Scope of application of natural language. Formal and natural languages

Artificial languages ​​are special languages ​​that, unlike natural ones, are constructed purposefully. There are already more than a thousand such languages, and more and more are constantly being created.

The following types of artificial languages ​​are distinguished:
* Programming languages ​​and computer languages ​​- languages ​​for automatic processing of information using a computer.
* Information languages ​​- languages ​​used in various information processing systems.
* Formalized languages ​​of science - languages ​​intended for symbolic recording of facts and theories of mathematics, logic, chemistry and other sciences.
* Languages ​​of non-existent peoples created for fictional or entertainment purposes. The most famous are: the Elvish language, invented by J. Tolkien, and the Klingon language from the science fiction series “Star Trek” (see the article Fictional languages)
* International auxiliary languages ​​- languages ​​created from elements of natural languages ​​and offered as aid interethnic communication.

Natural language - in linguistics and philosophy of language, a language used for human communication (unlike formal languages ​​and other types of sign systems, also called languages ​​in semiotics) and not artificially created (unlike artificial languages). The vocabulary and grammatical rules of natural language are determined by the practice of use and are not always formally recorded.

The natural language system refers to multi-level systems, because consists of qualitatively different elements– phonemes, morphemes, words, sentences, the relationships between which are complex and multifaceted. Regarding the structural complexity of natural language, language is called the most complex of sign systems. Based on their structural basis, deterministic and probabilistic semiotic systems are also distinguished. Natural language belongs to probabilistic systems in which the order of elements is not rigid, but is probabilistic in nature. Semiotic systems are also divided into dynamic, mobile and static, stationary. Elements of dynamic systems change their position relative to each other, while the state of elements in static systems is motionless and stable. Natural language is classified as a dynamic system, although it also contains static features.

A programming language is a formal sign system designed for recording computer programs. A programming language defines a set of lexical, syntactic and semantic rules that define appearance programs and actions that the performer (computer) will perform under its control.

Since the creation of the first programmable machines, humanity has come up with more than two and a half thousand programming languages. Every year their number increases. Some languages ​​are used only by a small number of their own developers, while others become known to millions of people. Professional programmers sometimes use more than a dozen different programming languages ​​in their work.

There are several approaches to defining the semantics of programming languages.

The most widespread varieties are the following three: operational, derivational (axiomatic) and denotational (mathematical).

Language - a complex sign system that is necessary for communication and transmission of any information. In the process of human development, people have created many languages. Eg:

  • human languages;
  • sign languages;
  • languages ​​of diagrams, drawings, drawings, graphs;
  • facial languages;
  • languages ​​of art;
  • algorithmic languages ​​and others.

All functions of language can be seen in the process of communication. So, today there are the following main functions:

  • Communicative - needed to convey specific information;
  • Cognitive - capable of not only transmitting, but also storing information;
  • Rechargeable - can collect and retain knowledge.

All languages ​​can be divided into natural and artificial.

Natural language - a simple and common language that is needed for communication between people. This language is intended primarily for ordinary communication and was not created purposefully. Natural language has the following basic properties:

  • there are no restrictions on modification and development;
  • almost all words can have several meanings;
  • the integral and mutual connection of language with ethnic group;
  • some words may not be accurate;
  • ability to convey information in almost any field of study;
  • Some words have the ability not to denote any phenomena or objects.

Main functions of natural language

  1. Communicative;
  2. Emotional;
  3. Metalinguistic;
  4. Aesthetic;
  5. Cognitive;
  6. Informational;
  7. Directive.

Constructed language - a special language that is developed to fulfill specific purposes: the language of mathematics, a programming language, languages ​​for communicating with extraterrestrial intelligence, languages ​​of non-existent peoples, information languages ​​and others.

Any language, even natural and artificial, has a number of specific rules. They can be explicitly and strictly formulated (formalized), or they can be used in different ways.

How does natural language differ from formal language?

Formalized (formal) language - an artificial sign system that is used to represent a certain theory. Formal languages ​​are widely used in science and technology.

Formalized language differs from natural language in the absence of subjective perception. They are completely logical and clear, requiring a certain unambiguity when writing. For example, in chemistry, mathematics or physics, they oblige one to observe the fundamental rigor of judgments. Various symbols and formulas are interpreted in the same way all over the world.

It is also worth noting a programming language that uses specific code for interaction between technology and humans.

Another major difference is the presence of strict rules of grammar and syntax. Formal languages ​​are often too simple, while natural languages, on the contrary, are complex (including punctuation, vocabulary, grammar, etc.).

It is worth noting the existence of these languages. Formal languages ​​typically exist only in written form, while natural languages ​​have a communicative function and are used orally.

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Federal Agency for Education

State educational institution
higher professional education

Vladimir State University

Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies

Discipline: “Logic”

Topic: “Natural language and artificial languages”

Performed:

student gr. 3Yuud-110

Usova O.I.

Checked:

Zubkov S.A.

Vladimir, 2011

1.Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..3

2. Main part

2.1 Natural languages………………………………………………………4

2.2 Constructed languages…………………………………………………………….7

3. Conclusion……………………………………………………..…………………14

4. List of references……………………………………………15

1. Introduction

Any thought in the form of concepts, judgments or conclusions is necessarily clothed in a material-linguistic shell and does not exist outside of language. It is possible to identify and explore logical structures only by analyzing linguistic expressions.

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

Language is a necessary condition for the existence of abstract thinking. Therefore, thinking is a distinctive feature of a person.

The initial constructive component of 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 and a carrier of information about the latter (image signs: copies of documents, fingerprints, photographs; symbol signs: musical notes, Morse code signs, letters in the alphabet).

