CC BY
12
DOI: 10.24412/2470-1262-2022-1-41-51
УДК 81.1
Nekipelova Irina M., M. T. Kalashnikov Izhevsk State Technical University,
Izhevsk, Russia Некипелова Ирина М., Ижевский государственный технический университет
им. М. Т. Калашникова, Ижевск, Россия
For citation: Nekipelova Irina M., (2022).
Classifying language function.
Cross-Cultural Studies: Education and Science, Vol. 7, Issue 1, (2022), pp. 41-51 (in USA)
Manuscript received: 10/01/2022 Accepted for publication: 28/03/2022 The authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
CC BY 4.0
CLASSIFYING LANGUAGE FUNCTION КЛАССИФИЦИРУЮЩАЯ ФУНКЦИЯ ЯЗЫКА
Abstract:
The article is devoted to the study of language as a dissipative system that performs various functions in the socio-anthropological space. The study revealed that, along with other functions, language performs a classifying function. This function has a cognitive character and is expressed primarily in the ability of a person to classify the world, defining its phenomena by means of various categories and thereby distinguishing one phenomenon from another. The classifying function can be represented as a set of rules that divide the vector space into subspaces associated with classes. It defines both intracategorical and intercategorical relations of linguistic units and elements within the linguistic structure. And from this point of view, language is a classification of a high degree of reliability and a classifier of reality at the same time. The study showed that language plays a huge role in transforming the world. In this respect, it is a construct of the world and at the same time a constructor through which a person builds the world around her/him. In conclusion, the study concluded that the linguistic activity of individuals acting within the social space contributes to the formation of language as a system, presented in an objective form (as a metalanguage) and in a subjective form (as an idea of the language of a single individual) in the form multilevel classification. Language, structuring and classifying ideas about the world, quickly adapts to changes in the external environment and determines the survival of a person. Therefore, the classifying function is one of the main cognitive functions of the language, ensuring the survival of humanity. This is achieved by attributing cause and effect relations to the phenomena of the world, as well as by identifying essential and non-essential signs and categories in the world.
Keywords: language as classification, language functions, classifying function of the language
Аннотация:
Статья посвящена исследованию языка как диссипативной системы, выполняющей различные функции в социально-антропологическом пространстве. В ходе исследования было выявлено, что наряду с другими функциями язык выполняет классифицирующую функцию. Эта функция имеет когнитивный характер и выражается прежде всего в способности человека классифицировать мир, определяя его явления посредством различных категорий и тем самым отличая одни явления от других. Классифицирующая функция может быть представлена в виде набора правил, которые разделяют векторное пространство на подпространства, ассоциированные с классами. Она определяет как внутрикатегориальные, так и межкатегориальные отношения языковых единиц и элементов в пределах языковой структуры. И с этой точки зрения язык является классификацией высокой степени надёжности и классификатором реальности одновременно. Исследование показало, что язык играет огромную роль в преобразовании мира. В этом отношении он является конструктом мира и одновременно конструктором, из которого человек строит мир вокруг себя. В заключение исследования были сделаны выводы о том, что языковая активность индивидов, действующих в рамках социального пространства, способствует формированию языка как системы, представленной в объективном в виде (как метаязык) и в субъективном виде (как представление о языке отдельно взятой личности) в виде многоуровневой классификации. Язык, структурируя и классифицируя представления о мире, быстро адаптируется к изменениям внешней среды и определяет выживаемость человека. Из этого следует что классифицирующая функция является одной из основных когнитивных функций языка, обеспечивающих человечеству его выживание. Это достигается за счёт приписывания явлениям мира отношений причин и следствий, а также за счёт выявления в мире существенных и несущественных признаков и категорий.
Ключевые слова: язык как классификация, функции языка, классифицирующая функция языка
Introduction
One of the most significant research methods is classification, and the most visual representation of the research object is classification. The knowledge of any science is currently presented in the form of a structure based on classifications that have different bases. Knowledge about the world as a whole is presented in the same way. But any knowledge can be expressed exclusively through language, which means that, in relation to the phenomena of the world, language is also naturally classified, and also subject to classification by people who use language as means of communication.
