Proceeding from the fact that every language is a means of thinking, and these means turn out to be different for people who speak different languages, then we can assume that the "picture of the world", i.e. the mentality of representatives of different human communities is different: the greater the difference in linguistic systems, the more in the "pictures of the world."

If we talk about language as a way of national worldview, then it should be noted that a word is not an image of a thing, it is distinguished by the ability to represent a thing from different points of view by having its own sensual image... This quality of the word makes the language not just a sign system, but a special, universal for a particular nation, form of worldview.

Language reflects the life and characteristics of the character of the people, their thinking. Here's a simple example. For most Russians, life in Europe is a fairy tale. In Europe, paradise on earth and everyone lives there like Hollywood stars - in pleasure and luxury. Therefore, girls from Russia willingly marry Europeans. But very often living together with a foreigner does not add up. Why? It seems that I went to courses and mastered a foreign language. Foreign language she studied, but did so, guided only by the desire to master new communicative capabilities, not knowing about the connection between the language and the culture and character of the people. Language is the life and culture of a person, his style of behavior. Yes, Europe has a high standard of living, but nevertheless, Europeans are alien to luxury, unjustified expenses, the desire for idleness. They live in abundance, but economically. In an international family, it is much more difficult to achieve mutual understanding: very often cultural differences, stereotypes of behavior and thinking, the absence of a common language stand up as an insurmountable wall.

Language plays a special role in the development of personality. Man, his spiritual world, is largely determined by the language in which he grew up. The American Indian language researcher Benjamin Wharf put forward a hypothesis according to which a person dismembers and learns nature in the direction suggested by his native language. Indeed, how do we, the inhabitants of the middle lane, designate the types of ice? Strong and weak. But in the language of the Sami, who live on the Kola Peninsula, there are about 20 names for ice and 10 for cold!

Undoubtedly, the language reflects both the way of life and the way of thinking of the people. A Russian wife sees the world differently than a French husband, because she thinks in Russian. The language we speak not only expresses our thoughts, but also largely determines their course. Language affects the content of human thinking. Two people of different nationalities can become eyewitnesses of the same phenomenon, but what they see is only a kaleidoscope of impressions until consciousness puts it in order. The ordering happens with the help of the language. Therefore, observing the same phenomenon, the Russian and the French see different things, give different assessments.

People who speak different languages ​​see the world with different eyes. A Frenchman cannot perceive and feel the world in the same way as a Russian, because he has other language means. As the Russian writer Sergei Dovlatov said, “90% of a person's personality consists of language,” and one cannot but agree with this.

In the era of active interethnic communication, the problem of the relationship between language and thinking, language and culture, the spirit of the people becomes especially acute. Issues such as the essence of language, its functional palette, historical purpose and fate are closely intertwined with the fate of the people. Unfortunately, until now, studies of linguistic phenomena in linguistics are, as a rule, very narrow in nature. In general, the language continues to be seen only as a tool for the exchange of information. Aspects of the relationship between language and thinking, language and national culture have not yet become the subject of study of our linguists. The complexity of the language problem is caused by its breadth - it has, as we can see, not only linguistic, but also cognitive aspects, and through them moral and political. The problem of language is not limited to issues of linguistics and goes to philosophy and politics, since language is organically linked with national culture, psychology and spirituality; language is an expression of the worldview or mentality of the people, their system of values, traditions, customs.

Since the meanings of words are associated with concepts, a certain mental content is fixed in the language, which turns into a hidden (internal) part of the meaning of words, which speakers do not pay attention to due to the automatism of using the language. Language could not serve as a means of communication if the meaning of each word in each case of its use became the subject of controversy. At the same time, language is a common means of communication, and reflects not the worldview of any social group, but the general features of the perception of the world by all speaking collective, i.e. nation. Thus, the languages ​​of different peoples reflect their national culture, national view of the world.

W. Humboldt wrote that "different languages ​​are the organs of their original thinking and perception for nations" and that "a large number of objects are created by words designating them and only in them finds its being." Humboldt V. Selected Works on Linguistics. - M., 1984 .-- p. 324. Those. subjects the real world they do not become objects of thinking themselves, they cannot get inside thought, they appear to thinking as a language, which, although it develops itself by the power of thought, inevitably has a form and represents the world in a certain form. The perception and understanding not only of abstract phenomena, but also of concrete objects depends on which of the many possible ways their language has designated.

Language always acts as an intermediary between the world and a person, draws a person a certain linguistic picture of the world. All this does not mean at all that a person is a prisoner of the national language. A public worldview is being built over the linguistic worldview social groups, the individual worldview of a person. The linguistic picture of the world is complemented by a cultural, religious, philosophical, scientific picture of the world. However, the creation of these pictures requires intellectual efforts from a person. "The path from the real world to the concept and further to verbal expression is different for different peoples, which is due to differences in history, geography, the characteristics of the life of these peoples and, accordingly, differences in the development of their social consciousness." Ter-Minasova S.G. Language and intercultural communication. - M., 2000 .-- p. 40. It turns out that language does not reflect reality directly, but through two stages: from the real world to thinking and from thinking to language. And although thinking was ahead of language, its results, taking shape in language, are somewhat modified (a thought cannot be fully reflected in a word). Therefore, language becomes a separate participant in communication and the further development of thinking, it cannot be a simple foundry form for thought, it can simultaneously hide a part of thought and supplement thought with linguistic associations.