According to their origin, languages ​​are natural and artificial. Kirillov V.I., Starchenko A.A. Logics. M., 1995. P. 10-11.

2. Main part

2.1 Natural languages

Natural languages ​​are audio (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 centuries-old culture and are inseparable from the history of the people who speak them.

Everyday reasoning is usually conducted in natural language. But such a language developed in the interests of ease of communication, the exchange of thoughts at the expense of accuracy and clarity. Natural languages ​​have rich expressive capabilities: they can be used to express any knowledge (both ordinary and scientific), emotions, and feelings. Ruzavin G.I. Logic and argumentation. M., 1997. S. 111, 171.

Natural language performs two main functions - representational and communicative. The representative function is that language is a means of symbolic expression or representation of abstract content (knowledge, concepts, thoughts, etc.), accessible through thinking to specific intellectual subjects. The communicative function is expressed in the fact that language is a means of transmitting or communicating this abstract content from one intellectual subject to another. The letters, words, sentences themselves (or other symbols, such as hieroglyphs) and their combinations form the material basis in which the material superstructure of the language is realized - a set of rules for constructing letters, words, sentences and other language symbols, and only together with the corresponding superstructure does it or another material basis forms a specific natural language. Petrov V.V., Pereverzev V.N. Language processing and predicate logic. Novosibirsk, 1993. P.14.

Based on the semantic status of natural language, the following can be noted:

1. Since a language is a set of certain rules implemented on certain symbols, it is clear that there is not one language, but many natural languages. The material basis of any natural language is multidimensional, i.e. is divided into verbal, visual, tactile and other types of symbols. In principle, all these varieties are independent of each other, but in most existing languages they are closely related to each other, with verbal symbols being dominant. Typically, the material basis of natural language is studied only in its two dimensions - verbal and visual (written). In this case, visual symbols are considered as a certain equivalent of the corresponding verbal symbols (the only exceptions are languages ​​with hieroglyphic writing). From this point of view, it is permissible to talk about the same natural language having different varieties visual symbols (for example, about the Moldovan language with both Cyrillic and Latin scripts).

2. Due to differences in the base and superstructure, every concrete natural language represents the same abstract content in a unique, inimitable way. On the other hand, in any specific language such abstract content is also represented that is not represented in other languages ​​(at one or another specific period of their development). However, this does not mean that each specific language has its own, special sphere of abstract content and that this sphere is part of the language itself. For example, “table”, “table” represent the same abstract content, but this content itself (i.e. the concept of a table) does not belong to either the Russian or English languages. The sphere of abstract content is uniform and universal for all natural languages. This is why translation from one natural language to any other natural language is possible, despite the fact that all languages ​​have different expressive capabilities and are at different stages of their development. For logic, natural languages ​​are of interest not in themselves, but only as a means of representing the sphere of abstract content common to all languages, as a means of “seeing” this content and its structure. Those. the object of logical analysis is the abstract content itself as such, while natural languages ​​are only a necessary condition such an analysis.

The sphere of abstract content is a structured area of ​​clearly distinguishable objects of a special kind. These objects form a kind of rigid universal abstract structure. Natural languages ​​represent not only certain elements of this structure, but also certain integral fragments of it. Any natural language does reflect structure to some extent. objective reality. But this display is superficial, inaccurate and contradictory. Natural language is formed in the process of spontaneous social experience. Its superstructure corresponds to the requirements not of purely theoretical, but of practical (mostly everyday) human activity and therefore represents a conglomerate of limited and often contradictory rules (including the well-known rule “there are no rules without exceptions”).

But no matter how perfect the superstructure of Russian English or German, it does not provide knowledge of how to translate natural language into language, for example, machine commands. Therefore, there is a need to create artificial languages.

2.2 Constructed languages

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. A language that acts as a means of constructing or learning another language is called a metalanguage, the basis is a language-object. A metalanguage, as a rule, has richer expressive capabilities compared to an object language. Kirillov V.I., Starchenko A.A. Logics. M., 1995.

Any artificial language has three levels of organization:

· syntax - the level of language structure where relationships between signs, methods of formation and transformation of sign systems are formed and studied;

· cinematics, where the relationship of a sign to its meaning (meaning, which is understood as either the thought expressed by the sign or the object denoted by it) is studied;

· pragmatics, which studies the ways in which signs are used in a given community using an artificial language.

The construction of an artificial language begins with the introduction of an alphabet, i.e. a set of symbols that denote the object of a given science, and the rules for constructing formulas in a given language. Some correctly constructed formulas are accepted as axioms. Thus, all knowledge formalized with the help of artificial language acquires an axiomatized form, and with it evidence and reliability. Dmitrievskaya I.V. Logics. M., 2006. P. 20

A characteristic feature of artificial languages ​​is the unambiguous definition of their vocabulary, the rules for forming expressions and giving them meanings. In many cases, this feature turns out to be an advantage of such languages ​​in comparison with natural languages, which are amorphous both in vocabulary and in terms of rules of formation and meaning. Ivin A.A. Logics. M., 1996. P. 17.

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

For example, mathematicians from the very beginning sought to formulate proofs and theorems in as clear a dialect of natural language as possible. Although the vocabulary of this dialect is constantly expanding, the basic forms of sentences, connectives, and conjunctions remain practically the same as those developed in ancient times. For a long time it was believed that a “mathematical dialect” consisted of strictly formulated sentences. But already in the Middle Ages, the development of algebra led to the fact that the formulations of theorems often became longer and more inconvenient. Accordingly, calculations became more and more difficult. Even just to understand the phrase: “The square of the first, added to the square of the second, and with twice the product of the first and the second, is the square of the first, added to the second,” requires considerable effort. Mathematical rigor and convenience began to contradict each other. Then they noticed that this rule of mathematical language can be reduced to several conventional signs, and now it is written briefly and clearly:

x 2 + 2 xy + y 2 = (x + y) 2

This became the first stage in clarifying the mathematical language: the symbolism of arithmetic expressions, their equalities and inequalities was created. The language of mathematical logic, which became the symbolic language of modern mathematics, arose at the moment when the inconvenience of a mathematical language for the needs of mathematics was finally realized. New symbolism clarified the mechanical nature of many transformations and allowed us to give simple algorithms their implementation. Nepeyvoda N.N. Applied logic. Izhevsk, 1997. P.27-29.

