The main functions of the language. Language functions and their implementation in speech What does the cognitive function of language mean

Particular language features can be distinguished for various reasons. We, following R. Yakobson, distinguish particular functions on the basis of the sign of allocation, aspectation in the language activity of one of the components of the speech act. In the structure of speech communication R.O. Jacobson identifies the following as the most important components: addressee sends message to the addressee; in order for the message to perform its functions, it is necessary context in question ( referent), the context must be perceived by the addressee, for this you need the code, common to communicants, and contact, i.e. a certain type of connection.

Message

Addresser Context (referent) Addressee

Each of these six factors corresponds to a particular particular function of language. The differences between the messages are not in the exclusive manifestation of any one function, but in their different hierarchy. The verbal structure of the message depends primarily on the predominant function that is realized within the given text. Private language features have specialized means of expression.

1. The referential function is to convey information about extralinguistic reality, which is the central task of many messages.

First of all, lexemes with a direct nominative non-expressive meaning are oriented towards the performance of this function.

2. The emotive or expressive function is realized in statements focused on the addresser. At the same time, the linguistic statement aims at a direct expression of the speaker's attitude to what he is talking about. It is associated with the desire to express certain emotions. First of all, interjections are focused on the performance of this function.

However, as R. Jacobson emphasizes, the emotive function colors colors to a certain extent all our statements - at the sound, grammatical and lexical levels. Analyzing a language in terms of the information it conveys, we must not limit the concept of information to logical content. When a person uses the expressive elements of language to express anger or joy, he is certainly conveying information.

Differences between big and bi:g with an emphatically stretched vowel is a conditional language code feature, just like the difference between short and long vowels in Czech vi « you" and vi: "knows". The second difference is phonemic, the first is emotive.

K. Stanislavsky offered the actor to make 40 different messages from the phrase “tonight”, changing their expressive coloring. The audience decoded them. All emotive features are subject to linguistic analysis (R. Jacobson).

3. The conative function is to orient the message to the addressee. This function finds its purely grammatical expression in the vocative and imperative, which differ syntactically, morphologically, and often phonologically from the narrative forms. These latter may be true or false, but the former may not.

4. When implementing a spell function, a third person turns into an addressee. This function is implemented in spell formulas, conspiracies: Let this barley come down soon, pah, pah. Ugh!

5. The contact-establishing function is realized in statements aimed at maintaining contact. There are messages whose main purpose is to establish, continue or interrupt communication, to establish whether the communication channel is working: Hello, can you hear me?

This function is the first to be mastered by children, the desire to enter into communication appears earlier than the ability to transmit or perceive information.

6. A metalanguage function is implemented if the speaker or listener needs to check whether they are using the same code. In this case, the code itself becomes the subject of speech.

7. The poetic function is actualized when the communicative act is directed to the message as such, while focusing on the message for its own sake. A vivid example of the embodiment of this function is poetic works.

3. The sign aspect of the language
3.1. Sign definition

Reality is perceived by a person not only directly, but also to a large extent through various signs. In relationships between people, signs play a decisive role. The more developed a person, the community of intelligent people, the more information he receives from the perception of signs, the more sign systems he lives in. We encounter a sign in those cases when, instead of one object, phenomenon, action, we perceive another material fact that replaces this reality and carries certain information about it. The sign has meaning only in a particular system.

Sign is a material, sensually perceived object (phenomenon, action), acting in the process of cognition and communication as a representative (substitute) of another object and used to receive, store, transform and transmit information about it.

The essence of the sign is to replace and represent things and facts, it is characterized primarily by the fact that it is a sign something. The sign representation of a thing or fact can be different both in form and in content. As a result, deep differences exist within the realm of signs.

Signs replace objects, phenomena, events to which they point and which they name. Such a substitution in people's lives takes place quite often, so that involuntarily one might get the impression that people live not only and not so much in the world of things, but in the world of signs.