Thus, the language of a people is the most important component of its national culture, which is formed along with the formation of an ethnos, being a prerequisite and condition for its existence.

The above is of practical importance.

First, you need to take care of native language, which preserves the national cultural tradition, transfers the moral values ​​of the people to new generations.

Secondly, only knowing well the richness of the native language can one easily navigate the new information constantly coming to a person, distinguish between words and the content behind them. Sometimes outwardly brilliant, attractive words carry emptiness or even advice that is harmful to a person. On the other hand, seemingly simple, ordinary words can be filled with deep and reasonable meaning.

National language

The common language of the whole nation. Under the conditions of the socialist community of the peoples of the Soviet Union, the national Russian language became the language of their interethnic communication, their second national language.

Dictionary of linguistic terms

National language

(in sociolinguistics)

1. The language of the nation as a socio-historical ethnic community of people, standing among the concepts generic dialect, national language, ethnic language, existing in two forms - oral and written, representing the totality of all forms of existence of a given language: codified(literary language) and uncodified(various territorial dialects, jargons, etc.).

From the language of the N.ya. is different:

1) the presence of a literary form of existence;

2) normalization;

3) standardization.

N. Ya. characterizes the concept nation, correlating with it as follows:

1) the nation has a single language;

2) the nation has two N.i. (Mordovians have two literary languages: Erzya and Moksha);

3) a number of nations have one language: English in the USA, England, Australia, New Zealand.

2. Ethnic language of one of the peoples living on the territory of the Russian Federation (but not Russian); native language.

(in linguistics)

A language formed during the development of nations. It presupposes the obligatory presence of a literary-written form, close to the general folk-colloquial speech and therefore received widespread distribution. There are three ways to form national languages:

1) development of ready-made material;

2) concentration of dialects;

3) "crossing" of dialects and languages.

Dictionary of Sociolinguistic Terms

National language

1. The language of the nation as a socio-historical ethnic community of people. It is among the concepts of "generic dialect (language)" and "language of nationality", "ethnic language". N. Ya. exists in two forms - oral and written, and is formed on the basis of the language of the nationality simultaneously with the formation of the nation itself on the basis of the nationality (one or more). It is a collection of all forms of existence of a given language, both codified (literary language) and uncodified (various territorial dialects, jargons, etc.). From the language of the N.ya. usually differs in the obligatory presence of a literary form of existence, normalization and standardization. N. i. together with other features (community of territory, economic life, culture, etc.) characterizes the concept of "nation". As a rule, a nation has a single language. However, the existence of two Nya is possible. one nation, for example, in Russia, the Mordovians have two literary languages: Erzya and Moksha, among the Mari - Mountain Mari and Meadow Mari. There are also cases when two or more nations (or peoples) have one language, for example, in the USA, England, Australia, New Zealand they speak the same language, English language(or its national variants). Numerous Latin American nations also use varieties of the same Spanish language. N. i. of a given national state, as a rule, is the state language.

language of nationality, tribe

 forms of language existence

See also: ,

2. one of the peoples living on the territory of the Russian Federation (but not the Russian language). The term is traditionally used in methodological literature, in linguistic works related to the description of the linguistic life of the Russian Federation, reflects the actual (functional) opposition of the most functionally developed Russian language, which is used in all communication spheres, to other ethnic languages ​​with a smaller set of social functions (cf. : Russian and national languages ​​in primary school, national-Russian bilingualism etc.). In this, the meaning is synonymous with the term "mother tongue".

Russian language

See also: ,

The aspect of language learning, which considers language as one of the indicative and essential expressions of the national identity of the people, is directly related to the problem under discussion "Language and Society". We are talking about language and nationality - a question posed by the founders of Russian linguistics in the last century, but later unclaimed.

The category of nationality was actively discussed in the works of representatives of two main directions of social and philosophical thought in Russia in the last century - Slavophiles and Westernizers. Turning to this category, we want to return it to its original philosophical and ontological meaning, significantly different from the purely literary meaning that it received in the subsequent time, especially in Soviet literary criticism and literary criticism, where

it has become, in fact, synonymous with partisanship. At the present time, it can be said that it is completely forgotten.

Unfortunately, we do not have the opportunity to sufficiently reveal the content of the category of nationality and its expression in language.

Firstly, nationality as a philosophical, ontological category has not been studied in science and, secondly, language characterizes only one, but, as the most prominent representatives of Russian linguistics emphasized, a very significant aspect of this category.

Awareness of this category, its definition and - which is very important - the actual study of individual aspects of the spiritual life of the people that are included in the content of the nationality, are associated primarily with older Slavophiles, as well as scientists who did not formally belong to this socio-philosophical trend, but shared their theoretical views.

It is significant that one of the first who appreciated the importance of this category in its national and universal significance were Pushkin and Gogol, who played an exceptional role both in the creation of the national Russian literary language and in the formation and development of Russian realistic literature. And in the absence of strict boundaries for the content of this category, which Pushkin and other authors of the last century complain about (even modern authors do not have a clear understanding of this category), nevertheless, no one doubts the reality of this category and the need for its figurative, artistic and scientific knowledge. In the conclusion of his small article about the nationality, Pushkin expresses his understanding of the nationality: “The climate, the way of government, faith give each people a special physiognomy, which is more or less reflected in the mirror of poetry. There is a way of thinking and feeling, there is a darkness of customs, beliefs and habits that belong exclusively to some people ”(23, p. 40).