The role of formalization of natural language in scientific knowledge and in logic in particular:

1. Formalization makes it possible to analyze, clarify, define and clarify concepts. Many concepts are not suitable for scientific knowledge due to their uncertainty, ambiguity and imprecision. For example, the concepts of continuity of a function, a geometric figure in mathematics, simultaneity of events in physics, heredity in biology are significantly different from the ideas that they have in everyday consciousness. In addition, some initial concepts are denoted in science by the same words that are used in spoken language to express completely different things and processes. Concepts of physics such as force, work, energy reflect well-defined and precisely specified processes: for example, force is considered in physics as the cause of changes in the speed of a moving body. IN colloquial speech these concepts are given a broader, but vague meaning, as a result of which the physical concept of force is not applicable to the characteristics of, for example, a person.

2. Formalization takes on a special role in the analysis of evidence. Presenting the proof in the form of a sequence of formulas obtained from the original ones using precisely specified transformation rules gives it the necessary rigor and accuracy. The importance of the rigor of proof is evidenced by the history of attempts to prove the axiom of parallels in geometry, when instead of such a proof the axiom itself was replaced by an equivalent statement. It was the failure of such attempts that forced N.I. Lobachevsky recognizes such proof as impossible.

3. Formalization, based on the construction of artificial logical languages, serves as a theoretical foundation for the processes of algorithmization and programming of computing devices, and thereby the computerization of not only scientific and technical, but also other knowledge. Ruzavin G.I. Logic and argumentation. M., 1997. P.36-38.

The artificial language generally accepted in modern logic is the language of predicate logic. The main semantic categories of the language are: names of objects, names of features, sentences.

Object names are individual phrases denoting objects. Each name has a double meaning - objective and semantic. The subject meaning of a name is the set of objects to which the name refers (denotation). Semantic meaning is the properties inherent in objects, with the help of which many objects are distinguished (concept).

Feature names are qualities, characteristics or relationships of objects. Usually these are predicates, for example, “to be red”, “to jump”, “to love”, etc.

Sentences are expressions of language in which something is affirmed or denied. According to their logical meaning, they express truth or falsehood.

A logical language also has its own alphabet, which includes a certain set of signs (symbols) and logical connectives. Using a logical language, a formalized logical system called predicate calculus is constructed. Kirillov V.I., Starchenko A.A. Logics. M., 1995. pp. 11-13

Artificial languages ​​are also successfully used by logic for precise theoretical and practical analysis of mental structures.

One of these languages ​​is the language of propositional logic. It is used in a logical system called propositional calculus, which analyzes reasoning based on the truth characteristics of logical connectives and abstracting from the internal structure of judgments. The principles of constructing this language will be outlined in the chapter on deductive reasoning.

The second language is the language of predicate logic. It is used in a logical system called predicate calculus, which, when analyzing reasoning, takes into account not only the truth characteristics of logical connectives, but also the internal structure of judgments. Let us briefly consider the composition and structure of this language, individual elements which will be used in the process of substantive presentation of the course.

Designed for the logical analysis of reasoning, the language of predicate logic structurally reflects and closely follows the semantic characteristics of natural language. The main semantic category of the language of predicate logic is the concept of name.

A name is a linguistic expression that has a certain meaning in the form of a separate word or phrase, denoting or naming some extra-linguistic object. A name as a linguistic category thus has two obligatory characteristics or meanings: subject meaning and semantic meaning.

The subject meaning (denotation) of a name is one or many objects that are designated by this name. For example, the denotation of the name “house” in Russian will be the whole variety of structures that are designated by this name: wooden, brick, stone; single-story and multi-story, etc.

The semantic meaning (meaning, or concept) of a name is information about objects, i.e. their inherent properties, with the help of which many objects are distinguished. In the above example, the meaning of the word “house” will be the following characteristics of any house: 1) this structure (building), 2) built by man, 3) intended for housing.

The relationship between name, meaning and denotation (object) can be represented by the following semantic scheme:

This means that the name denotes, i.e. denotes objects only through meaning, and not directly. A linguistic expression that has no meaning cannot be a name, since it is not meaningful, and therefore not objectified, i.e. has no denotation.

The types of names in the language of predicate logic, determined by the specifics of naming objects and representing its main semantic categories, are the names of: 1) objects, 2) attributes and 3) sentences.

The names of objects denote single objects, phenomena, events, or many of them. The object of research in this case can be both material (airplane, lightning, pine) and ideal (will, legal capacity, dream) objects.

Based on their composition, they distinguish between simple names, which do not include other names (state), and complex names, which include other names (Earth satellite). According to denotation, names are either singular or common. A singular name denotes one object and can be represented in language by a proper name (Aristotle) ​​or given descriptively (the most big river in Europe). Common name denotes a set consisting of more than one object; it can be represented in language common noun(law) or given descriptively (large wooden house).

The names of features - qualities, properties or relationships - are called predicators. In a sentence, they usually serve as a predicate (for example, “to be blue,” “to run,” “to give,” “to love,” etc.). The number of names of objects to which the predicator refers is called its locality. Predicators that express properties inherent in individual objects are called one-place (for example, “the sky is blue”). Predicators that express relationships between two or more objects are called multi-place. For example, the predicator “to love” refers to doubles (“Mary loves Peter”), and the predicator “to give” refers to triples (“The father gives a book to his son”).

