Which language is considered natural? Natural language. Tasks and functions

1. Logic and language.The subject of the study of logic is the forms and laws of correct thinking. Thinking is a function of the human brain. Labor contributed to the separation of man from the environment of animals, and was the foundation for the emergence of consciousness (including thinking) and language in people. Thinking is inextricably linked with language. Language, according to K. Marx, there is immediate reality of thought. During the collective labor activity people had a need to communicate and transmit their thoughts to each other, without which the organization of collective labor processes itself was impossible.

The functions of natural language are numerous and multifaceted. Language is a means everyday communication people, a means of communication in scientific and practical activities . Language allows you to transfer and receive accumulated knowledge, practical skills and life experience from one generation to another, carry out the process of training and educating the younger generation. Language The following functions are also characteristic: to store information, to be a means of expressing emotions, to be a means of cognition.

Language is a sign information system, a product of human spiritual activity. Accumulated information is transmitted using signs (words) of language.

Speech can be oral or written, audible or non-audio (as, for example, in the case of the deaf-mute), external (to others) or internal, speech expressed through natural or artificial language. With the help of scientific language, which is based on natural language, the provisions of philosophy, history, geography, archeology, geology, medicine (using, along with “living” national languages and now "dead" Latin language) and many other sciences.

Language is not only a means of communication, but also the most important component of the culture of any people.

Based on natural languages, arose artificial languages Sciences. These include the languages ​​of mathematics, symbolic logic, chemistry, physics, as well as algorithmic computer programming languages, which are widely used in modern computers and systems. Programming languages ​​are sign systems used to describe the processes of solving problems on a computer. Currently, there is an increasing tendency to develop principles for “communication” between a person and a computer in natural language, so that one can use computers without intermediaries—programmers.

A sign is a material object (phenomenon, event) that acts as a representative of some other object, property or relationship and is used for acquiring, storing, processing and transmitting messages (information, knowledge).

Signs are divided into linguistic and non-linguistic. Non-linguistic signs include copy signs (for example, photographs, fingerprints, reproductions, etc.), sign signs, or indicator signs (for example, smoke is a sign of fire, elevated body temperature is a sign of illness), signal signs (for example, a bell is a sign of the beginning or end of a lesson), symbol signs (for example, road signs) and other types of signs. There is a special science - semiotics, which is general theory signs. Varieties of signs are linguistic signs. One of the most important functions of linguistic signs is to designate objects. Names are used to designate objects.

A name is a word or phrase that designates a specific object. (The words “designation”, “naming”, “name” are considered as synonyms.) The subject here is understood in a very broad sense: these are things, properties, relationships, processes, phenomena, etc. of both nature and social life, mental the activities of people, the products of their imagination and results abstract thinking. So, a name is always the name of some object. Although objects are changeable and fluid, they retain qualitative certainty, which is denoted by the name of the given object.

2. The language of logic and the language of law. The necessary connection between thinking and language, in which language acts as the material shell of thoughts, means that identifying logical structures is possible only by analyzing linguistic expressions. Just as the kernel of a nut can only be reached by opening its shell, so logical forms can only be revealed by analyzing language.

In order to master logical-linguistic analysis, let us briefly consider the structure and functions of language, the relationship between logical and grammatical categories, as well as the principles of constructing a special language of logic.

Language is a sign information system that performs the function of forming, storing and transmitting information in the process of understanding reality and communication between people.

The main building material for constructing a language is the signs used in it. A sign is any sensually perceived (visually, auditorily or otherwise) object that acts as a representative of another object. Among the various signs, we distinguish two types: image signs and symbol signs.

Signs-images have a certain similarity with the designated objects. Examples of such signs: copies of documents; fingerprints; photographs; some road signs depicting children, pedestrians and other objects. Signs-symbols have no resemblance to the objects designated. For example: musical notes; Morse code characters; letters in the alphabets of national languages.

3. Natural and artificial languages. By origin, languages ​​are either natural or artificial.

Natural languages- These are sound (speech) and then graphic (writing) information sign systems that have historically developed in society. They arose to consolidate and transfer accumulated information in the process of communication between people. Natural languages ​​act as carriers of the centuries-old culture of peoples. They are distinguished by rich expressive capabilities and universal coverage of various areas of life.

Constructed languages are auxiliary sign systems created on the basis of natural languages ​​for the accurate and economical transmission of scientific and other information. They are constructed using natural language or a previously constructed artificial language. A language that acts as a means of constructing or learning another language is called a metalanguage, the main one is called an object language. A metalanguage, as a rule, has richer expressive capabilities compared to an object language.

