the laws of a particular language (Russian, English, German, etc.), which is an integral system of phonetic (graphic), lexical, grammatical and syntactic means and the corresponding rules of speech communication (rules of speech communication). With the help of language as a system of signs [83], people interact in the process of knowing the world, in the process of joint labor or other socially useful activities. Signs of the language (albeit in a modified, “transformed” form) act as a means of implementing RD and in its specific form, such as internal speech, which is the main tool of individual speech and thought activity. Proceeding from this, language can be defined as “a system of signs functioning as a means of communication and an instrument of thought” (156, p. 8).

A language includes words with their meanings (the “relation” of a word to an object of reality denoted by it) and syntax (a system of traditionally established norms, rules for the construction of speech utterances (RS), and first of all selection rules and combinations of words) [95, 197] . In this case, the reference "building" elements that make up the language message are phonemes and graphemes.

From a philosophical point of view, a language can be considered as a system of socially developed means for carrying out communication activities. As N.I. Zhinkin, a language is a means of transmitting messages, this is its communicative function (81). In fulfilling this important function, a language must possess such qualities as “ability” to reflect the surrounding reality through certain signs (the main and universal of which is the word), to fix and summarize information by means of certain codes. [84] A.R. Luria therefore defined language as a complex system of codes denoting objects, signs, actions, or relationships that have the function of transmitting information and introducing it into various systems (148, p. 27).

“Language has a social nature. It is social because human consciousness, whose only form of existence is language, is social consciousness, and every human thought is always a thought of a person as a member of society, because it is a conscious thought, ”A.A. Leontiev (120, p. 219).

Since the second half of the 19th century, language as an object and as a “tool” of human intellectual activity became the object of active research of various sciences (and, above all, linguistics). In the XX century. the problem of studying language in linguistics, and later in psycholinguistics has acquired particular relevance. In linguistics and the psychology of speech, language has been viewed as both the main means of speech communication and the phenomenon of cultural and historical development.

So, V. Humboldt (62) pointed out that language is part of "spiritual culture." In his opinion, language is the main activity of not only human, but also “the national spirit of the people”. In this concept, V. Humboldt included the mental makeup of the people, their way of thinking, philosophy, science, art and literature. At the same time, the founder of modern linguistics believed that the "spirit of the people" and its language are closely linked.

At the turn of the XIX and XX centuries in linguistics, it was suggested that the language "includes the mental component" (62, 197, etc.). The attention of researchers was focused on the individual act of speech - the act, according to G. Steinthal, entirely mental. At the same time, “even simple sounds, articulations are conditioned by the spiritual principle; as such, they can be subjected to purely psychological observation ”(331, p. 47). G. Steinthal introduced such concepts as “psychological subject”, “psychological predicate” into the theory of language (which roughly corresponds to the concepts of modern communicative syntax: “subject” is given and “rem” is new).

In turn, G. Paul put forward the proposition that all language means are stored in the form of the most complex mental education, consisting of various linkages of ideas. These representations stored in the consciousness determine the possibility of the reappearance in the consciousness of what has already been, and hence the possibility of understanding or pronouncing what was previously understood or pronounced.

From this, according to G. Paul, it follows that any grammatical category arises on the basis of psychological (170).

In modern linguistics, there are two main approaches to the analysis of language: structural classification and procedural (23, 68, 166, etc.).

At the first, structural-classification approach in linguistics, the end products of speech activity are explored (that is, speech works, texts), and according to their philosophical or linguistic views, linguists somehow classify these final products. Therefore, for example, some researchers distinguish 12 parts of speech in Russian, and the other only two - nouns and verbs, based on the assumption that there are only things and relationships in the world, which these two parts of speech correspond to in the language. [85 ] With the structural-classification approach, a person as a “native speaker”, his language activity, the process of using signs of the language in the taxiway are not included in the scope of linguistic research.

In the second - the procedural approach - to the analysis of language, researchers, using special methods, try to penetrate the stages and operations hidden from direct observation, and thus describe the real and complete (that is, cumulative) language process in the system of human speech activity. In other words, language is studied taking into account its use in real forms of human activity and in real situations in order to achieve real goals of speech and non-speech activity. This approach is typical for psycholinguistics.

If a language is considered in a procedural aspect and taking into account its inclusion in human activity, then it (language) identifies three interrelated components: language ability; language process; language works (62, 197, 218, etc.).

The first component - language ability - is the ability to adequately use means, signs of the language for the implementation of speech activity in all its forms and forms of realization (in other words, the ability to implement RD as language activity). A compulsory component of language ability is a person’s knowledge of units and elements of the language and the rules of their functioning (actions with signs of the language).