Sentences are names for expressions of language in which something is affirmed or denied. According to their logical meaning, they express truth or falsehood.

The alphabet of the predicate logic language includes the following types of signs (symbols):

1) a, b, c,... - symbols for single (proper or descriptive) names of objects; they are called subject constants, or constants;

2) x, y, z, ... - symbols of common names of objects that take on meanings in one area or another; they are called subject variables;

3) P1,Q1, R1,... - symbols for predicates, the indices over which express their locality; they are called predicate variables;

4) p, q, r, ... - symbols for statements, which are called propositional or propositional variables (from the Latin propositio - “statement”);

5) - symbols for quantitative characteristics of statements; they are called quantifiers: - general quantifier; it symbolizes expressions - everything, everyone, everyone, always, etc.; - existence quantifier; it symbolizes expressions - some, sometimes, happens, occurs, exists, etc.;

6) logical connectives:

Conjunction (conjunction “and”);

Disjunction (conjunction “or”);

Implication (conjunction “if..., then...");

Equivalence, or double implication (the conjunction “if and only if..., then...");

┐- negation (“it is not true that...”).

Technical language symbols: (,) - left and right brackets.

This alphabet does not include other characters. Acceptable, i.e. expressions that make sense in the language of predicate logic are called well-constructed formulas -PPF. The concept of PPF is introduced by the following definitions:

1. Every propositional variable - p, q, r, ... is a PPF.

2. Any predicate variable, taken with a sequence of subject variables or constants, the number of which corresponds to its location, is a PPF: A1 (x), A2 (x, y), A3 (x, y, z), A" (x, y ,..., n), where A1, A2, A3,..., An are metalanguage signs for predicators.

3. For any formula with objective variables, in which any of the variables is associated with a quantifier, the expressions xA (x) and xA (x) will also be PPF.

4. If A and B are formulas (A and B are metalanguage signs for expressing formula schemes), then the expressions:

are also formulas.

5. Any other expressions other than those provided for in clauses 1-4,

are not PPFs of this language.

3.Conclusion

Language, as we know, is a means of communication, communication between people, through which they exchange thoughts and information with each other. Thought finds its expression precisely in language; without such expression, the thoughts of one person are inaccessible to another. With the help of language, knowledge of various objects occurs. The success of cognition depends on correct use natural and artificial languages. The first stages of cognition involve the use of natural language. Gradual deepening into the essence of an object requires more accurate research systems. This leads to the creation of artificial languages. The more accurate the knowledge, the more realistic the possibility of its practical use. Thus, the problem of the development of artificial languages ​​of science is not purely theoretical, it has a certain practical content. At the same time, the dominance of natural language in cognition is indisputable. No matter how developed, abstract and formalized a specific artificial language is, it has its source in a certain natural language and develops according to the unified natural laws of language. Dmitrievskaya I.V. Logics. 2006.

4. List of used literature

1. Ivin A.A. Logics. - M.: Education, 1996. - 206 p.

2. Nepeyvoda N.N. Applied logic. - Izhevsk: Udmurt Publishing House. University, 1997. - 384 p.

3. Dmitrievskaya I.V. Logics. - M.: Flinta, 2006. - 383 p.

4. Petrov V.V., Pereverzev V.N. Language processing and predicate logic. - Novosibirsk: Publishing house Novosibirsk. University, 1993. - 156 p.

5. Ruzavin G.I. Logic and argumentation. - M.: Culture and Sports, UNITY, 1997. - 351 p.

6. Kirillov V.I., Starchenko A.A. Logics. - M.: YURIST, 1995. - 256 p.


Ruzavin G.I. Logic and argumentation. - M.: Culture and Sports, UNITY, 1997. - 351 p.

Petrov V.V., Pereverzev V.N. Language processing and predicate logic. – Novosibirsk Publishing house Novosibirsk. University, 1993. - 156 p.

Petrov V.V., Pereverzev V.N. Language processing and predicate logic. - Novosibirsk: Publishing house Novosibirsk. University, 1993. - 156 p.

This question can be asked different people and get completely unexpected answers. But it’s unlikely that anyone will immediately talk about natural and formal languages. Definition and examples similar systems rarely come to mind when asked such a question. And yet - what kind of classification is this? And what then is considered a language?

About the history of languages ​​and their study

The main science that studies communication systems is linguistics. There is also a related specialty that studies signs - semiotics. Both sciences originated several thousand years ago, so the history of the origin of languages ​​has obviously interested people for a very long time.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that a lot of time has passed since the birth of the first systems, it is now difficult to say how everything happened. There are a lot of hypotheses that speak both about the development of language from more primitive communication systems, and about its almost accidental emergence as a unique phenomenon. Of course, the first option has many more adherents and is practically generally accepted.

Much the same debate exists about why there are so many languages ​​today. Some believe that they all originated from one system, while others insist on development from several independent foci. But in this case we are talking only about natural languages, examples of which are familiar to everyone. They are used for human communication. But there are others that are different from them. And then the question arises “what is considered a language.”

Essence

When communicating with each other, not many people think about what a language is, what can be classified in this category and what cannot. The fact is that there are still sign systems that partially perform the same functions, and the differences are very arbitrary. Therefore, the question arises about what is the essence of language.

There are several concepts on this topic. Some linguists view language as a biological phenomenon, others as a mental one. Another popular view is that it belongs to the field of interest of sociologists. Finally, there are researchers who perceive it only as a special system of signs. Be that as it may, it is obvious that in this case only natural languages ​​are meant. Examples of concepts that would also include a formal category do not yet exist; linguistics actually ignores them.