Constructed languages of varying degrees of severity are widely used in modern science and technology: chemistry, mathematics, theoretical physics, computer technology, cybernetics, communications, stenography.

4. Principles of constructing formalized logic languages.

Formalized language– an artificial language of logic, designed to reproduce the logical forms of natural language contexts, as well as express logical laws and methods of correct reasoning in logical theories constructed in a given language.

The construction of a formalized language begins with specifying it alphabet– a collection of initial, primitive symbols. The alphabet includes logical symbols (signs logical operations and relations, e.g. propositional connectives and quantifiers), non-logical symbols (parameters of descriptive components of natural language) and technical symbols (e.g. parentheses). Then the so-called rules for the formation of complex language signs from simple ones are formulated - they are set Various types well-formed expressions. Their most important type are formulas - analogues of natural language statements.

Distinctive feature formalized language is the effectiveness of the definitions of all its syntactic categories: the question of whether an arbitrary symbol or sequence of alphabetic symbols belongs to a particular class of linguistic expressions is resolved algorithmically, in a finite number of steps.

Sometimes formalized languages, along with the alphabet and rules of formation, include so-called transformation rules - deduction procedures, precise rules for transitions from one sequence of symbols to another. In this case, the formalized language is essentially identified with logical calculus. Another interpretation of a formalized language involves the adoption of rules for the interpretation of its expressions, allowing each syntactic category of signs to be compared with a semantic one, which is essential for identifying logical forms.

Formalized languages ​​can have different expressive capabilities. Thus, propositional languages ​​allow one to study the logical form only at the level of complex statements, without taking into account internal structure simple statements. Syllogistic languages ​​make it possible to capture the logical forms of attributive statements. First-order languages ​​reproduce the structure of both simple (both attributive and relational) and complex statements, but they allow quantification only by individuals. In richer languages ​​- languages ​​of higher orders - quantification is also allowed by properties, relations and functions.

The principles of constructing formalized languages ​​can also be used when defining languages ​​of non-logical, applied theories. In this case, instead of abstract non-logical symbols (parameters), names of specific objects are entered into the language alphabet subject area theories, signs certain functions, properties, relationships, etc.

By origin, languages ​​are either natural or artificial.

Natural languages - These are sound (speech) and then graphic (writing) information sign systems that have historically developed in society. They arose to consolidate and transfer accumulated information in the process of communication between people. Natural languages ​​act as carriers of the centuries-old culture of mankind and are distinguished by rich expressive capabilities and universal coverage of the most diverse areas of life.

Natural languages ​​cannot always be used in the process scientific knowledge due to their features such as:

• 1) polysemy- many words and linguistic expressions natural language, depending on the context, takes on different meanings, which is associated with homonymy, for example the words “peace”, “braid”, “sleeve”, etc.;
• 2) non-compositionality, those. the lack of rules in natural language that can be used to determine the exact meaning out of context complex expression, although the meanings of all the words included in it are known. For example, the phrase “He sat on a horse with a broken leg for a long time” can be interpreted in two ways: a) the rider’s leg was broken; b) the horse’s leg was broken;
• 3) self-applicability, those. when expressions can speak for themselves. For example, "I'm lying."

Artificial (scientific) languages are created specifically to solve certain problems of cognition. They appeared as formalized languages ​​of science - mathematics, physics, chemistry, programming. Artificial languages ​​are auxiliary sign systems created on the basis of natural languages ​​for the accurate and economical transmission of scientific and other information. They are constructed using natural language or a previously constructed artificial language.

Scientific languages ​​are subject to normative principles: unambiguity, objectivity and interchangeability.

According to the principle unambiguity the expression used as a name must be the name of only one object, if it is a single name, and if it is a general name, then the given expression must be a name common to all objects of the same class. In natural language, this principle is not always observed, but it must be adhered to when constructing artificial languages, for example, the language of predicate logic.

The principle of unambiguity excludes homonymy, i.e. designation of different objects in one word, which is often found in natural languages ​​(for example, the word “spit” can mean a type of hairstyle, an agricultural tool, or a sandbank).

According to the principle objectivity statements must assert or deny something about the meanings of the names included in the sentences, and not about the names themselves. It should, of course, be borne in mind that the meanings of some names are the names themselves. Such cases do not contradict the principle of objectivity. For example, in the sentence “Matter is primary, and consciousness is secondary,” the word “matter” is the name of objective reality, and in the sentence ““Matter” is a philosophical category,” the word “matter,” taken in quotation marks, is the name of the name, the name of the category . Such names are called in quotation marks names. Sometimes in natural language there are cases where the name of a name is the original name itself. For example, in the sentence “The word “table” consists of four letters,” the word “table” is the name of the word itself. This use of names, when words designate themselves, is called autonomous. Autonomous use of expressions is unacceptable in scientific languages, since it leads to misunderstandings.