“It is enough to take a closer look, at least with some attention, at our behavior, at the conditions of intellectual and social life, at family and kinship relations and at relations in the sphere of production and exchange, as we will see that at any moment we use several systems of signs at once: first of all, signs of language , the mastery of which begins the earliest; signs of writing; signs of courtesy; traffic signs; signs indicating the social status of a person; banknotes; cult, religious signs; signs of art in all their varieties. It is impossible to abolish one of the systems so as not to endanger the balance of society ”(E. Benveniste).

Signs and the sign systems formed by them are studied by semiotics (semiology). C. Pierce, C. Morris, F. de Saussure, L. Hjelmslev, E. Benveniste and others made a great contribution to the development of this science.

Language as a phenomenon penetrating all spheres of human life performs many functions: communicative, epistemological, accumulative, expressive, suggestive, phatic, aesthetic, metalinguistic, etc.

Communicative function is that with the help of language people exchange information - this is an empirically obvious function. Most linguists consider this function to be the main one. Indeed, a person is a social being, and therefore cannot but communicate, exchange experiences. Knowledge, on the other hand, is the property of consciousness, it is intangible, therefore it cannot be transmitted directly (telepathically). Language is a code for translating a thought into a material form - with the aim of transferring it to another person - and back from a material form into a thought.

Gnoseological function is that language is a kind of system of reference points in the perception of the world, an instrument of information processing. Recognizing an object, we call it a word, and the word itself is related to other words: thus, the object is connected with other objects through language. In addition, the meanings of words themselves contain a list of characteristic features of an object called a word, which makes it possible to manipulate concepts about objects with the help of words and even to set up experiments that are unthinkable for real objects. For example, in one of the works of the Strugatsky brothers, the word “craboraki” is used, denoting the result of an experiment on crossing species (such a creature is endowed with unsurpassed taste properties, is found in the cleanest river, but deteriorates very quickly). In the text, with the help of language, an experiment was carried out, which in reality is not yet feasible, if we do not take into account the achievements of genetic engineering.

In addition, the epistemological function is implemented with the help of word-formation resources: the language correlates for us, for example, the words "builder", "teacher", "investigator", "inventor" as words with the same suffix and the corresponding concepts as special cases of professions ( the meaning of the suffix -tel-). In the field of word formation, as well as in the field of vocabulary, language experiments can be carried out. For example, after the introduction of the word “privatization” with a little-known root, a word appeared that expresses the attitude to the process with a well-known root “privatization”. Thus, language in terms of vocabulary and word formation is one of the most powerful tools of thinking.

The means of thought processing is text. In texts, the ordering of knowledge is carried out according to the laws of the structure of the text: the laws of integrity and coherence. This function of the language is used by people who keep a personal diary: if disparate impressions are recorded in writing in a coherent and integral text, then these impressions are ordered - everything superfluous disappears, and the rest is united by logical connections. Those who are fond of verbal creativity, especially lyrics, know that poetry develops much better at a moment of strong feelings than when a person is calm. A lyrical poem is a way of ordering, comprehending experiences. This function is also used in a number of psychotherapeutic techniques, for example, in "Letter to myself". The epistemological function of language, along with the communicative one, is recognized as one of the main ones by most linguists.

Accumulative function is the function of accumulating knowledge about the world. When knowledge is fixed in language and text, it becomes the property of the next generations. Even if some object disappears from the world, the language retains its name, sign, and texts - information about it. The means of performing this function are words and texts. For example, the word "God" preserves for us ideas about morality that were formed before scientific knowledge of the category of morality. The phenomenon of the “CPSU”, which has gone out of reality, has been preserved in the corresponding word.