Tasks and functions

What are languages ​​for? Linguists identify a number of basic functions:

  • Nominative, that is, nominative. Language is used to name various objects, events, phenomena, etc.
  • Communicative, that is, the function of communication. This is understood as fulfilling the purpose of transmitting information.
  • Expressive. That is, language also serves to express emotional state speaker.

It is obvious that in this case, again, both categories are not taken into account: natural and formal languages ​​- we're talking about only about the first one. However, the second function also retains two functions; only the expressive one is lost. And this is understandable if you know what a formal language is.

Classification

In general, linguistics distinguishes between two categories: formal and natural languages. Further division occurs according to a number of other characteristics. Sometimes a third category is distinguished - animal languages, since natural languages ​​are usually understood only as systems with the help of which people communicate. There is further division into smaller groups and subspecies, but it is not necessary to go so deep into linguistics to understand the difference between these two large categories.

So, you need to find out how natural and formal languages ​​differ. The definition and examples can be understood by looking at them in more detail.

Natural

Systems that allow people to understand each other when communicating, that is, those that perform a communicative function, belong specifically to this category. Now it’s hard to imagine how it would be possible to do without them.

  • natural languages, examples of which include all adverbs that arose and developed in the most ordinary way (English, German, Russian, Chinese, Urdu, etc.);
  • artificial (Esperanto, Interlingua, Elvish, Klingon, etc.);
  • sign (language of the deaf).

They all have their own characteristics and areas of application. But there is another large category for which most people find it difficult to come up with examples.

Formal

Languages ​​that require clarity in recording and cannot be perceived subjectively also appeared a very long time ago. They are distinguished by impeccable logic and unambiguity. And they are also different. But they all have two basic principles: abstraction and rigor of judgment.

Natural and formal languages ​​differ primarily in their complexity. Most systems from the first category are a multi-component and multi-level complex. Examples of the latter can be both complex and quite simple. It has its own grammar, punctuation and even word formation. The only serious difference is that these systems exist, as a rule, only in written form.

Which ones may include the “queen of sciences” mathematics, followed by chemistry, physics and partly biology. No matter what nationality the scientists are, they will always understand the formulas and records of reactions. And for mathematics it is absolutely not important what this or that number means: the number of apples on a tree or molecules in a gram of a substance. Just as when calculating the friction force, physicists do not take into account the color of the object or any other unimportant factors. this moment properties. This is how abstraction manifests itself.

With the advent of electronics, the issue of communication between a person and a machine, which understands only zeros and ones, has become extremely relevant. Since human adoption of this system would be too inconvenient and would make the work too difficult, it was decided to create intermediate communication systems. This is how programming languages ​​appeared. Of course, they also need to be taught, but they have greatly facilitated the understanding between people and electronics. Unfortunately, polysemous, although more familiar, natural languages ​​are not at all suitable for implementing this function.

Examples

Again, there is simply no point in talking about natural languages; linguistics has been studying them for a very long time and has made quite a lot of progress in this. At the same time, researchers avoid the category of formal. Only recently, when they became very relevant, did the first scientific works based on them, theories and clear examples. Formal languages ​​are created artificially and are usually international in nature. They can be either highly specialized or understandable to everyone, or at least to the majority.

Perhaps the simplest example is musical notation. There is an alphabet, punctuation rules, etc. This is really a language, although from some points of view it can only be equated to sign systems.

Of course, this also includes the already mentioned mathematics, the rules of recording in which are extremely strict. Everything can also be conditionally classified into this category. Finally, there are programming languages. And it’s probably worth talking about them in more detail.

Usage

What pushes forward the development and study of formal languages ​​is, of course, technological progress. Computer systems, electronic devices - today almost every thing is a computer in miniature. And if they only understand, then people usually perceive only natural languages. Examples in various ways and attempts to find some kind of compromise ended with the idea of ​​​​creating an intermediate communication system. Over time, quite a lot of them appeared. So today programming is actually from computer to human and vice versa.

But people continue to use natural ones, examples of which show that too loose rules of grammar and syntax make it seriously difficult for computers to interpret statements. It is unlikely that linguistic evolution will reach a serious tightening. So one of the most promising areas is natural language understanding systems. They will allow machines to process queries that are written without special rules. The first step towards this technology was probably search engines. They are still developing now, so perhaps the future is already near.

LANGUAGE (natural) LANGUAGE (natural)