Under the rules of the functioning of units and elements of a language is understood the ability of a person, first, to choose these units from certain categories, groups (language paradigms), i.e. to perform paradigmatic operations, and second, to combine (combine) units and elements of the language with each other. friend, i.e., perform syntagmatic operations. This selection and combination are carried out according to the rules that have been learned in ontogenesis (traditional for a given language), which are stored in memory. Knowledge of language units and the rules for their use can exist for an individual at different levels of awareness: at the level of consciousness (for example, a linguist or an individual who speaks written language or owns speech etiquette with respect to the choice of certain words, expressive gestures, voice volume in certain situations of communication); at the level of so-called. preconsciousness and, finally, on an unconscious level. In “standard” situations of verbal communication, the choice and combination of most language units and elements is carried out at the preconscious and unconscious levels. We (the speakers and listeners) know the rules of selection and combination (they are formed in ontogenesis and stored in our memory), but we cannot always explicate them (express, formulate); usually we either do not know about the existence of these rules, or do not recall them.

Some researchers call language ability “memory of a language” (i.e., memory of its units, elements and rules of their functioning), “language competence”, “linguistic potency” (i.e., a system that can be implemented if necessary), and so on. p. [87, 166, 197 and others].

The second component of the language is the actual linguistic process, that is, the realization of linguistic ability. This implementation is expressed in the implementation of a complex of interacting language operations, namely: semantic, syntactic, lexical, morphological, morpho-syntactic, phonemic and phonetic. For example, these are operations for creating a so-called. “Basic” semantic structures: S - P (subject-predicate) or S - P - O (subject-predicate-object), selection operations , in particular, the choice of syntactic structures used in the RD, extracting words from memory, etc.

Some researchers call the language process (an essentially intellectualized process of using signs of language in speech communication) as “speech activity”, “speech” (175, 248). Based on this, the speech activity itself is defined as a language process, that is, a process of generating and perceiving various forms of speech (oral, kinetic, written). In turn, the language is considered as a system of signs and rules for their use.

The linguistic approach to the interpretation of speech activity in psycholinguistics is associated with the emergence and rapid development of transformational-generative, or "generative", grammar of N. Chomsky. Pointing out that a language is a set of sentences, each of which has a finite length and is built of a finite set of elements, N. Chomsky notes that each sentence can be represented in the form of a finite sequence of phonemes (or letters) (238). In the proposed grammatical model, there are special rules or operations (mainly “transformational”), attached to the syntactic construction of the sentence as a whole. [86] Differentiating linguistic ability as a field of linguistics and linguistic activity, attributable to the field of psychology, N. Chomsky considers the first of them as the ability to speak a given language, and linguistic activity means those statements that a native speaker produces.

The third component of the language - language works, ie, the result of the language process. For the speaker, linguistic works are the completion of the process of speech generation, and for the perceiver of speech, one of the initial links in the process of speech perception. Language (speech) works are also usually defined by the terms “text”, “speech material”.

Thus, language is an integral sign system consisting of three interrelated components: language ability, language process and language works. Language activity (as the most important component of RD) is included in non-linguistic activity and can act as a means of functioning of all mental and communication activities.

Much attention in linguistics and psycholinguistics is given to the problem of the relationship between language and speech. We give below the basic conceptual provisions on this problem, which are taken as the basis by the majority of domestic psycholinguists (59, 120, 147, 218, etc.).

Speech and language constitute a complex dialectical unity in human speech activity . Language becomes a means of communication, verbal communication and at the same time a means, an instrument of thinking only in the process of speech (the performance of speech activity). In turn, speech (as the psychophysiological process of generating and perceiving speech utterances) is carried out according to the rules of language and based on the use of appropriate signs of language. Any speech statement is subject to the laws of this language, not only in relation to its phonetics and vocabulary, but also grammar (including syntax). A person uses words belonging to certain grammatical categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) and combines them in a sentence according to the rules of grammar and style.

At the same time, under the influence of a number of factors (requirements of social practice, development of scientific knowledge, mutual influence of various languages) speech changes and improves the language. As N.I. Zhinkin, "language is created in speech and is constantly reproduced in it" (81, p. 32).

Speech is built from the elements of the language, subject to its laws, but it is not equal, not identical to the language. In the living process of speech, language units receive an “extraordinary boost,” namely, selection, placement, combination, repetition, and transformation. “When used in speech (as a process of speech communication), language signs can receive semantic layering, significant shifts can occur in their semantics (meaning), that is, they can be transformed to one degree or another. Vivid examples of this are the figurative meanings of words and phrases arising in the speech of writers and poets — metaphorical, metonymic, and others ”(73, p. 43).

The specifics of the relationship between language and speech in the framework of a holistic speech activity is also reflected in the above-mentioned (see p. 00) scheme of the main generators of speech activity according to I.А. Winter