If necessary, a word that has become obsolete due to the disappearance of the designated object can be returned to name a similar object. So, for example, in pre-revolutionary Russia, the head of the province was called the word "governor". After the Great October Socialist Revolution, the provinces were abolished. Instead, such territorial-administrative units as krai and oblast were introduced. The heads of the region and region in connection with the party nomenclature were called "secretary of the regional committee" and "secretary of the regional committee". For the same reasons, the head of the city, instead of "mayor", "mayor", began to be called "secretary of the city committee", and the head of state - "general secretary". After the collapse of the USSR and the loss of the leading role of the CPSU in the state, it became necessary to rename the leading positions. For the heads of state and city, the borrowed words "president" and "mayor" were used, and for the heads of territories and regions, the word "governor" was returned, and the names "krai" and "region" did not change. Thus, the elements of the accumulated vocabulary can be used again and again if necessary.

expressive function consists in the fact that with the help of language a person performs not only the operations of transferring, processing and storing knowledge, but also emotions - a subjective assessment of this knowledge. The main linguistic means of expressing emotions are suffixes of emotional evaluation, synonyms, intonation, amplifying particles and interjections. For example, the statements “Vasya does not have a car”, “Vasya does not have a car”, “Vasya does not have a car”, “Vasya, alas, does not have a car”, “Vasya does not even have a car”, report the same fact , but in different ways. Units that convey information about facts are called informemes, and units that express attitudes are called pragmemes.

suggestive function language is a function of controlling human behavior without any rational arguments. A person's mind contains a lot of instructions for behavior and assessments that a person never thinks about. For example, "I don't understand anything in linguistics." If this instruction is subjected to rational analysis - primarily linguistic - the suggestive instruction disappears. The formal indicator of unconsciousness in the example is the word "nothing" in the same context as the word "linguistics". If you recognize a subject as linguistics, then you already understand something. Suggestive means of language are distortions, overgeneralizations and repetitions. For example, in an advertisement for shampoo, the following phrase was used: "If you have gorgeous hair without dandruff, you are ready for any twist of fate." Here, with the help of the standard construction of the expression of conditional relations "if ... - (then) ..." and the generalizing pronoun "any", conditional relations are established between human properties that are not connected in reality. Suppose you have gorgeous hair, but you slipped and fell. Were you ready for this twist of fate?

Phatic (contact-setting) function lies in the fact that with the help of language a person not only conveys knowledge and emotions, but also attracts and holds the attention of the interlocutor. The main means of contact establishment are appeals, introductory words and etiquette formulas. For example, you saw your friend and want to tell him something. To do this, you first call him (address him by name), then demonstrate your interest in the personality of the interlocutor with an etiquette formula, such as “Good to see you!”, “Hi! How are you? ”, then tell him that you are going to convey interesting information using an introductory word - literary “listen”, “imagine” or colloquial “estimate”, then you will insert attention-holding elements into the text of the message, such as “No, you can you imagine what?!”, “understand”, “see”. Interruption of contact is also carried out with the help of etiquette formulas, such as “Well, okay ... bye”, “Goodbye”. At the same time, the listener does not remain indifferent: he indicates his attention with the help of linguistic means, such as “aha”, “What are you talking about!”, “Wow!”, “Ta-a-ak!” and others.

aesthetic function language lies in the fact that it can be used to fix aesthetic experiences and images, as well as assessments in the categories of "beautiful - ugly" and cause similar experiences, images and assessments in the mind of the interlocutor. For example, the use of criminal jargon by Varlam Shalamov in Kolyma Tales, indicating the meanings of these words, creates an aesthetic effect of rejection. In Alexander Solzhenitsyn's works written on the same topic, such words are avoided and work in the camp, perceived by the first author as a mockery, is presented by the second as something inspiring. All fiction and, in many respects, advertising are based on this function.

Metalanguage function- this is a function of the self-description of the language, that is, knowledge about the language is stored and transmitted using the means of the language itself: words and texts. Linguistics as a science is based on this function.

Since language permeates all spheres of human activity, the number of its functions is incalculable. In order to save effort, some of them are assigned the status of the main ones. However, there is a concept that reduces all functions to one - this is the autopoietic concept within cognitive linguistics. According to U. Maturana and A.V. Kravchenko, all the identified functions are varieties of the function of orientation (adaptation) in the environment: communicative - orientation of other people, epistemological - self-orientation in the world, etc.

Language is not just a sign system that symbolically denotes objects and phenomena. Language is also a tool in which it performs a number of functions. The main functions of the language include communicative, cognitive, nominative and accumulative. There are also secondary functions (for example, the aesthetic function of language). In this article, we will consider the main functions that the language performs and their essence.