LANGUAGE (natural language), stored in the human mind a complex system rules in accordance with which speech activity occurs, i.e. generation and understanding of texts. Every text is a (material) object that conveys (immaterial) meaning. Meaning arises in a person’s mind, but, as is known, cannot be directly accessible to another person: there is no way to penetrate the thoughts of other people, since they are not material, i.e. cannot be perceived by any of our senses. Language is precisely the means of “materializing” thoughts: turning into texts, receiving a material “shell” (or linguistic substance), thoughts become accessible to perception and can be understood by another person. Thus, we can say, in the most general terms, that language is a way of embodying immaterial thoughts into material substance, “coding” them using material symbols (or “signs”), as well as a way of “decoding” thoughts from this substance. The main substance for natural language texts is sound: these are air vibrations perceived by the organs of hearing; graphic substance (texts perceived visually) is secondary. Various systems translation of sound substance into more durable graphic (graphics (cm. GRAPHICS (in linguistics)), or writing (cm. WRITING)) are playing important role in the culture of mankind, but they have not been developed and exist for all natural languages. Every substance is linear: it arises and exists in time, some elements earlier, others later. Thought in general case not linear; Therefore, the transition from meaning to text is a complex process and can influence the thinking process itself.
“Encoding” and “decoding” messages are the two main types of human speech activity, known as speaking And understanding, otherwise generation and correspondingly, perception texts. Full command of the language presupposes the ability to successfully carry out both of these types of speech activity; the ability to generate texts is usually called active competence native speaker (who in this case acts as a speaker), and the ability to understand texts constructed by another native speaker is passive competence native speaker (who in this case acts as the addressee of the message).
Apart from speaking and understanding, i.e. communication, language can perform other important functions, of which, first of all, the function of thinking and the function of storing information should be noted. Even in the absence of a direct addressee, a person thinks with the help of language; Extra-linguistic (so-called non-verbal) thinking, even if possible (psychologists argue about this), in any case does not play a central role in the human psyche. Thanks to language, people can not only communicate with each other, but also create new knowledge and pass it on to their descendants, overcoming the limitations of space and time.
Language (and verbal thinking) is the most important feature of humans as a biological species; debates about the presence in animals (especially in higher primates, dolphins, etc.) of systems similar to human language continue, but, apparently, no other systems are comparable in complexity to natural language biological species There are still no people inhabiting the Earth. It is language that makes a person human. On the other hand, as already mentioned, language is most likely not a simple “tool of thought”: the structures of language themselves can have a certain influence on thinking. In linguistics, for several centuries, the hypothesis about the possible dependence of forms of thinking on a particular language, about “nationally specific” ways of perceiving the world and expressing meanings has been actively discussed. The most radical form of this hypothesis (now rejected by most experts) in the 20th century was expressed by the American researcher of Indian languages ​​B. L. Whorf (who did not have a special linguistic education), however, certain observations about the two-way connection between language and thinking have been and continue to be made by many scientists.
All three concepts listed at the beginning of the article, i.e. language, text and speech activity are equally important for understanding the nature of natural language and are equally studied by the science of language - linguistics (cm. LINGUISTICS), or (theoretical) linguistics. At the same time, language itself, as information stored in the human mind, is intangible and not directly accessible to observation, while speech activity and texts are material and can be accessible to observation. Using a simplified metaphor, language can be equated to instructions for assembling some complex device (for example, a car or a computer); in this case, the analogue of speech activity turns out to be the “assembly process”, and the analogue of texts is the “devices” themselves, assembled in accordance with the “instructions”.
Nevertheless, the main task of theoretical linguistics is precisely the description of natural language, i.e. explication of the rules for constructing texts. But since natural language is not accessible to direct observation, linguistics reconstructs language rules based on the study of speech activity and texts. This position of linguistics is fundamentally different from the position of many other sciences (especially natural ones), in which the objects of description and analysis are material and, as a rule, directly accessible to observation and experimentation. It is usually said that sciences whose objects are inaccessible to direct observation are engaged in “modeling” of these objects, i.e. creating objects that can perform the same function as the modeled prototype. A language model is a complete dictionary and grammatical description of this language; It is assumed that the use of this model will make it possible to construct and understand texts in the corresponding language with the same efficiency as a native speaker. Modern descriptions of the world's languages ​​cannot yet be considered fully adequate to this task, which is not surprising, since the task itself for scientific knowledge of the world is unique.
Developing the metaphor proposed above, we can say that a linguist is like a person who, having nothing at his disposal except ready-made samples assembled cars, must understand the operating principle of the car and write instructions for assembling it. A linguist analyzes texts and reconstructs the language of these texts, that is, the system of rules by which the texts are constructed. This is a task of very great complexity, connected not only with the study of the unconscious mental processes and with the study of human physiology, but also with the study of human society, its culture and history. The boundaries between the study of language and the study of the psyche on the one hand, and between the study of language and the study of culture on the other hand, are vague and blurred; The trend in the development of modern linguistics is to continuously expand these boundaries and increase the amount of information necessary to build adequate models of language. It should also be remembered that linguistics, in its problems, also comes into contact with semiotics (cm. SEMIOTICS (science of information transmission)), which studies the features of any sign systems in human society (among which language, apparently, is the main and most complex structure).
To understand the specifics of a linguist’s work, it is also important that an “ordinary” native speaker, although fluent in his or her language, cannot help a language researcher in solving his problems. The use of language is generally unconscious: a person knows how to speak in the same way as he knows how to walk or breathe - due to innate skills; the native language is not taught in the same way as, for example, learning to play chess or drive a car. Therefore, a native speaker cannot explain either why he expresses his thoughts in one and not another linguistic way, much less how his native language is structured (what grammatical categories are in it, rules of syntax, etc.): native speaker knows how to use language, but is not aware of how he does it. The only question that a native speaker can answer is the question of “is it possible to say that,” i.e. is it possible on it native language express a certain meaning using a certain text. The extremely non-trivial task of extracting language rules from the subconscious of speakers can only be performed by a professional linguist.
For speakers, the process of acquiring their first or native language occurs in childhood and is quite complex and little studied. The ability to use language (called language ability or linguistic competence) is an important feature human psyche and is, generally speaking, innate in humans. This ability is activated literally from the first days of a child’s life: perceiving texts addressed to him, the child gradually (and unconsciously) discovers the rules of the language by which they are constructed, and begins to construct texts on his own - at first imperfect, then more and more close to that norm , which is accepted in a given language community. A child’s speech activity becomes full on average by about 5-7 years. But if in early age a child, for one reason or another, finds himself isolated from the natural language environment, then his language ability dies off and is subsequently never restored (this, in particular, is confirmed by the phenomenon of the so-called “Mowgli children”, who grew up outside human society and came to people already in a relatively adult state: in all cases known to science, they could not master human speech).
The language ability of an adult is also more or less muted: it is well known that acquiring a second language is not a matter of childhood in most cases, it is associated with great difficulties, and knowledge of a second language, as a rule, cannot be compared with knowledge of the first, or native (that is, acquired “naturally” in early childhood).