Italics or quotation marks are used to indicate the autonomous use of expressions. Mixing ordinary and autonomous use of expressions leads to logical errors in reasoning. An example of such an error is the following reasoning: “The dog is gnawing on a bone. “Dog” is a noun. Therefore, the noun is gnawing on a bone.”

Principle interchangeability: If in a complex name the part that is itself a name is replaced by another name with the same meaning, then the value obtained as a result of such replacement of the complex name must be the same as the meaning of the original complex name. For example, in the sentence “Aristotle taught philosophy to Alexander the Great,” the word “Aristotle” can be replaced with the words “creator of syllogistics.”

Extensional is called a context relative to those signs, the equivalent replacement of which does not lead to a change in the meaning of the context. The use of these signs is called extensional.

To preserve the principle of interchangeability and avoid antinomies, two ways of using names should be distinguished. The first is that the name simply identifies the item(s). The second is that objects denoted by a name are considered in a certain aspect.

For example: if two expressions have the same meaning, then one of them can be replaced by the other, and the sentence in which the replacement is made retains its true meaning. Thus, two expressions – “Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov” and “author of the story “Taman”” – denote the same person, therefore in the sentence “Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was born in 1814” – the first expression (“Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov”) can be replaced the second (“the author of the story “Taman””), without any prejudice to the truth of the entire statement: “The author of the story “Taman” was born in 1814.”

Thus, the principle of interchangeability serves to distinguish between extensional and intensional contexts.

A context (complex sign) in which the principle of interchangeability of at least one of the signs included in it is violated is called intensional with respect to this sign, i.e. depending on the intension (meaning) of a given sign.

A context (complex sign), in which equivalent replacement of signs does not lead to a change in the meaning of the context, is called extensional, depending only on the extension (meaning) of the sign.

For extensional contexts, only the objective meaning of expressions (their “volume”) is important, therefore expressions with the same meaning are identified. In intensional contexts, the meaning of an expression is also taken into account, so replacing expressions with the same meaning can make a true sentence false if the expressions have different meanings. If in the true sentence “The student did not know that Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov is the author of the story “Taman”” the expression “author of the story “Taman”” is replaced by the expression “Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov”, which has the same meaning, then the result will be an obviously false sentence : “The student did not know that Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov.”

For example, in the expression “Paris is the capital of France,” the names “Paris” and “capital of France” are used extensionally, since only the identity of their meanings is asserted and no replacement of any name with an equivalent one will lead to a change in the meaning of the context. In the sentence “Paris is the capital of France, due to which the government of France is located in it,” the name “Paris” is used intensionally, since it is the property of this city to be the capital of France that provides justification for the fact that the government is located in it. If we replace the name “the capital of France” with its equivalent “the city in which the Eiffel Tower is located,” then the true statement will be converted into a false one, since the presence of the Eiffel Tower in Paris is not the reason that the French government is located there, i.e. e. Regarding the name "Paris", the context is extensional, since it simply means a certain city with all its characteristics, and any replacement of this name with equivalent ones will not lead to a change in the meaning of the statement.

Thus, with respect to one sign the context can be intensional, and with respect to another - extensional. The characterization of a context as intensional or extensional is always given in relation to a specific sign.

According to their origin, languages ​​are natural and artificial. Natural languages ​​are languages ​​spoken by people. Natural languages ​​develop and evolve. Artificial languages ​​are created synthetically to convey any specific information. Artificial languages ​​include Esperanto, programming languages, musical notation, Morse code, encryption systems, jargon and others. It would seem that everything is obvious: if a language is created by people, then it is artificial; if it originated and developed independently, and people only recorded this development and formalized it in writing, then it is natural.

But not everything is so simple. Some languages ​​are at the intersection of artificiality and naturalness. An example is one of the four official languages ​​of Switzerland, Romance. Today it is spoken by about fifty thousand Swiss people. The subtlety here is that back in the mid-twentieth century, the retro-Romance language did not exist. Instead, five disparate dialects of a related but not unified Romance language were spoken in various regions of Switzerland. language family. It was only in the 1980s that a group of scientists came together to create a single language based on the most common dialects. Words in this language were selected according to the principle of similarity, that is, a word was taken into the language if it sounded the same or at least close in all dialects.