Basic functions of language: communicative function

This function is related to the fact that language is a means that allows one person to express his thoughts and convey them to another, and to another, in turn, to understand and respond to them. In fact, the language arose specifically for communication, that is, communication, the exchange of information. The communicative function is carried out due to the sign language.

Within the communicative function, one can single out an emotional function, explaining it by the fact that with the help of language one can convey feelings, desires, states. Animals that cannot utter words communicate precisely to convey emotions. The emotional function of our speech is naturally more complex than that of animals.

Thus, it implies the implementation of communication through communication, communication, exposure and expression of emotions, states and feelings.

The main functions of the language: cognitive function

The cognitive function is connected with the fact that human consciousness is present in linguistic signs. Language is a tool of consciousness, reflecting the result of human cognitive activity. The debate among linguists about which comes first, language or thought, never seems to stop. The only opinion that is infallible: language is inextricably linked with thinking, because we not only express our thoughts in words, but the thoughts themselves are presented in the form of words; man thinks in words.

Allows you to record the results of thinking and use them in communication. This function helps to cognize the world and verbalize it.

The main functions of the language: the nominative function

It is closely related to the cognitive, since everything known must have its own name. It is also connected with the ability of a linguistic sign to designate things. It was this ability that helped man to create a symbolic world. Nevertheless, there are many things in our world that do not have names. How, interestingly, to name a pin on In fact, despite the lack of a name, the nominative function is realized through a description.

Basic language functions: accumulative function

The accumulative function is associated with the collection and It is no secret that the language lives much longer than people, people. A striking example is dead languages ​​that have outlived their speakers. Whatever the language, alive or dead, it keeps the memory of entire generations, the centuries-old history of mankind. Even if the oral tradition is lost, one can study the ancient writings and draw certain conclusions about the past of the nation.

Recently, the process of accumulating information has been accelerating, and the volume of information that a person produces today is increasing by 30% per year.

Many linguists distinguish other functions of the language. Among them, for example, contact-setting, aesthetic and others. If you look closely at the additional functions, we can conclude that they are all related in one way or another to the above. The study of the secondary functions of the language does not stop and provides very interesting data for further scientific research. It is safe to say that the language and its functions will always be relevant for a person.

Language as a whole, and language with two opposite parts - language and its opposite speech. Language is the property of the entire linguistic community, it is a social phenomenon. A social language is in the sense that all forms of language belong to the whole community. But language exists only in speech. On the one hand, speech is individual, because it is generated by a specific individual in a specific situation. On the other hand, it is social because it is determined by the rules of a particular language. Each person has his own indialect (individual style of speech), but there can be no exclusively individual, since we draw all individualities in the language. When we hear a certain style of speech, we can imagine who we are talking to, we can make an individual description of this person. Speech is also social because, by the speech of people, we can imagine the social context in which this speech takes place.

Language is code. Human speech is understandable when we know this code (units of this code). Speech is a message on this code.

Language is abstract, it is not perceived by the senses. Speech is always concrete and material.

Language Features- this is the purpose, the role of language in human society. The language is multifunctional. The basic, most important functions of the language are communicative(to be a means of communication) and cognitive(serve as a means of forming and expressing thoughts, activities of consciousness). The third important function of language is emotional(to be a means of expressing feelings, emotions). Basic functions are primary. In addition to basic functions, derivatives, private functions of the language are also distinguished.

Communicative function consists in the use of linguistic expressions for the purpose of transmitting and receiving messages in interpersonal and mass communication, with the aim of exchanging information between people as participants in acts of linguistic communication.

cognitive function is to use language expressions to process and store knowledge in the memory of the individual and society, to form a picture of the world. The generalizing, classifying and nominative functions of language units are connected with the cognitive function.

Interpretive function is to reveal the deep meaning of perceived linguistic statements.