Materials and methods
In the study of language as a classification, we used the method of science-oriented search. The need for this is due to the fact that language is an object of research of a high degree of complexity. The complexity of the study is associated, firstly, with the fact that data on the language system cannot be presented in material form, except for the partial use of its elements in individual speech. Secondly, the study of the codified form of the language presented in dictionaries and reference books does not give scientists complete data on the language system. In general, language "is not a real, but a conceivable unity", since "in the thinking of each person, language is presented as a specific structure, a model consisting of separate elements interconnected by various relationships" [12, p. 198]. Therefore, when studying a language, one should take into account not only the peculiarities of collective thinking, which forms a universal form of communication, but also a multitude of individual forms of thinking that form individual forms of communication. In this regard, it seems to us necessary to introduce into scientific circulation the concepts that distinguish
collective and individual ideas about language, which correlate with the concepts of objective language and subjective language: "The codified and conventional model is an objective language, and many individual ideas about language are subjective languages" [12, p. 198]. The coexistence and correlation of objective and subjective languages testifies to the relativity of deterministic ideas about the formation and development of language systems. We have considered these phenomena in detail in [9, 10, 20]. Studying language as a field of knowledge about a person, we actualize the idea of what a huge role language plays in transforming the world around a person. In this respect, language is a construct of the world and at the same time a constructor from which a person builds the world around him. Studies of the language, taking into account the knowledge of other sciences about man, will help to identify the features of a person's thinking and its capabilities, contributing to overcoming the increasingly urgent anthropological crisis.
Language as classification
Classification is a way of perceiving and reflecting reality as a result of cooperation, primarily of such methods of comprehending and representing the world as analysis and synthesis. Analysis is necessary in the search and formulation of features, distinctive features inherent in the object. As a result of the synthesis, several objects are collected into groups according to certain dominant characteristics or several values of a characteristic into one category that describes the object. Analysis and synthesis are inseparable from each other and can be identified only conditionally in the direction from the general to the particular, or, conversely, from the particular to the general. They are interdependent and mutually complementary logical operations carried out exclusively in human thinking. Analysis and synthesis are aimed at identifying the features of objects (including the features of linguistic units as objects of research), which can be either unique, inherent in only one or several objects, or universal, inherent in all objects. These features are not real characteristics of the object, but characteristics that only correlate with the object. It is these objects to which certain features are attributed that underlie the classification, including the linguistic system as a classification.
It is expedient to divide the classification of systems into natural and artificial. Natural classifications should include systems of natural languages, or rather, ideas about them. Artificial classifications include scientific systematizations, including those of a linguistic nature. In general, the natural classification is formed in a "bottom-up" way, since in a person's thinking, linguistic units are included in the linguistic system as autonomous objects. Artificial classification has a top-down direction as it deals with modular units. In this regard, within the framework of the theory of classification, it is necessary to consider the entire spectrum of possible classifications on the scale "extensionality - intensionality" [8, p. 68], where at one pole there are extensional (descriptive) classifications using the external characteristics of objects, and at the other pole - intensional (essential) classifications. This opposition, as well as the tendency to move from extensional scientific descriptions to intensional ones, has become more pronounced in recent years.
Any linguistic sign has external characteristics that allow you to recognize and perceive it in oral or written expression, and essential (internal) characteristics that allow you to connect ideas about an object with the very object of reality. Such two-sidedness of signs allows us to consider them, on the one hand, as modular units into which linguistic unity breaks down, and on the other, as autonomous units that, in interaction, make up a mobile language system. Based on the distinction between the internal and external linguistic activity of a person and the impact that a person has on the language, the language system can be considered as an artificial classification, of which the elements are modular units, and as a natural classification, of which the elements are autonomous units.