Until now we have used the word “language” in the singular, as if all representatives of humanity had the same language. It is well known that this is not so: the methods of transition from meaning to text are different among different human groups (sometimes radically different). In this sense, linguists talk about the different languages ​​of mankind, or the languages ​​of the world. the world" s languages, French les langues du monde and so on.). IN modern world There are about 7 thousand different living languages. It is impossible to indicate the exact number of living languages, since in many cases (especially in the absence of a written norm) the boundary between different languages ​​and dialects of the same language is not obvious. In addition, one should take into account the fact that there are areas on the globe that have not yet been satisfactorily surveyed linguistically: it is not known for certain what languages ​​the peoples living there speak, or even exactly how many languages ​​there are there. Such areas primarily include New Guinea and the Amazon basin, as well as some inaccessible areas of Tropical Africa.
Nevertheless, despite the large (often very large) differences between individual languages, there is also much in common in the structure of all the languages ​​of the world. For theoretical linguistics, both these differences and this commonality are equally important; in this sense, we can say that theoretical linguistics studies not only and not so much specific natural languages, but language homo sapiens(i.e. the amount general properties all human languages). There is a special branch of linguistics that specifically deals with the boundaries of diversity in natural languages: this linguistic typology, the task of which is to establish “what can be and what cannot be” in natural language, i.e. language learning variability. For linguistic typology great importance has the preparation of complete modern scientific descriptions of all existing languages ​​of the world - a task that is currently still very far from a final solution. Its solution is also made difficult by the fact that the number of living languages ​​in the world is rapidly declining: at present, there is a constant decrease in the number of speakers of small languages ​​in favor of large and so-called “world” languages, which are spoken by the vast majority of the world’s population, to world languages ​​with With a population of more than 100 million speakers, it is customary to include, first of all, Chinese, English and Spanish, as well as Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian and Japanese. It is known that there are about 350 major languages ​​with more than 1 million speakers in the world - this is only 5% of the world's languages, but these languages ​​are spoken by 94% of the world's population. Accordingly, the remaining 6% of humanity speaks 95% of existing languages ​​(many of them have only a few hundred or even a few dozen speakers).
The decrease in linguistic diversity has objective socio-economic reasons related to the processes of globalization in the modern world, rapid technological progress and the growing need for international communication; It is difficult to evaluate this process as an unambiguous evil or an unambiguous good. However, from the point of view of humanities (not only linguistics, but also ethnography, history, cultural studies and other sciences), the sharp reduction in the number of living languages ​​over the life of the last few generations of people is a clearly negative process. Since each language as a system for expressing meanings is unique and inimitable, with the disappearance of each language, some significant part of information about the world, about the past and present of humanity is irreplaceably lost. Preserving the linguistic diversity of the Earth (as far as possible) and recording still existing languages ​​as completely as possible is one of the most important general humanitarian tasks of modern linguistics; this task is as important as, for example, the task of saving endangered species of animals and plants. Preserving the linguistic diversity of the world, of course, goes beyond the scope of one particular science, but modern mass consciousness, it seems, has not yet fully grasped the importance and globality of this problem.
Language structure
In terms of structure, the languages ​​of the world, as already mentioned, have much in common. First of all, this concerns the principles of organizing language rules and the principles of constructing texts. Any text in any natural language has a complex structure: it is non-elementary in the sense that it consists of repeating elements; these elements themselves may, in turn, consist of other, more simple elements and so on. The number of texts in any living language can be as large as desired: language allows you to express and communicate to your interlocutor any meaning - both standardly reproduced in human communication many times, and completely new ones. Number structural elements, of which texts are composed, of course, but at the same time the number of complex elements is tens and hundreds of times greater than the number of the simplest elements. The ability to identify classes of repeating units in a text, which, in turn, consist of other, simpler units, is called the basic constructive principle of language, and a collection of such units of the same degree of complexity is traditionally called level language. The level structure is characteristic of all natural languages ​​and makes it possible to describe their properties using the so-called level models that underlie all modern grammatical descriptions.
Usually the following levels are distinguished: the level of texts (or discursive (cm. DISCURSIVE)), sentence and phrase level (or syntactic (cm. SYNTAX)), the level of words and their significant parts - morphemes (or morphological (cm. MORPHOLOGY (in linguistics))), sound level (or phonological (cm. PHONOLOGY)). It is also possible to have language models in which the number of levels is greater or less than the list above. The most universal are the “extreme” levels of the model, i.e. phonological and discourse. In any language there are texts - and in any language there are elementary structural units - sounds, the differences between which are significant, i.e. replacing one sound with another affects the meaning of the linguistic unit. Such sounds are usually called phonemes (cm. PHONEME). For example, Russian voiceless and voiced consonants are different phonemes, since, for example, units like fence And hAsince then are different Russian words. Phonemes distinguish meaningful units of language, but do not themselves have meaning; A phoneme is the minimum meaningful unit of language. On average, there are only a few dozen such units in a natural language (some languages ​​of Oceania are the poorest in phonemes, with only about 20 different sounds; some languages ​​are the richest South Africa, Caucasus and North America, in which the number of phonemes can exceed 100).
Minimum linguistic unit, which has an independent meaning (or “minimum meaningful unit”) is usually called a morpheme (cm. MORPHEME). So, the Russian verb form behindsang consists of 6 phonemes, conveyed in this case by 6 letters of the Russian alphabet, and 4 morphemes: prefixes behind- with the meaning of the beginning of the action, the root - pe-, past tense suffix - l- and suffix (or, in traditional terminology, “ending”) singular. number of wives kind - A.
In languages ​​like Russian, morphemes are combined into words (or, more precisely, word forms (cm. WORD FORM)) and in a sense do not exist outside of words. Word forms are rigid complexes of morphemes, which in general do not allow either the separation of a morpheme by another word or the rearrangement of morphemes within a word; in addition, it is entire word forms (and not individual morphemes) that participate in the formation of the structure of the next level, syntactic: sentences and phrases in languages ​​like Russian are built precisely from word forms, and not from individual morphemes. However, this is not the case in all languages: in many languages ​​of Southeast Asia, West Africa and other areas, objects similar to Russian words are practically absent. In such languages ​​(often called isolating languages) (cm. ISOLATING LANGUAGES)) almost every morpheme can behave like a word (or, if you prefer, almost every word consists of only one morpheme).
Languages ​​with well-defined word forms (such as Russian) have another important feature. Morphemes within a word form are heterogeneous in their meaning and in their properties. Extensive class stands out root morphemes (each word has at least one root) and a relatively small class of affixes (cm. AFFIX) morphemes (modifying the meaning of the root), which may not be present in the word. On the other hand, morphemes are divided into grammatical And ungrammatical: grammatical morphemes express enough abstract meanings from some small class(“categories”) such that the expression of one element of each category is obligatory. Thus, the Russian verb in the personal form requires the obligatory expression of the category of tense, in the past tense form - the obligatory expression of the gender and number of the subject (and in English language in the past tense neither the gender nor, in most cases, the number of the subject grammatical means not expressed). Set and methods of expression grammatical meanings constitute one of the most important parameters of the uniqueness of each natural language. At the same time, the very existence of grammatical indicators is not a universal - in isolating languages ​​of “real” grammatical categories Hardly ever.
In synthetic languages (cm. SYNTHETIC LANGUAGES) grammatical indicators are expressed mainly by affixes, in analytical (cm. ANALYTICAL LANGUAGES)- mostly function words (as in English, French, many languages ​​of Oceania, etc.). Thus, both analytic and isolating languages ​​have - by virtue of various reasons- reduced morphological level, but heavily loaded syntactic level: for the grammatical models of these languages, syntactic rules are more important.
A complete description of any language, however, includes two components: grammar (cm. GRAMMAR), taking into account general rules construction of units of all levels, and vocabulary, (cm. DICTIONARY) which describes the individual properties of words - their lexical meaning and individual characteristics behavior in the text in combination with other words. All this gigantic information is stored in the minds of native speakers and is used to construct and understand texts.
Language change over time and genetic relatedness of languages