The study of a nationality as an ontological category is a complex scientific problem; the subject of such a methodologically "unified study is the various aspects of the spiritual and material life of the people, distinguishing it from other peoples. These are language and oral folk art, fiction and painting, music and architecture, aesthetic tastes and moral principles, peculiarities of the way of life, mind, temperament. It is obvious from what has been said that the study of the content of this category in a more or less representative volume is a task of extreme complexity and difficulty in implementation, especially if we consider that the problem in this aspect and volume has not been studied. S. Khomyakov and the Westernizer V.G.Belinsky equally argued in their time that the awareness of the Russian people of their nationality is a matter of the distant future.

The definition of nationality as a general category, including various aspects of the spiritual and material life of the people, we find, for example, in Dal and Potebnya. Dahl: "Nationality is a set of properties and way of life that distinguish one people from another." Potebnya: “Nationality is what makes one nation different from another” (24, p. 221).

Language is one of the defining aspects of a nation. We will consider the question of the attitude of language to a nationality using the example of the Russian language, which is very indicative, since it was in the history of Russian linguistics and Russian socio-philosophical thought that this problem was once sharply posed by nationally-minded scientists of the 19th century. and received factual and theoretical substantiation. Attention to language as the most important feature of a nationality was caused by topical social reasons of that time, namely: the desire to defend the right of the national language to a central place in the education system. In contrast to the fascination with the French language of the upper classes, who considered it a measure of European education, all, without exception, prominent Russian linguists and teachers argued the need for the initial study of the native, Russian language in order to natural spiritual development of a person as a nationally oriented person.

These ideas are imbued with the works of such scientists as K.D. Ushinsky, K.S. Aksakov, I.I. Sreznevsky, F.I. Buslaev, V.I. Dal, A.A. Potebnya and others. In their sometimes passionate speeches, the idea of ​​language as the most important exponent of nationality and nationality, consistently pursued by the authors, is especially important for us. Here are some statements.

K.S. Aksakov: “The sameness of language is the first mysterious connection that connects people with each other. The people speak the same language, and this unity expresses inner sympathy, the kinship of souls, according to which people of the same people merge sounds into certain harmonious consonances, expressing their internal and external concepts ... In the language we find the first degree of nationality ”(25, p. . 170).

K. D. Ushinsky: “... The language of the people is its integral organic creation, growing in all its national characteristics from some one, mysterious, somewhere in the depths of the national spirit of the hidden grain ...

In the treasury of the native language, one generation after another adds the fruits of deep heart movements, the fruits of historical events, beliefs, views, traces of past grief and lived joy, in a word, the people carefully preserve the entire trace of their spiritual life in the popular word. Language is the most lively, the most abundant and strong connection that unites the outdated, living and future generations of the people into one great, historical living whole. It not only expresses the vitality of the people, but it is precisely life itself. When the national language disappears, the people no longer exist! " (26, p. 8-9).

F.I. Buslaev: “Recently, the revived desire for nationality has raised the value of the national language” (27, p. 179).

“... Language is not only the mental expression of the people, but also of the whole way of life, customs and beliefs, the country and the history of the people. The unity of language with the individuality of a person constitutes a nationality ... Sincere, deepest sensations of his inner being, a person can express only in his native language. The inner indivisibility of the language and the character of the people is especially evident from the attitude of the language to the education of the people, which is nothing more than the incessant development of spiritual life, and at the same time the language ”(27, p. 230).

I.I. Sreznevsky, like other linguists of his time, argued that the origins of the nationality of the language go back to ancient times, to the linguistic community of tribes, inheriting and developing it in his own way in the era of separation from the common basis, and then independent development. The history of the language, people, nationality in its various manifestations is continuous. “The people develop their personal nationality from the nationality of their tribe, and their language, although it becomes an expression of this separate nationality, only continues the path already begun” (28, p. 22). Having such a history, the language acquires tremendous power in the formation of a nationality, concentrating the spiritual wealth of the people in itself. “In every national language, in every local dialect,” writes I.I. Sreznevsky, - there is an intangible force and nevertheless powerful, concentrating all other forces in itself. This is the spirit of the nation. He is the same, only with shades in all parts of the land of the people, but not equally strong in all strata of the people ...

The strength of the nationality of the language cannot be acquired by external imitation, but must be assimilated by the soul "(29, p. 114-115)

XIX century. was marked by the general interest of scientists, writers, the general public in the national principles of the people, which are expressed in various areas of their spiritual and material life. At this time, an active collection of vocabulary, ethnographic materials, works of oral, artistic folk art (fairy tales, proverbs and sayings, epics, folk songs, riddles, dialect speech, works of icon painting, etc.) is carried out. Fundamental works reflecting various aspects of the Russian nationality are published: K. Danilova, P.V. Kireevsky, A.N. Afanasyeva, I.I. Sreznevsky, F.I. Buslaeva, V.I. Dahl, P.N. Rybnikova, A.F. Hilferding, D.N. Pypin, D.N. Sadovnikova, A.A. Potebni and others. It was a powerful scientific movement, which set as its goal the study of the spiritual life of the people in its various manifestations, that is, nationality.