Artificial classification is the result of purposeful activities of a person and society. The very understanding of the concept of classification is based on the concept of classification as a
structuralization of the object of research. As a rule, the classification (from the Latin "classis" -category, class and "facio" - I do, decompose, i.e. I divide into categories) was understood as "a system of subordinate concepts (classes of objects, phenomena) in any branch of knowledge, compiled on the basis of taking into account the common features of objects and regular connections between them" [14], and "in descriptive science, it acted as the result (goal) of cognition (systematics in biology, attempts to classify sciences on various grounds, etc.), and further development was presented as its improvement or a proposal for a new classification" [13]. An example of such classifications is, first of all, scientific data and knowledge of scientists about systems as objects of study - biological classifications of various regions of the biosphere, geographical maps, Mendeleev's table of chemical elements, etc.
The problem of describing and dividing objects into various groups appeared at the dawn of mankind. Thousands of years ago, classification, that is the grouping of objects according to certain criteria, was reduced to understanding the differences between some objects from others. The first classifications appeared in religion as a way to describe the structure of the world (Egyptian mythology, ancient mythology of Greece and Rome, Scandinavian mythology). Aristotle was among the first to use the concept of classification in science in his works on biology, in which he gave the first classification of known species of flora and fauna, dividing them into classes [2]. However, over time, objects and tasks of classifying various objects became more complicated, requiring more and more advanced methods of cognition, such as interpolation, extrapolation, modeling, analogy, etc. The classification of objects itself became more complicated, over time it moved from one-dimensional structures to multidimensional ones. Currently, there has arisen a question about the study of language as a classification.
All language studies are, in one way or another, reduced to classifications. And this is understandable, since in science this is the most accessible way of representing the structure of the object under study. However, the classification is carried out not only in the form of theoretical research and fundamental concepts, but also in the form of practical activities.
Artificial classification is created as a result of attributing a particular feature to the object of classification as a result of analyzing the knowledge gained about this object. From this point of view, objective language as a research system is presented in the form of classification through the codified representation of this system in dictionaries and reference books. This reflects a view of the structure of the language, and the description of the structure of the language (its state) is carried out through analysis. But, as you know, any scientific observation changes the object of research, as a result of this, any study of the structure and state of the language contributes to its artificial standardization and, therefore, to one degree or another, changes the natural course of development of the language system. Of course, all changes of a structural nature, one way or another, will affect the entire system, its functioning and development.
In this regard, the language performs a classifying function, which is primarily expressed in the ability to classify the world. It defines the phenomena of the world through various categories, thereby distinguishing some phenomena from others. A discriminant or function is "a function that assigns a class label to each observation according to a certain rule or dependency" [6], "is a function of a set of variables (as measurements of taxonomic specimens) that is evaluated for samples of events or objects and used as an aid in discriminating between or classifying them" [19].
The classifying function can be represented as a set of rules that divide the vector space into subspaces associated with classes. It defines both intracategorical and intercategorical relations of linguistic units and elements within the linguistic structure. On this basis, artificial intelligence systems are built in an attempt to repeat the naturally formed language system as a classification of a high degree of reliability.
Language, structuring and classifying ideas about the world, quickly adapts to changes in the external environment and determines the survival of a person. Therefore, the classifying function is
one of the main cognitive functions of the language, ensuring the survival of mankind. This is achieved by attributing cause and effect relations to the phenomena of the world, as well as by identifying essential and non-essential signs and categories in the world.