For about twenty years now, documents and books have been published in the new, unified retro-Romance language, it is taught in Swiss schools, and it is spoken by residents of the country.

Such examples are also known from the more distant past. To a large extent artificial can be called Czech. Before late XVIII centuries in the Czech Republic everyone spoke German, and the Czech language existed in the form of scattered dialects, which were spoken only by uneducated rural residents.

During the Czech period National Renaissance Czech patriots literally pieced together the Czech language from rural dialects. Many concepts did not exist in the common language and had to be simply invented.

Hebrew is a similarly revived language. When in late XIX century Ben-Yehuda, the man who is called the father of modern Hebrew, began a movement for its revival, books and magazines were published in Hebrew, it was the language of international communication of Jews different countries, but in Everyday life no one spoke Hebrew. In some ways it was a dead language. Ben-Yehuda began his transformation with his family. He decided that the first language of his children would certainly be Hebrew. At first, he even had to limit the infants’ communication with their mother, who did not speak Hebrew, and hire a nanny for the children who knew Hebrew well enough. Fifteen years later, Hebrew was spoken in every tenth home in Jerusalem. Wherein ancient language was so archaic that it had to be actively adapted to reality modern life, literally inventing new concepts. Hebrew is now the spoken and official language of Israel.

Language— a system of signs that have meaning. Language is a way of existence of consciousness and communication between man and man. First of all, you need to understand that consciousness is inextricably linked with language as a certain sign system. Sign- a material object (phenomenon, event), acting as a representative of another object and, therefore, reproducing its properties.

There are linguistic signs (part of a certain sign system) and non-linguistic signs (including copies, signs, symptoms). “Languages” can be considered as sign systems visual arts, theater, cinema, dance, music, etc. Sign systems have arisen and are developing as a material form in which consciousness and thinking are carried out.

The initial sign system is ordinary spoken, natural language. In the language they distinguish speech - language in action, in a situation of communication, primarily oral, secondly written.

Thinking (consciousness) and language are inextricably linked, but not identical. The difference between them is that thought is a reflection of objective reality, while the word is a way of consolidating, expressing thoughts and at the same time a means of transmitting thoughts to other people.

Language serves as a condition for mutual understanding between people, as well as a person’s awareness of reality and himself. Means of facilitating the embodiment of thoughts into linguistic form are different kinds speech: oral, written, internal (“think to yourself”). Speech is the process of using language to communicate.

Word as a unit of language, it has two sides: external, sound (phonetic) and internal, semantic (semantic). Both of them are products of long-term socio-historical development. The unity of these sides creates a word in which the functions of sign and meaning are fused.

So, consciousness and language are one. In this unity, the determining side is consciousness, thinking. Consciousness reflects reality, and language designates and expresses it. Language is a way of existence of consciousness.

Natural (verbal, auditory)— ordinary human language. Artificial is the language of signs and symbols. The first arises spontaneously in the process of communication between members of some social group. The second is created by people for some special purpose (languages ​​of mathematics, logic, ciphers, etc.). A characteristic feature of natural languages ​​is the polysemy of words, while artificial ones are unambiguous and precise. Let's take a closer look at these languages.

Natural language represents the richest developing integral system. His elementary unit, the “atom” of language is a word that serves to name objects, persons, processes, properties, etc. Since its inception, natural language has continuously changed - this was due to the interaction of cultures, scientific and technological progress, etc. Some words lose their meanings over time (“phlogiston”, “caloric”), others acquire new meanings (“satellite” as a spacecraft).

Natural language seems to live its own own life. It includes many nuances and features, which makes it difficult to accurately express an idea (especially a scientific one) in words. This is not helped by the presence in natural language of many figurative expressions, archaisms, borrowed words, hyperboles, idioms, metaphors, etc. In addition, natural language is rich in exclamations and interjections, the meaning of which is difficult to convey out of context.

Constructed languages ​​- sign systems created by people for use in limited areas where accuracy, rigor, unambiguity, conciseness and simplicity of expression are necessary and sufficient. This is especially true for scientific purposes.

There are specialized and non-specialized languages. The latter are intended mainly for international communication. The most common of them is Esperanto. Specialized artificial languages ​​include formalized symbol systems in various fields of science (mathematics, physics, chemistry, logic, linguistics, etc.), as well as a rapidly developing computer language that more and more fully models the natural one. Artificial languages ​​are a complement to natural languages ​​and exist only on their basis.