Potebnya occupies a special place in the development of the problem of language and nationality, both for his actual research in the field of language and literature, and for his theoretical understanding of this problem. The latter is very important, since it is the theory and methodology

research of the nationality has been and remains completely insufficiently developed. During his lifetime, Potebnya said little about the nationality, and indirectly in works on other topics. He himself wrote about this: “From what I had to say about nationality, borrowing, etc., only lines got to the press, for example, in the analysis of the“ Songs of the Golovatskiy ”(30, p. 138). The notes on the language and nationality published after the death of the scientist are only fragments, preliminary preparations for a large planned work on this problem. However, they are very valuable, since they reveal a deep penetration into the essence of the subject under study, characteristic of Potebne as a linguist-philosopher, contain productive propositions that summarize the well-known result of extensive empirical studies of language and literature in the aspect of interest to us. It seems that these judgments of Potebnya can serve as a starting point for creating a theoretical and methodological basis for the study of nationality in various fields of knowledge, and not just linguistics.

Understanding by nationality a set of features, features, in which one people differs from another, Potebnya assigned a central place in it to language, considering language to be "a perfect likeness of a nationality." By nothing else, we can not so versatile and objectively judge the life of the people in all its volume, as by the data of the language. A nationality is formed together with the people. Language does not exhaust a nationality, it is not a complete expression of it, but it undoubtedly represents an essential side of it. Therefore, mastering the native language in childhood is in itself a significant step in the perception and spontaneous (unconscious) education of a nationality in oneself. The history of the language, its modern functioning presents us with a picture of the past states of society, its material and spiritual life, and the modern conditions of the existence of the people. Differentiating from their primordial state, languages ​​dispose of the common heritage in their own way, refracting and developing it in new, special conditions, thereby creating their own history.

Potebnya approaches the understanding of the nationality dialectically, considering it as a unity of form and content. As in the case of language, he focuses on the form - the structural, structured element of the content. “National unity,” he emphasizes, “is a formal unity” (24, p. 222). Since language is "a perfect semblance of nationality," Potebnya focuses on language as the most essential formal indicator of nationality. At the same time Potebnya recognized that nationality is expressed in many other aspects of the spiritual and material life of the people; and in these cases the nationality is a unity of form and content.

Such an approach to nationality allows us to see it in the historical movement, versatile, not to identify it with antiquity, with this or

other transitory content and not to consider the loss of its individual manifestations and characteristics as a degradation of the nationality in general. In the new historical conditions, the nationality reveals itself in a different way, in a new way, filling itself with a new content. However, in this respect, Potebnya noted, the nationality was not studied. “... Until now,” he writes, “only a few scientists have succeeded in catching some relatively small features of the mindset that characterizes the people” (24, p. 222-223). Such an approach to the study of a nationality presupposes a special method and techniques, which, unfortunately, have not been developed.

Considering both language and nationality as a form, Potebnya refers to the category of the unconscious, which plays a large role in psychological processes in general. This category explains a lot in the functioning of the language and the manifestation of nationality, in the nature of the spiritual and objective activity of the people. The category of the unconscious in the theory of language and nationality turned out to be, in fact, bypassed in the subsequent history of linguistics. Unfortunately, at first it did not receive sufficient attention and understanding, despite the efforts of Potebnya's students and followers to develop his ideas in this direction (see the works of D.N. Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky, B.A.Lezin, V.I. Khartsiev and etc.).

The unconscious in a language is that part of our thought, means and ways of expressing it, which in speech is not the purpose of our communication to another, just because this part is known and mastered by all who speak a given language. The unconscious in language is identified with its form, external and internal (see Chapter VII). In the communication of a folk language, examples of the unconscious are the phonetic system, grammatical forms of words, word-formation morphemes, models of their connections, etc. In the semantics of a language, the unconscious is an abstract part of our thought ("intra-lingual meanings"); it is the mental experience of the people that has been deposited in the memory, assimilated to one degree or another by a person for whom this language is native. DN Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky writes about the grammatical, categorical side of the language: “The grammatical form of words is thought of unconsciously, automatically. In this case, of course, we mean a familiar language, one in which a person thinks easily, involuntarily, without thinking about looking for this or that word, about the use of this or that form. This is the language that a person learned from childhood - the native language, Muttersprache, the language of national communication, silent thought and dreams ”(31, pp. 61-62).

The native language enters the thinking and consciousness of the child for the first time and simultaneously with the sensually perceived world and the experience of mastering and understanding it, which adults pass on to the child in their speech and objective activity, to which the child gradually connects. Simultaneously with these processes, the child's psychology is formed, his worldview and worldview,

they are connected with the mastering folk experience, in other words, a nationality is objectively formed. With the mastery of language as an instrument of consciousness, as a form, self-consciousness begins to develop in the child. Expansion of consciousness is directly proportional to the expansion and area of ​​the unconscious, and, consequently, to the strengthening of the form in the child's speech activity; as a result, more and more mental energy is released for the latter.

