Specific features of language sign.
GRAMMAR IN THE SYSTEMIC CONCEPTION OF LANGUAGE
Language as a system
· Language as a semiotic system
· Theoretical grammar and its object
· Development of Grammar theory
· Basic notions of structural linguistic
a) Language and speech
b) Syntagmatics and paradigmatics
c) Synchrony and diachrony
· Language as a semiotic system
Language is a system of elements like phonemes, morphemes, etc and these elements are signs.
Signs have no value without each other and they are co-dependant. That’s why change in one part of the system causes changes in the whole system that has a certain structure and its hierarchical type.
| Language level | language unit & function |
| phonological | phoneme- a distinctive unit (distinguish words [lit- lid]) |
| morphological | morpheme- a minimal meaningful unit(re-, -er,-s) |
| lexical | lexeme (word)- a minimal naming (nominative) unit |
| Syntactic a) superphrasemic b) phrasemic | |
| sentence – a minimal communitive unit | |
| the word group- a dependent syntactic unit | |
| sypersyntactic | text- the informative unit |
All language units with exception of phoneme are signs/ it means that they are twofold (парный) nature. And they have 2 planes(sides)- The plane of content and the plane of expression. The form of language signs is mostly arbitrary (произвольный) because there is no natural resemblance of meaning in the form of the signs.
Linguistic signs have features of all other sings but at the same time they have unique features of their own. In language relations between form and meaning are much more complicated than the other systems and it can be seen in homonymy (discussed), synonymy (бегемот,гиппопотам), polysemy, etc.
The existence of such facts on one hand makes the system of language more complicated but on the other more expressive.
1) Replacement. Language sing doesn’t lose its value in time and in space. (Has its meaning when it travelles within sentence)
2) reflexivity of the language sign. This quality is connected with metalinguistics function of language / Linguistic sign directed not only to some referent in the out world but it is always directed to itself. And the whole language system can be described with the help of itself ( Язык это особая форма и особость этой системы в том,что она самодостаточна.)
3) Open-endedness
1) Any language sing is open to changes
2) The number of language singes on lower levels is rather limited.
· Theoretical grammar and its object
The term “grammar” is of Greek origin and it means “the art of writing” but in the course of time the meaning has changed and now it denotes “study of language on the whole”