To the number derivative functions of the communicative function of language include the following functions: phatic(contact-setting), appellative(appeals), voluntarily(impact), etc. Among private communication functions can also be identified regulatory(social, interactive) function, which consists in the use of linguistic means in the linguistic interaction of communicants in order to exchange communicative roles, assert their communicative leadership, influence each other, organize a successful exchange of information due to the observance of communicative postulates and principles.

The language also has magical(incantation) function, which consists in the use of linguistic means in a religious ritual, in the practice of shamans, psychics, etc.

Emotionally expressive function language is the use of linguistic expressions to express emotions, feelings, moods, mental attitudes, attitudes towards communication partners and the subject of communication.

Allocate also aesthetic(poetic) function, which is realized mainly in artistic creativity, when creating works of art.

Ethnocultural function of language- this is the use of a language with the aim of uniting into a single whole the representatives of a given ethnic group as native speakers of the same language.

Metalanguage function consists in the transmission of messages about the facts of the language itself and about speech acts in it.

14 Question. Language as a system of signs. System organization of the language. The concept of language levels.

With the development of systemic language learning and the desire to understand the internal properties of linguistic phenomena, there is a tendency to a meaningful distinction between the concepts of "elements" and "units" of the language as part and whole. as constituent parts units language (their plan of expression or plan of content), the elements of the language are not independent, since they express only some properties of the language system. The units of the language have all the properties of the language system and, as integral formations, are characterized by relative independence (ontological and functional). Language units form the first system-forming factor.

The concept of "system" in linguistics is closely related to the concept of "structure". The system is understood as the language as a whole, since it is characterized by an ordered totality its units, while the structure is structure systems. In other words, consistency is a property language, and structure is a property systems language .

Language units differ and quantitatively, and qualitatively, and functionally. Aggregates homogeneous language units form subsystems, called tiers or levels.

Structure language - this is a set of regular connections and relationships between linguistic units, depending on their nature and determining the qualitative originality of the language system as a whole and the nature of its functioning. The originality of the linguistic structure is determined by the nature of the connections and relationships between linguistic units.

Attitude - it is the result of a comparison of two or more units of a language on some common basis or feature. This is mediated addiction language units, in which a change in one of them does not lead to a change in the others. The following fundamental relations for the linguistic structure are distinguished: hierarchical, established between heterogeneous units (phonemes and morphemes; morphemes and lexemes, etc.); oppositional, according to which either language units or their features are opposed to each other.

Connections language units are defined as private the case of their relationship, suggesting a direct dependence of language units. At the same time, a change in one unit leads to a change in others. The structure of the language appears as law connections of these elements and units within a certain system or subsystem of the language, which implies the presence, along with dynamism and variability, and such an important structure property as sustainability. Thus, sustainability and variability- two dialectically related and “opposing tendencies of the linguistic structure. In the process of functioning and development of the language system, its structure manifests itself as a form of expression sustainability, a function as a form of expression variability. The structure of the language, due to its stability and variability, acts as the second most important system-forming factor.

The third factor in the formation of a system (subsystem) of a language is properties language unit, namely: the manifestation of its nature, internal content through relation to other units. The properties of linguistic units are sometimes considered as functions of the subsystem (level) formed by them.

What is the structure of the language system? To answer this question, it is necessary to reveal the essence of those connections and relationships due to which linguistic units form a system. These connections and relationships are located along two system-forming axes of the language structure: horizontal(reflecting the property of language units to be combined with each other, thereby performing the communicative function of the language); vertical(reflecting the connection of language units with the neurophysiological mechanism of the brain as the source of its existence). The vertical axis of the language structure is paradigmatic relations, and horizontal - relations syntagmatic, designed to activate two fundamental mechanisms of speech activity: nomination and predication. Syntagmatic all kinds of relations between linguistic units in the speech chain are called. They implement the communicative function of the language. Paradigmatic are called associative-semantic relations of homogeneous units, as a result of which language units are combined into classes, groups, categories, that is, into paradigms. This includes variants of the same language unit, synonymic series, antonymic pairs, lexico-semantic groups and semantic fields, etc. Syntagmatics and paradigmatics characterize the internal structure of the language as the most important system-forming factors that presuppose and mutually condition each other. By the nature of syntagmatics and paradigmatics, language units are combined into superparadigms, including homogeneous units of the same degree of complexity. They form levels (tiers) in the language: the level of phonemes, the level of morphemes, the level of lexemes, etc. Such a multi-level structure of the language corresponds to the structure of the brain, which “controls” the mental mechanisms of verbal communication.