As mentioned above, a person, expressing his thought in his native language, does not think about what phonemes, morphemes, meanings of words, their connections, models of phrases and sentences, etc. he will use in this case. In the same way, in his actions and deeds, in the expression of his thoughts and feelings, in relations with people around him, close and distant, etc., in a word, in all his daily activities, subordinate to transient goals and motives, he also does not think over the fact that he will behave like a French, Russian, German or Greek ... But nevertheless, in this multifarious of his activities, such features and principles of behavior will break through that will expose him as a representative of a certain people. “Everything that functions in the unconscious sphere,” wrote D.N. Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky, - does not waste, but saves energy. The area of ​​our psychophysical and mental automatism is an accumulator of energy. Consequently, language and nationality, since they function unconsciously, automatically, should be understood primarily as a special form of accumulation and conservation of the mental energy of peoples. Hence the conclusion: peoples are healthy and alive with unrecognized health and the automatic life of their national psyche ”(32, p. 38).

The unconscious in psychology, in language, in nationality is a common thing that everyone owns; a form in which and thanks to which only personal, conscious, creative content can be realized. The unconscious is thus - necessary condition education and expression of content. This is how Potebnya and other representatives of the Kharkiv philological school understood the role of the unconscious in human psychology, language, and the peoples of the Kharkiv philological school, seeing in the unconscious a colossal accumulation of energy that is inaccessible to an individual person as a basis for the implementation of the creative efforts of the individual.

D.N. Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky: "... In everything mental, creativity can be only where there is a saving of strength" (31, p. 41).

B.A. Lezin: “If all acts of mental activity were a product of consciousness, then humanity would lose a lot; he hardly had the strength to create science and art ”(33, p. 257).

“... Without the participation of the unconscious sphere, there can be no creativity” (33, p. 258).

“The unconscious sphere saves, economizes mental acts; conscious spending; the first includes the activities

the nature of the language, the nature of which ... is reduced to the same conservation of strength ”(ibid.).

The place and importance of the unconscious in linguistic processes is evidenced by the already mentioned position of Potebnya: language, being an instrument of consciousness, is itself an unconscious creation. But, according to Potebna, not only language: “The greatest works of man, like language, nationality, great states, are created unconsciously, that is, in such a way that the intentional efforts of individuals are lost like a drop in the ocean” (15, p. 452).

The language, and primarily by its external form, signals the nationality of its bearer. But in the language everything is national, folk, all its levels. And even a borrowed, foreign language vocabulary, having fallen into the conditions of another language system, acquires new vocalizations, meanings and meanings. The presence of such “cross-cutting”, deep differences between languages ​​is explained by the centuries-old, own history of languages, which in its movement towards the modern state has absorbed the previous linguistic heritage, lost in the darkness of millennia, and the impact of the now unsearchable diverse internal and external factors and conditions. Modern science can only more or less correctly describe and evaluate these features of languages; the reasons that caused this or that quality of the described language, for the most part, remain unexplained. It is not uncommon for linguists to make statements to refuse to clarify the reasons for a particular linguistic phenomenon altogether.

Speaking about the national appearance of a language, we, of course, mean language as a natural sign system reproduced in speech, representing the unity of external and internal forms. As a general thing, everything here is national, national. But with the help of language, any individual, speech content can be expressed, including anti-national, hostile to the people - the bearer of the given language (see the opinions of V.N. Voloshinov and A.F. Losev, cited earlier).

To show the most remarkable national features of the language in its very structure, we will use the example of the Russian language, drawing on the evidence of authoritative authors, and above all those who were fluent in more than one foreign language and for whom the noted features of the Russian language were striking.

The phonetic system of the language is one of the visual and by no means only the external aspects of the nationality. The pronunciation of the sounds of the language - vowels, consonants, their diverse and characteristic combinations for a given language, phonetic words, syntagmas or speech measures, syntagmatic stresses, intonations characteristic of different types of sentences, etc. - historically forms the national articulatory base of the language. Speakers who speak a given language usually do not notice it. She is noticed when

it is violated, for example, when a given language is not native to a person, and speaking it, he is influenced by the articulatory base of his native language (compare: speak Russian with a foreign accent).

The phonetic system of the language, primarily its vocalism, has a certain influence on national singing, becoming its hallmark (compare: singing in Italian, Spanish, Ukrainian, Russian, Arabic, Georgian and other languages).

About the sound side of the Russian language Acad. SP. Obnorsky wrote: “The Russian language, according to the general assessment, is drawn with a language with special signs of beauty and wealth, expressive power and greatness. Indeed, a scientific analysis would make it possible to note in the general appearance of the Russian language objective evidence of its positive qualities ”(34, p. 273). Further JV. Obnorsky notes some of these qualities. And although it would seem that the Russian language does not suffer from the absence of scientific descriptions of its structure in various respects, this side, as can be seen from the statement of the joint venture. Obnorsky, is not sufficiently covered from a scientific point of view. We will also indicate, using, among other things, the evidence of the joint venture. Obnorsky and other prominent connoisseurs of the Russian language, on some characteristic national properties of the Russian language.