Esperanto is the most widely spoken artificial language in the world. Now, according to various sources, from several hundred thousand to a million people speak it. It was invented by the Czech oculist Lazar (Ludwig) Markovich Zamenhof in 1887 and got its name from the pseudonym of the author (Lazar signed his name in the textbook as Esperanto - “hopeful”).

Like other artificial languages ​​(more precisely, most of them) it has an easy-to-learn grammar. The alphabet has 28 letters (23 consonants, 5 vowels), and is based on Latin. Some enthusiasts have even nicknamed it “the Latin of the new millennium.”

Most Esperanto words are composed of Romance and Germanic roots: roots are borrowed from French, English, German and Italian languages. There are also many international words in the language that are understandable without translation. 29 words are borrowed from Russian, among them the word “borscht”.

Harry Harrison spoke Esperanto and actively promoted this language in his novels. Thus, in the “World of the Steel Rat” series, the inhabitants of the Galaxy speak mainly Esperanto. About 250 newspapers and magazines are published in Esperanto, and four radio stations broadcast.

Interlingua (occidental)

Appeared in 1922 in Europe thanks to the linguist Edgar de Wall. In many ways it is similar to Esperanto: it has many borrowings from Romano-Germanic languages ​​and the same system of language construction as in them. The original name of the language - Occidental - became an obstacle to its spread after World War II. In the countries of the communist bloc it was believed that after the pro-Western language, anti-revolutionary ideas would creep in. Then Occidental began to be called Interlingua.

Volapyuk

In 1879, God appeared to the author of the language, priest Johann Martin Schleyer, in a dream and ordered him to invent and write down own language, which Schleyer immediately took up. All night he wrote down his grammar, the meanings of words, sentences, and then entire poems. The basis of Volapuk became German, Schleyer boldly deformed the words of English and French languages, reshaping them to new way. In Volapük, for some reason, he decided to abandon the [r] sound. More precisely, not even for some reason, but for a very specific one: it seemed to him that this sound would cause difficulties for the Chinese who decided to learn Volapuk.

At first, the language became quite popular due to its simplicity. It published 25 magazines, wrote 316 textbooks in 25 languages, and operated 283 clubs. For one person, Volapuk even became his native language - this is the daughter of Volapuk professor Henry Conn (unfortunately, nothing is known about her life).

Gradually, interest in the language began to decline, but in 1931 a group of Volapükists led by the scientist Ari de Jong carried out a reform of the language, and for some time its popularity increased again. But then the Nazis came to power and banned everything in Europe foreign languages. Today there are only two to three dozen people in the world who speak Volapuk. However, Wikipedia has a section written in Volapuk.

Loglan

Linguist John Cook coined log ical lan guage in 1955 as an alternative to conventional, non-ideal languages. And suddenly a language that was created mostly for scientific research, has found its fans. Still would! After all, it does not contain such concepts as tense for verbs or number for nouns. It is assumed that this is already clear to the interlocutors from the context of the conversation. But the language has a lot of interjections, with the help of which it is supposed to express shades of emotions. There are about twenty of them, and they represent a spectrum of feelings from love to hate. And they sound like this: eew! (love), yay! (surprise), wow! (happiness), etc. There are also no commas or other punctuation marks. A miracle, not a language!

Ro

Developed by Ohio minister Edward Foster. Immediately after its appearance, the language became very popular: in the first years, even two newspapers were published, manuals and dictionaries were published. Foster was able to receive a grant from the International Auxiliary Language Association. main feature language ro: words were built according to a categorical scheme. For example, red - bofoc, yellow - bofof, orange - bofod. The disadvantage of this system is that it is almost impossible to distinguish words by ear. This is probably why the language did not arouse much interest among the public.

Solresol

Appeared in 1817. The creator, Frenchman Jean Francois Sudre, believed that everything in the world can be explained with the help of notes. Language, in fact, consists of them. It has a total of 2660 words: 7 one-syllables, 49 two-syllables, 336 three-syllables and 2268 four-syllables. To denote opposite concepts, mirroring of the word is used: falla - good, lyafa - bad.

Solresol had several scripts. It was possible to communicate on it by writing down notes on a stave, the names of notes, the first seven digits of Arabic writing, the first letters of the Latin alphabet, special shorthand symbols and the colors of the rainbow. Accordingly, it was possible to communicate in Solresol not only by pronouncing words, but also by playing a musical instrument or singing, as well as in the language of the deaf and dumb.

The language has found a lot of fans, including among famous people. Famous followers of Solresol were, for example, Victor Hugo, Alexander Humboldt, Lamartine.