Artificial and natural standardization as methods of classification
The concept of artificial standardization should be distinguished from the concept of natural standardization. Artificial standardization is carried out by society, which puts pressure on the language, thereby making it more universal, but at the same time slowing down its development. Natural standardization is the internal desire of the language system to be universal means of communication. These processes are related to each other, but different mechanisms are involved in their implementation. Artificial standardization depends largely on the predictions of scientists who identify language norms and, based on research, determine the capabilities of the language system. This external influence on the language, carried out in a specialized non-automatic mode, which is aimed at stabilizing and standardizing the language. Natural standardization is carried out on the basis of the very possibilities of the language and does not depend on the agreements of people, it occurs naturally and depends entirely on the collective thinking of society, which uses language as a means of communication. This is an internal process carried out in an automatic mode, which, on the one hand, stabilizes the language, and on the other hand, makes it mobile. Natural standardization reflects the needs of the whole society, and artificial standardization reflects the needs of the scientific community and the state, trying to determine the further development of the language. In the case when the artificial standardization of the language begins to restrain the natural development of the language system, there is a confrontation between the artificial and natural processes of standardization and, as a result, scientists record the pollution of the language and the low language culture of the population. But this is only the result of the divergence of standards - natural, reflecting the needs of society, and artificial, reflecting the requirements for language proficiency.
In general, language is a complex, nonlinearly developing system, and its development is conditioned by the action of multidirectional processes. On the one hand, the language performs the cognitive function and the function of self-expression of individuals - native speakers, and this forms the polycentrism of the language system, since there are as many centers (subjective languages) in a language as there are native speakers. On the other hand, language performs communicative and socializing functions in society, which contributes to the centrism of a language common to all individuals (objective language). That is why the artificial and natural processes of linguistic development, reflecting the desired and real state of affairs in the language, respectively, sometimes coincide, and sometimes are in opposition. So, at the present time, variants of the use of the word coffee in the form of masculine and neuter genders are in opposition. Dictionaries continue to recommend the use of the masculine form, since it continues the history of this word and reflects the ideas of educated people about its use, although this form itself is an exception to the general rule (as a borrowed non-declining inanimate noun, it must be neuter). However, in most cases, in the speech of people speaking Russian, the word coffee is used in the neuter form. It is difficult to say which form will win, but so far there is a tendency towards the spread and consolidation of the latter form in the speech of the country's population, since in the linguistic space it is more understandable and familiar to a larger number of people than the masculine form.
So, artificial standardization is based on identifying the classification features of linguistic units, on the analysis and assessment of their use, as well as on the construction of a language as a multilevel classification, on its structuralization. In this case, the classification features are attributed to the objects of classification during the formation of an artificial form of an objective language and may not reflect the real state of the natural form of an objective language.
Natural classification is created as a result of a person's non-purposeful linguistic activity, his automated mental activity, by coding and decoding new knowledge and including linguistic units in
the linguistic system or excluding it from it. Conscious and unconscious linguistic activity is due to a person's ability to perform logical operations of synthesis and analysis and the possibility of going beyond them, when the results obtained as a result of synthesis and analysis are not taken into account.
In many ways, the ability to classify, synthesize, and analyze in humans as a biological species can be explained by the degree of lateralization (functional asymmetry) of the brain. In general, functional asymmetry to one degree or another is inherent in other mammals, but in humans it is expressed in the striking form. However, one cannot talk about a universal indicator of the degree of asymmetry of the human brain - in each individual case, the indicators can be very individual, depending on gender, age and developmental conditions, etc. However, all people can classify the phenomena of reality and, moreover, the classification - is the earliest way to logically represent the world by man.