The impression of the beauty of the Russian language is objectively created by many of its phonetic features. The Russian language has a rich vocalism, vowels of full and weakened moving sound, which contributes not only to euphony, vocal diversity and rhythm of Russian speech, but also makes Russian singing free and musical. Musicality in Russian speech is introduced by nasal and smooth sonorant consonants (or semi-vowels) - m, n, p, l(and their soft parallels), which are quite frequent, are widespread. According to the joint venture. Obnorsky, a fourth part of our dictionary is made up of words starting with a fluent or nasal consonant. As you know, singers love to use the sleepiness of these sounds in their singing, both in opera and on stage. Among positive qualities the diversity and mobility of the Russian stress are related; this quality, combined with the syntagmatic division of Russian speech (speech bars), syntagmatic stress and intonation, ensures the rich rhythm of Russian speech; and this dignity is used not only in poetry, but also in ordinary speech, creating distinct phonetic and semantic unity, which, of course, is very important in the exchange of thoughts. The imposition of a logical stress, intonations characteristic of a sentence, provides Russian speech with expressiveness in rhythmic, musical, semantic relations.

A typical feature of the Russian language is palatalization (softening of consonants), which permeates the entire consonant system. This feature of Russian consonantism makes Russian speech soft and harmonious.

And other levels of the structure of the Russian language have many undoubted positive qualities noted by foreign and domestic scientists and writers.

A characteristic feature of the Russian language is the rich possibilities of word formation, especially the suffix and prefix, as pointed out by many authors.

SP. Obnorsky: "Due to the morphological nature of the Russian language, which has the ability to form the main groups of significant words (nouns, adjectives, verbs) using suffixes, prefixes, the Russian language has always had and has inexhaustible growth forces" (34, p. 273).

N.G. Chernyshevsky: “... The Russian language has developed in itself many such methods of word production, which remained underdeveloped in the Greek and Latin languages, in terms of the richness of production methods that are incomparably higher than the new European languages” (13, p. 388).

V.G. Belinsky repeatedly emphasized this feature of the Russian language: “... The Russian language is unusually rich in expressing natural phenomena ... Indeed, what a wealth for depicting natural phenomena lies only in Russian verbs that have species! swim, swim, swim, sail, swim,sail, sail, swim, sail, sail, swim, swim,swim, swim, swim, swim, swim, blur,to blur, melt, swim: it's all one verb to express twenty shades of the same action! " (35, p. 145).

It is known that the national features of languages ​​are peculiarly manifested in grammar. However, the grammatical structure of the language as a manifestation of national originality, conditioned by the peculiarities of the way of life, perception of the world, the psychology of the people, one might say, was not a subject of study. As you know, the grammatical form indicates a certain category of thought. Genetically, all grammatical forms go back to independent, significant words; and grammatical meanings are former lexical, essentially abstracted. In the question of the origin of this or that grammatical form, it is the choice of the word and its meaning, which formed the basis of the grammatical, formal classification, is very indicative and original; it should denote something typical and characteristic of the way of life, perception of the world, and, consequently, the psychology of the people. As you know, the origins of the formation of the grammatical system of the language go back to deep antiquity, to the Indo-European unity; but in the conditions of the separate existence of the people, this common heritage of the language - the foundations were used in a peculiar, unique way (compare: the system of tenses in Old Russian and modern Russian, the category of gender, the formation of full (member) adjectives, types of verbs, etc.). Above we have given judgments 312

Potebni, N. Ya. Danilevsky, B.A. Serebrennikov on the deep psychological, semantic foundations of the formation of individual grammatical forms in different languages.

World perception, ideas about the surrounding world and its understanding, the rules of life of the people, their wisdom, etc., in a word, the nationality is reflected in the very nature of the name, in the phraseology of the language in the broad sense of the word - in proverbs, sayings, phraseological units, in winged expressions, as well as in the works of oral folk art.

The inner form of the word shows how the signified appears to our consciousness. The image in the name must be generally understandable, so that by one of it speakers could equally represent the meaning of the word; in other words, the image must be popular. This nature of the name presupposes the presence of a general mental and psychological unity of the people, the existence of a nationwide operating mental reserve or layer at one time or another in the development of society and language. This productive thinking layer is primarily involved in semantic and word-formation processes. It is located in the bright point of the speakers' consciousness, quickly participates in their speech activity, is associatively mobile and transparent, providing the nationwide movement of thought in the newly formed words - from the images contained in them to the meanings.

However, not only the internal form of the word depends on the world perception of the people, their psychology, etc. People, nationally and the meaning itself, despite its abstractness, classification. We can say that the meaning is not as subjective as the internal form of the word, since it includes many features of the signified, cognized in human practice. It would seem that the meaning is closer to the "common human" understanding of this or that signified, since it develops an abstraction, a concept. However, the formation of a concept (its volume and content) takes place under the conditions of a certain spiritual and material environment in which the people live, their activities are carried out, including speech. The originality of the semantic structure of words, the meanings of words denoting a certain object or phenomenon, is clearly revealed when they are compared with the corresponding words of different languages. For lexicographers, compilers of bilingual and multilingual dictionaries, this is a well-known fact.