Units of language and speech

Speech communication is carried out through language as a system of phonetic, lexical and grammatical means of communication.

Language, therefore, is defined as a system of elements (language units) and a system of rules for the functioning of these units, common to all speakers of a given language. In turn, speech is a concrete speaking, flowing in time and clothed in sound (including internal pronunciation) or written form. Speech is understood as the process of speaking (speech activity) and its result (speech products fixed by memory or writing).

The language is systemic, that is, the organization of its units. Language units (words, morphemes, sentences) constitute the language inventory. The system of units is called the language inventory; the system of rules for the functioning of units - the grammar of this language. In addition to units, the language has rules, patterns of functioning of these units. Both the units and the rules of functioning are common to all speakers of a given language.

The basis for the distinction between language and speech was the general objectively existing in the language and specific cases of using this general in speech acts. The means of communication taken outside a specific utterance (for example, a dictionary, grammar) are called language, and the same means in the utterance are called speech. External differences between language and speech are manifested in the linear nature of speech, which is a sequence of units built according to the rules of the language.

In language and speech, minimal meaningful units are distinguished, clearly characterized by the very sign of minimality, indecomposability into smaller meaningful parts. Such a unit is in speech, in the text the so-called morph, and in the language system, respectively, the morpheme. A word in a text and a morph are two-sided units of speech, while a lexeme and a morpheme are two-sided units of a language.

Both in speech and in language, in addition to bilateral units, there are one-sided units. These are the sound units that are singled out in terms of expression and are only indirectly related to the content. Phonemes correspond to the backgrounds distinguished in the flow of speech in the language system. Phonemes are specific instances of phonemes. So, in the word mom pronounced by someone, there are four backgrounds, but only two phonemes (m and a), each represented in two copies.

The individual in speech is manifested in the selection of units from which the statement is built. For example, any word can be selected from the synonymic series to walk, step, pace, step, act, march, shuffle, stomp when constructing an utterance.

When functioning in speech, language units may acquire some features that are not characteristic of the entire language as a whole. This can manifest itself in the creation of new words, built according to the rules of the language, but not fixed by the practice of using it in the dictionary.

Language and speech differ in the same way that the rules of grammar and the phrases in which this rule is used, or the word in the dictionary and the countless uses of this word in different texts. Speech is a form of the existence of language. Language functions and is "immediately given" in speech. But abstracted from speech, from speech acts and texts, every language is an abstract entity.

Units of speech: syntax, gram, lex, morph, background, phonomorph, derivative, phrase

Language units: syntaxeme, gramme, lexeme, morpheme, phoneme, phonomorpheme, derivative, phraseme

Language is a complex mechanism, not just a mechanical one. set of languages elements.: phonemes, morphemes, words, prepositions. Language can be compared to clockwork, where all the wheels are interconnected to produce acc. action: show time. Therefore, the terms "system" and "structure" are used. system called an owl. connections and rel. between the composition its elements, i.e. its units. To language. It is customary to represent language as a unity of system and structure. Development and use language for communication involves fasting. interaction structure and system, their self-regulation. structure language called-Xia cumulative. its inherent units, categories, tiers, cat. real-Xia into a single whole on the basis of lang. rel. and dependencies. The system is an object as a whole, comp. from department relationship parts, cat. constitute unity and integrity, and structure is an analytical concept, it is an attribute or element of the system.

The following language levels are distinguished as the main ones:

phonemic;

morphemic;

lexical (verbal);

syntactic (sentence level).

The levels at which two-sided (having a plan of expression and a plan of content) units are distinguished are called the highest levels of the language. Some scholars tend to distinguish only two levels: differential (language is considered as a system of distinctive signs: sounds or written signs that replace them - distinguishing units of the semantic level) and semantic, on which two-sided units are distinguished.