So, a child, learning new words and correlating them with objects, makes up an individual classification of world phenomena - this can be considered the first global superstructure of consciousness in the system of reality. The formation of a natural classification of the language system in human thinking can be divided into the following stages: 1) the child sees the world around him/her, but, most likely, is not aware of it; 2) the child feels the space and begins to be aware of it: perceives objects, separates and unites them on the basis of what s/he feels (sensory perception) - as a result, the primary rules for preserving information about the world are formed; 3) the child recognizes objects, focuses on the new and already known, retains information in memory - a primary database about the world is formed; 4) the child consolidates the experience gained by verifying it: there is an increase in the database about the world, the formation of elementary causal relationships between phenomena, the accumulation of knowledge and rules, the creation of a large number of new rules, their constant verification - this leads to the formation of a one-level system of knowledge about the world ; 5) the child expands knowledge about the world: the connections between objects become more complex and knowledge about the world expands - a complexly organized multi-level system of knowledge about the world around appears; 6) the child stabilizes the picture of the world: fixes the rules for operating with linguistic units, develops and consolidates models for verifying linguistic knowledge, creates a recognizable personal form of language (subjective language) - as a result, a complex multi-level system of systems united in clusters is formed. Researchers in the field of psychology note that in the first five years of life, the leading systemic method of understanding the world is predominantly classification based on analysis and synthesis, and only then other methods begin to be actively involved. Important in the future of development of subjective language is the development of imaginative thinking and the formation of an individual's ability to go beyond the limits of logical mastery and representation of the world, since a violation of the logic of a language does not always lead to a language error, this is also a source of creating a new linguistic image, individual, but understandable to others native speakers. It is believed that each person is a personality, since all people have individual thinking, but a recognizable psychological personality is formed on average, according to psychologists, by the age of thirty, the formation of a recognizable linguistic personality should also be attributed, whose speech is not just individual, but also recognizable by other people against the background of a common linguistic space. In this case, it is impossible to confuse a person's speech behavior, which makes him recognizable early enough, almost immediately, as the child masters the language, and linguistic activity, which reflects the peculiarities of the thinking of an individual person. In the latter case, we should talk about the author's style, the formation of which allows us to determine the belonging of an oral or written text to a specific person.
The classification process is not only one of the earliest in the ontogeny of human thinking, but also the most reliable mechanism for understanding the world. The accumulation of elements, in relation to which there is a need to operate with them, creates the conditions for launching in the
minds of the mechanism for the formation of information processing rules necessary for mastering the language. By itself, acquaintance with the units of language cannot give a person anything, since language is not a nomenclature of its constituent elements, but a system that presupposes their interaction. Natural classification, as opposed to artificial, is not a structure, but a system. The arbitrariness of combining linguistic units is an apparent phenomenon, since language units are grouped in such a way that the greatest number of connections is established between them, and, therefore, the natural system (classification) acquires the status of a system that meets various criteria of reality: objectivity (reproducibility), reliability (stability, noise immunity), predictive power [7].
The formation of the skill of operating with linguistic elements contributes to the formation of the skill of processing the produced and perceived information. Thus, for the implementation of the classification, two conditions must be met: 1) the action of the mechanism for forming rules for the generalization and separation of information (synthesis and analysis), 2) the presence of an information base for the implementation of operating rules, which is an individual linguistic experience. In addition, in the formation of rules, the mechanisms of recognition, recognition and discrimination are very important, which are necessary for the unambiguous formation and further identification of rules. One of the main properties of each rule is uniqueness. This property of the rules, firstly, allows you to get rid of redundancy, and secondly, implements an unambiguous interpretation of each specific case. The unambiguity and absence of redundancy in the classification rules allow the language to remain unique, on the one hand, and universal, on the other hand, as a means of communication between people. Hence, language is a classification of a high degree of accuracy and, most importantly, reliability.
Language as a mereological and taxonomic classification
A person's linguistic activity plays a huge role in the knowledge of the world, and, moreover, the very knowledge of the language offered by society, the assimilation of its structure and the operation of its elements, allows a person to carry out classification operations in thinking. So, cognizing the world, decomposing it into significant components, a person classifies all the phenomena of the world, presenting them as parts of a global structure, called by scientists the linguistic picture of the world. All elements of the linguistic picture of the world correspond to the elements of language, therefore, language in human thinking exists as a system based on classifications that have different grounds. The language appears here as a mereological classification, which carries out "the operation of the mental division of an object into its constituent parts" [18], and as a taxonomic classification, which implies "the allocation of subclasses in the volume of the concept, which are volumes of new (specific in relation to the original) concepts from the point of view of a certain characteristic called the base of division" [18]. It is important in this process to identify the splitting criteria, on the basis of which the classification is built. The difference between the criteria of splitting, their individual character, gives us the difference between subjective languages, and the universality of the criteria contributes to the formation of a stable system of objective language.