Especially vividly the folk character of the image and the meaning formed on its basis is visible in various stable figurative combinations of words - in proverbs, sayings, phraseological units, riddles. It is because of their originality, close connection with the specific living conditions of the people, their uniqueness, these formations are untranslatable literally into other languages. This applies to both prisoners

there are images in them, and meanings growing out of them. The latter are situational, tied to a certain situation, reflecting the characteristic conditions of the life of the people, their various activities, related states of affairs, etc.

Much has been written about the lexical and phraseological wealth of the Russian language; it is really huge; the language reflected in itself the spiritual and material history of the Russian people. The national Russian literary language was nourished by powerful sources: the oral speech of the people in all its diversity, reflecting different areas of the life and activities of the people; book speech, which also served various spheres of written communication; Church Slavonic language, dialect speech. All these elements formed the lexical richness of the Russian language, its ramified stylistic and genre system. The wealth of a language is not only the number of words and various types of stable combinations, but also the totality of all meanings expressed by words (most words are polysemantic). The number of concepts in a language does not equal the number of words, it is much more. In addition, the vocabulary of the language also includes a large number of professional, dialectal, craft, non-literary vocabulary, which for the most part is not included in common explanatory dictionaries as well as a huge number of scientific terms and technical nomenclature. All this is factual proof of the semantic and stylistic richness of the Russian language.

Oral works folk art- epics, stories, fairy tales, songs ... - are distinguished by vivid national characteristics both in their form and in the expressed content. They reflect in images various aspects of the life of the people in its historical movement. Folk literature, as well as author's fiction, connects generations of people in a living chain for many centuries.

The study of nationality, which began in Russian science in the 19th century, in its application to language, as a very indicative expression of nationality, is ideologically closely connected with linguistic trends that arose in the first half and middle of the 20th century, namely with neo-Humboldtianism and ethnolinguistics ("The hypothesis of Sapir-War-fa"). Distinctive feature the concept of nationality lies in the fact that it has a generalized character and involves the study of national characteristics across the entire spectrum of the spiritual and material life of the nation. "Language and nationality" is only one side of a possible general teaching about one or another nationality.

Due to the common origin of Indo-European languages, the close relationship of these languages ​​in their individual branches (compare: East Slavic languages), as well as close interaction and mutual influence throughout their history, their differences between themselves are not as contrasting as, for example, the differences between exotic languages that have arisen and exist

in isolation in special conditions, compared with European languages ​​(cf .: languages ​​of the North American Indians). The study of the structure of the latter, typologically completely different from European languages, served as the basis for the formation of ethnolinguistics.

The doctrine of nationality, in particular, the problem of language and nationality, in our opinion, should take an appropriate place among the disciplines that study the nation in its various aspects.

The main unifying feature of a nation is precisely the language, because no common ideas, cultural values ​​and common economy can exist without a common understanding of the verbal signs used in communication. Language arises simultaneously with the nation, is its creation, as well as the organ of the original thinking of the nation. As the founder of linguistics W. Humboldt wrote, "language is the breath, the very soul of the nation."

Most of the circumstances accompanying the life of a nation - habitat, climate, religion, government, laws and customs - can be separated from the nation itself to a certain extent. And only the language exists as a living, native language only in the minds of the nation.

It is in the language that the entire national character is imprinted, in it, as a means of communication of a given people, individualities disappear and the general manifests itself.

The presence of a single national language provides society with the convenience of communication in a variety of areas of activity - from everyday life to production.

The national language, first of all, creates convenience for the daily life of every person. No matter what city a person finds himself in, he can easily ask any question and understand the answer without resorting to knowing other languages, without experiencing difficulties due to differences in pronunciation or meaning of words, which would be inevitable when communicating in a dialect. The national literary language has uniform norms for all speakers of it, in whatever area they live.

The presence of a single national literary language creates great convenience for official business correspondence of institutions and enterprises, ensures clarity of interaction between central and local authorities.

A single language is essential for rapid distribution technical advances, production development, economic integrity of the country. The highest level of uniformity of terminology is required from technical documents, therefore it is enshrined in special standards.

A correct and deep understanding of literary works is impossible without a good knowledge of the national language.

The national language is a means of development of all types of art, its unity is of great importance for education, for the media, in a word, for the entire life of the nation.

However, one cannot think that the unity of the language is maintained automatically, by itself, and does not require any care.

• The following factors pose a threat to the linguistic unity of the nation:
  • the rarity of everyday communication between residents of different regions of the country, the lack of the opportunity for some segments of the population to go on tourist trips around the country, to visit relatives in other regions;
  • reduced subscriptions to central newspapers and magazines in the regions, lack of literary and scientific journals in the retail network;
  • lack of dictionaries, new textbooks of the Russian language in local libraries;
  • expanding the scope of the spread of jargon in oral and written speech;
  • local "interpretation" federal laws distorting their meaning.

All these factors, not always immediately noticeable, gradually lead to the formation of regional differences in the understanding of the same words of the literary language, create imperceptible shifts in the meanings of words, lead to an erroneous understanding of new laws and instructions of the central government, undermine the order of governance and economic cooperation of regions. ...

A striking example of discord in the interpretation of new concepts public life the attitude towards the bachelor's diploma became different in different localities and departments. In some cases, this diploma is recognized as a document on higher education, in others it is not, which no longer complies with the law, but remained unknown to some managers.