In addition to level organization and linearity, natural language has another fundamental property: it continuously changes over time. The speech of each person throughout his life does not remain unchanged, but the main changes occur during the transmission of language from children to parents, during which the language system can be acquired with distortions. All such changes, however, are gradual and become noticeable over long time intervals. Typically, at least 200-400 years must pass before changes in the pronunciation of sounds, the meaning of individual words and the use of grammatical forms begin to accumulate and make the language of the ancestors partially or completely incomprehensible to descendants. Of course, some events in the history of a people can accelerate language changes (usually wars, conquests, a powerful influx of foreign ethnic elements and other external influences on the language), or they can slow down this process (for example, ethnic isolation and lack of external contacts); but in any case it is impossible to completely stop language changes
The tendency of language to change over time has far-reaching consequences. Firstly, it impedes the maintenance of cultural continuity: after all, over time, texts written in any language cease to be understandable to descendants. On the other hand, it was the threat of loss of important (often sacred) texts in ancient languages ​​that stood at the origins of the earliest linguistic knowledge: it was possible to preserve the meaning and sound of ancient texts only through a conscious study of the properties of human language; Thus, linguistic traditions arose in Ancient India, V Ancient Greece, in the Arab world and other regions.
Secondly, language variability underlies the formation of families and groups of related languages. If different parts of a once united people lose contact with each other, then changes in the languages ​​of each group go in different directions. As a result, a single language after several centuries breaks up first into close dialects, and then into more and more divergent dialects. independent languages, up to the complete loss of any similarity. Languages ​​that arose from a common ancestor language through such gradual divergence are called related, and associations of related languages ​​are called groups and families. (cm. FAMILY OF LANGUAGES)(the term “family” implies a deeper relationship and a more distant moment of disintegration of the descendant languages ​​or groups thereof included in the family). So, after the collapse of the united Latin language On the territory of Europe, separate languages ​​of the Romance group were formed (cm. ROMAN LANGUAGES)– Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Romanian and a number of others. This process is attested in detail by numerous historical documents and written monuments.
The problem of the relationship of languages ​​becomes particularly complex, however, in those cases (and these are the majority) when the history of the peoples being studied is precisely unknown to us. In linguistics there are strict methods definitions of the kinship of languages ​​(discovered and developed mainly during the 19th century, within the framework of the so-called comparative historical linguistics (cm. COMPARATIVE HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS)); they are based on the fact that the similarities between the phonetic appearance of words with similar meanings in related languages are not random, but are based on regular correspondences. To determine linguistic kinship, one should, of course, use not just any words, but the most primordial ones; Comparison of grammatical indicators is even more reliable - this allows you to almost completely eliminate the possibility of borrowing. Traditional methods of comparative historical linguistics make it possible to discover the kinship of languages ​​going back several thousand years; This is the date of divergence of the most reliably established families of modern languages ​​- Indo-European, Uralic, Austronesian, Afroasiatic, Kartvelian, Dravidian, etc. Currently, experts are actively developing methods of penetrating into a deeper past; in the long term, these methods may be able to provide a new look at the problem of the origin of human language, which currently does not yet have a solution in science.
V.A. Plungyan

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