The activity of the language system can occur in two main modes: development (evolution) and functioning. "Functioning here means the activity, the operation of the system without changing the (main) goal of the system. This is a manifestation of the function of the system in time. Development is the activity of a system with a change in the goal of the system and, therefore, with a possible shift of its position in the classifier. At the same time, the functioning of the system does not cause an obvious qualitative change in the system infrastructure; with the development of the system, its infrastructure changes qualitatively. Development here means the confrontation between organization and disorganization in the system, which is associated with the accumulation and complication of information, of its organization" [5]. The functioning of the language system correlates with the synchrony of the language, its state, development - with diachrony, the change in
its states. Consequently, both synchronicity and diachrony are systemic processes, since they reflect the systemic relations of language units. The organization and disorganization of the language, its stabilization and destabilization are due to the action of deterministic and stochastic processes taking place in the language. The ratio of these processes determines the viability of the language system, since it makes it a mobile and mobile means of communication, capable of expressing all the concepts and thoughts of a person. Action in the language of fluctuations leads to the appearance of dissipative structures, the overcoming of which stabilizes the language. The functioning of the language as a system, which is based on a multilevel classification, does not allow dissipative structures to acquire such a form that could destroy the language.
It should also be noted that language is not only a classification, but also a classifier, since it determines the further direction of human thinking in the field of constructing a classification of language. Different languages reflect the vision of the world of certain groups of people in different ways and, therefore, represent mismatched classifications of real and unreal reality, which have slightly different grounds. In general, languages represent the world in different ways, but, in addition to unique ones, they also contain universal representations of mankind about the world, and as a result, each language invites a person to see this world through the prism of collective representations. Consequently, the way a person sees the world largely depends on how the language "sees" the world.
Language as construct
Considering the language in the unity of the analytic-synthetic cognitive activity of a person, it can be compared with a constructor, from which a person builds his linguistic picture of the world and the world around him. But it is also a construct that determines the rules for building the world.
Despite the fact that, there is an opinion about "the power of language as a construct of weighty reality and intangible superreality" [17, p. 11], this point of view is still not accepted by all linguists. Units of thinking (concepts, judgments) are expressed by linguistic means (words and sentences). On this basis, a special function of language is singled out - the function of thought formation, thought-forming, or constructive (from Latin constructio - "construction"), sometimes called the mental, or function of the tool of thinking. However, according to some linguists, the constructive function belongs not to language, but to thinking [3]. Usually, thoughts are formed, constructed by a person with the aim of transmitting to others, and this is possible only if they have a material expression, a sound shell, that is, they are expressed by linguistic means. "In order for a thought to be transmitted to another, it is necessary to express this thought in a form accessible to perception, it is necessary that the thought receive a material embodiment. The most important means for this is human language" [1, p. 356; 15, p. 103]. This helps to comprehend the problems associated with determining the essence of the language of its sign character, the role in human activity, the relationship between language and thinking.