The dangers listed above for the linguistic unity of the nation are not fatal. A well-thought-out language policy of the central government can solve many problems. It is necessary to develop a system for distributing magazines, to make wider use of television and radio for educational programs on the Russian language and the culture of speech, to create a Russian language service on television and monitor the literacy of all programs, primarily news broadcasts. Consistency in the interpretation of laws can be achieved by conducting special seminars and expanding the linguistic training of lawyers. Distance education is also of great benefit to strengthening the unity of the literary language.

Summarizing what has been said, we note that in relation to the nation, language plays a consolidating role, i.e. maintains its unity, serves as a means of creating a national culture and passing it on to future generations.

Russian language - National language of the Russian people, the state language of the Russian Federation and the language of interethnic communication

The Russian language is the national language of the Russian people. This is the language of science and culture. For centuries, masters of words (A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov, N. Gogol, I. Turgenev, L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov, M. Gorky, A. Tvardovsky, K. Paustovsky, etc.) and scholars-philologists (F. Buslaev, I. Sreznevsky, L. Shcherba, V. Vinogradov and others) improved the Russian language, brought it to subtlety, creating for us a grammar, dictionary, exemplary texts.
The arrangement of words, their meanings, the meaning of their connections contains that information about the world and people, which adds to the spiritual wealth created by many generations of ancestors.
Konstantin Dmitrievich Ushinsky wrote that "every word of a language, every form is the result of a person's thoughts and feelings, through which the nature of the country and the history of the people are reflected in the word." The history of the Russian language, according to V. Küchelbecker, "will reveal ... the character of the people who speak it."
That is why all the means of language help most accurately, clearly and figuratively express the most complex thoughts and feelings of people, all the diversity of the surrounding world. The national language includes not only a standardized literary language, but also folk dialects, vernacular forms of language, professionalism.
The formation and development of a national language is a complex and lengthy process. The history of the Russian national language begins in the 17th century, when the Russian nation was finally formed. The further development of the Russian national language is directly related to the development of the history and culture of the people. The Russian national language was formed on the basis of the dialects of Moscow and its environs. Literary language constitutes the basis of the national language and is obliged to maintain its internal unity despite the difference in the means of expression used. The norm of a language is the generally accepted use of linguistic means, the rules governing the exemplary use of linguistic means. The creator of the Russian literary language is A. Pushkin, who combined the literary Russian language of previous eras with the common spoken language. The language of the Pushkin era has basically survived to this day. The literary language unites living generations, people understand each other, as they use the same language norms.
Literary language comes in two varieties - oral and written. The main advantages of the Russian national language are embodied in Russian fiction.
The peculiarity of the Russian national language is that it is the state language in Russia and serves as a means of interethnic communication between peoples. Russian Federation.
The law "On Languages" defines the main areas of functioning of the Russian language as a state language: the highest bodies of state power and administration; publication of laws and other legal acts of the republics within the Russian Federation; holding elections; in the activities of state bodies; in official correspondence and office work; in the all-Russian mass media.
Research carried out in the Russian republics and a number of CIS countries testifies to the recognition of the fact that the present stage it is difficult to solve the problem of interethnic communication without the Russian language. Playing the role of an intermediary between all the languages ​​of the peoples of Russia, the Russian language helps to solve the problems of the political, economic and cultural development of the country. In international relations, states use world languages ​​legally proclaimed by the United Nations as official and working languages. These languages ​​are English, French, Russian, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic. In any of these six languages, interstate political, economic, scientific and cultural contacts can be carried out, international meetings, forums, conferences can be held, correspondence and office work can be conducted on the scale of the UN, CIS, etc. The world significance of the Russian language is due to its richness and expressiveness. vocabulary, sound structure, word formation, syntax.
In order to communicate and disseminate the experience of teaching the Russian language abroad, the International Association of Teachers of the Russian Language and Literature (MAPRYAL) was established in Paris in 1967. On the initiative of MAPRYAL, Olympiads in the Russian language are held among schoolchildren of the world. The philosopher Ivan Aleksandrovich Ilyin (1882-1954), speaking at the Pushkin jubilee in 1937, said about the Russian language: “And one more gift was given to us by our Russia: this is our wondrous, our mighty, our singing language. All of it is in it - our Russia. It contains all her gifts: the breadth of unlimited possibilities, and the wealth of sounds, and words, and forms; both spontaneity and clarity; and simplicity, and scope, and steam; and dreaminess, and strength, and clarity, and beauty.
Everything is available in our language. He himself is submissive to everything worldly and transcendental, and therefore has the power to express, depict and convey everything.
In it is the hum of distant bells and the silver of nearby bells. There are gentle rustles and crunches in it. There are herbal rustles and sighs in it. In it screams and grays, and whistles, and bird chirps. In it are heavenly thunders and animal roars; and the whirlwinds are unsteady, and the lapping is barely audible. It contains the whole singing Russian soul; echo of the world and human groans, and a mirror of divine visions ...
This is the language of sharp, cutting thought. The language of a quivering foreboding being born. The language of volitional decisions and achievements. The language of soaring and prophecy. The language of elusive transparencies and eternal verbs.
It is the language of a mature, distinctive national character. And the Russian people, who created this language, are called upon to reach, mentally and spiritually, the height to which their language calls them ... "