In some cases, units of several levels coincide in one sound form. So, in Russian and the phoneme, morpheme and word coincide, in lat. i "go" - phoneme, morpheme, word and sentence.

Units of the same level can exist in abstract, or "emic" (for example, phonemes, morphemes), and concrete, or "ethical" (backgrounds, morphs), forms, which is not the basis for highlighting additional levels of the language: rather, it makes sense to talk about different levels of analysis. Qualitative features of the tiers of the language show that, in addition to the general sign of decomposability and synthesis, which characterizes the units of each tier, there are phenomena of the language that cannot be attributed to a specific tier. In addition, there are phenomena in the language that cannot be covered by the concept of a tier. These are such phenomena as the tact-syllabic organization of oral speech, the tonal organization of speech, the graphic-spelling and artistic organization of written speech, the phenomena of phraseology, the lexicalization of phrases, the phenomena of standard formulas-sentences (like formulas of greeting, scolding, etc.), forms word formation, etc. Such phenomena are classified as extra-tiered and are invariantized and classified separately.

"Being the most important means of communication, language unites people, regulates their interpersonal and social interaction, coordinates their practical activities, participates in the formation of worldview systems and national images of the world, ensures the accumulation and storage of information, including information related to the history and historical experience of the people and personal individual experience, dismembers, classifies and consolidates concepts, forms the consciousness and self-awareness of a person, serves as a material and form of artistic creativity" ( Arutyunova N.D. Language functions // Russian language. Encyclopedia. - M., 1997. S. 609).

The main functions of the language are:

• communicative(communication function);

  thought-forming(function of embodiment and expression of thought);

  expressive(function of expressing the internal state of the speaker);

  aesthetic(the function of creating beauty by means of language).

Communicative function lies in the ability of language to serve as a means of communication between people. The language has the units necessary for constructing messages, the rules for their organization, and ensures the emergence of similar images in the minds of the participants in communication. Language also has special means of establishing and maintaining contact between the participants in communication. From the point of view of the culture of speech, the communicative function involves the installation of participants in speech communication on the fruitfulness and mutual usefulness of communication, as well as a general focus on the adequacy of speech understanding. Achieving the functional effectiveness of communication is impossible without knowledge and compliance with the norms of the literary language. Thought-forming function lies in the fact that language serves as a means of designing and expressing thoughts. The structure of the language is organically connected with the categories of thinking. "The word, which alone is able to make the concept an independent unit in the world of thoughts, adds to it a lot of itself," wrote the founder of linguistics W. von Humboldt ( Humboldt W. Selected works on linguistics. M., 1984. S. 318). This means that the word singles out and shapes the concept, and at the same time, a relationship is established between the units of thinking and the sign units of the language. That is why W. Humboldt believed that "language should accompany thought. Thought, not lagging behind language, should follow from one of its elements to another and find in language a designation for everything that makes it coherent" (ibid., p. 345) . According to Humboldt, "in order to correspond to thinking, language, as far as possible, must correspond with its structure to the internal organization of thinking" (ibid.). The speech of an educated person is distinguished by the clarity of the presentation of his own thoughts, the accuracy of retelling other people's thoughts, consistency and informativeness. The expressive function allows the language to serve as a means of expressing the internal state of the speaker, not only to communicate some information, but also to express the speaker's attitude to the content of the message, to the interlocutor, to the situation of communication. Language expresses not only thoughts, but also emotions of a person. Expressive the function implies the emotional brightness of speech within the framework of etiquette accepted in society. Artificial languages ​​do not have an expressive function. aesthetic the function is to ensure that the message in its form, in unity with the content, satisfies the aesthetic sense of the addressee. The aesthetic function is characteristic primarily for poetic speech (folklore, fiction), but not only for it - journalistic, scientific speech, and everyday colloquial speech can be aesthetically perfect. The aesthetic function presupposes the richness and expressiveness of speech, its correspondence to the aesthetic tastes of the educated part of society.