So, from our point of view, language is a personal and social construct, that is, an evaluation system that is used by the individual and society to classify various objects of living space. The term personal construct was proposed by J. Kelly in personality psychology to denote the cognitive patterns that the person himself creates, and then tries to bring those realities that make up the world into conformity with them [4]. This process extends to linguistic representations of the world. Bidirectional processes take place in the implementation of human linguistic activity and the linguistic activity of society. On one hand, a person who learns a language learns with him the ideas about the world, expressed in the language in the form of lexicalized and grammatical objects, endowed with certain features and combined into groups based on these features. So, in grammatical terms, each word refers to some part of speech. Words are combined into groups based on the grammatical meaning that is common to them. Within the boundaries of each part of speech, isosemic and non-isosemic groups are distinguished. Isosemic are groups that combine words with
the main grammatical meaning, non-isosemic - with a non-main, additional, secondary meaning. So, for nouns, the isosemic grammatical meaning is the meaning of "objectivity" in a broad sense (road, tree, sky, hope), non-isosemic grammatical meanings are the meanings of "sign" (blue, wilderness, silence) and "action" (running, care, condemnation). For verbs of the Russian language, the isosemic grammatical meaning is the meaning of "movement" (actional verbs - to crawl, speak, clean), non-isosemic - the meaning of "being, existence" (non-actional verbs - to be, to appear, to lie), and for the verbs of the Irish language - vice versa. In this respect, a person measures reality in terms of language, which is initially formed in thinking as a multilevel classification. A person learns the language in the form which society offers him, since any learning systems (purposeful - at school and university, and spontaneous - in a new language environment or on the early development of a child in a family) are based on the structuralization of the language. In this case, any new knowledge received by a person will be considered by him through the prism of the structure of the language known to him and built as a structural element into this structure. The very structure of language appears to a person as a criterion for the perception of world phenomena, and language is a criterion for assessing the world. As a result, cognitive language patterns are formed, with the help of which the presentation of real and unreal reality is carried out. In this case, we can say that the person is in the language and that the language creates the person. Consequently, language is a construct that determines a person's vision of a linguistic picture of the world. On the other hand, the linguistic activity of any person is more or less creative in nature. And from this point of view, a person is constantly trying to go beyond the limits of the language, to cross the horizon of the language, that is, what is in the field of vision and possession of the person. Public approval of a person's creative activity leads to the expansion of the boundaries of the language, to its change. The result is the destruction of cognitive language patterns. In this case, we can say that the language is in the person and that the person creates the language. Consequently, language is a constructor, from the elements of which a person builds a linguistic picture of the world, including through the mental interpretation of the presented concepts [16, p. 105].
Conclusion
So, knowing the world of which s/he is a part, a person classifies this world, which leaves an imprint on the language through which a person represents the world. Learning language as a unity, a person also classifies it. In general, "a look at the language from the inside gives us an idea of its structure (private language), this is a private aspect of the language. A look from above gives us an idea of its system (general language), this is the general aspect of language" [11, p. 160]. Language functions and changes in a person's thinking as a system; these processes are subconscious and automatic. Representations of language are representations of its structure. These processes are of a conscious and non-automatic nature. Language also functions in society as the main means of communication between the people that make up this society, and in this case, it is perceived as a system. The conventional representations of the language in dictionaries and reference books form in society the idea of its structure. Thus, the system of language is a unity self-organizing in the thinking of a person and society, used by them as a means of communication; the structure of a language is the unity of verbal representations of individuals and society about the world, artificially organized with the aim of standardizing and universalizing communication.
Nature and society are characterized mainly as organized systems, consisting of elements that are capable of changing, but ensure, in interaction, the integrity and vitality of systems. The linguistic activity of individuals operating in the space of society contributes to the formation of language as a system presented in the form of a multilevel classification. The functioning of a language is determined by the rules for operating with its units, which makes it a system of high accuracy and reliability, since this is what provides the language with stability in the presence of dissipative structures.
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Information about the author:
Nekipelova Irina (Izhevsk, Russia) - PhD, Head of the Department «Russian as a Foreign
Language», Director of Testing center, M.T. Kalashnikov Izhevsk state technical
university. Winner of the "Scientist of the Year 2020" in the category "Humanities:
languages and literature" (International Achievements Research Center) (Chicago, USA).
Research fields: history of Russian language, language philosophy, teaching Russian as a
foreign language; author of over 140 publications, 5 monographs and textbook «Russian
as a foreign language: Step by step». E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0001-8448-3000
SCOPUS ID: 57191414786
Web of Science ResearcherID: AAS-9439-2021
SPIN-Kod: 8968-4493
AuthorID: 394021
Acknowledgments: The author would like to sincerely thank Elena Ciprianova, Associate Professor, Ph.D., Constantine the Philosopher University for her feedback and assistance on this paper to the reviewers for their comments and recommendations.
Contribution of the author. The work is solely that of the author.
