LANGUAGE AS A SYSTEM &

STRUCTURE
Lecture 1
 Plan of the lecture
• The history of a systematic approach
• The concepts of System and Structure
• Saussure’s ideas about language.
• The concepts of System and Structure in linguistics.
• Double articulation of language.
• Language as a system of systems. The basic units.
• Hierarchy in language structure.
• Isomorphism.
• Synchrony - diachrony; paradigm - syntagma
• Semantic derivation.
 History of a systematic approach

• Religious
• Metaphysical
• Mechanical
• Systemic and structural
( XVIII-XIX)
• Digital and quant
XX century

Systematic and structural approach

is widely applied natural and social.

Repeated experiment

General theory of systems

Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud

langue – parole – discours

In the frames of this theory the following
statements have been formulated:
• System = integrity of mutually correlated
elements.
• Complex systems are emerging. System can
not be reduced to the sum of its elements.
• System is adaptable, i.e. property to adapt to
the kind of environment where it functions.
• System is organized: it changes its structure in
the most appropriate manner.
 "Course in General Linguistics" Ferdinand
de Saussure (1916)
•
gives full and consistent understanding of
the language’s essence as a systemic,
structurally organized phenomenon
 The concepts of system and structure
as key-words for the linguistics

• Terms system (from Old Greek

σύστημα – ‘unity combined of some
parts') and structure (from Latin
strūctūra – ‘construction',
‘disposition', ‘order’) are key words
in the XX century.
 Typology of systems
Systems :
• material/ abstract
• open and closed;
• dynamic and static;
• Homogeneous/ heterogeneous
 Ferdinand de Saussure on language

• "... It is a sign system, where the only essential

thing is a combination of the acoustic image
with the content, and these two parts of the
sign are both of ideal nature."
• System of differences (system of lingual
values) in any language is very important.
• "language has nothing but oppositions“).
• Notion of opposition us a prototype for the
concept of language structure
 VALUE
• La valeur
• «… value of each element is determined
only by the simultaneous presence of
others»
 Lexical values
• Synonyms limit values through systemic
oppositions: redouter «to be afraid», craindre
«to fear», avoir peur «to get frightened»
• In the case of the disappearance of the word
redouter from the vocabulary its content
would go over to the other synonyms
 Grammar Values
• Plural in French differs from plural in
Sanskrit.
• Sanskrit has three categories of the
number: singular, dual and plural
instead of only two – singular and
plural as in French
 Inflectional values
• Ancient Chinese and Hebrew do not
distinction among past, present and
future times
• Teutonic language had not grammatical
form for the future time;
• Slavic languages the verb aspect, not
typical for the Western European
languages
 Associative relations
• The main means of “la valeur” realization are
paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations.
• Language system could be seen only in terms
of the synchronic approach, i.e. in a certain
moment of its existence, in the frames of
which everything is based on the relations or,
in Saussure's words, on oppositions
 Paradigmatic relations
• Three types of associative
relations:
• 1) on the form;
• 2) on the content;
• 3) on form and content
 Syntagmatic relationship
• The combination of elements in a line
=syntagmas.
• He understood syntagmas as combination of
two or more consecutive units : re-lire, contre
tous, la vie humaine, s’il fait beau temps, nous
sortirons.
 Syntagmatic relationship
• characterize linear textual
relations, which are being
established among different
language units in horizontal
dimension
 TYPES OF ANALYSIS
• A syntagmatic • paradigmatic
relationship involves a analysis focuses on
sequence of signs that the selection of units
together create of language, whereas
meaning. syntagmatic analysis
• A paradigmatic looks broadly at how
relationship involves the units are chained
signs that can replace together into a
each other, usually discourse.
changing the meaning
with the substitution
System and Structure in Linguistics
• The notions of system and structure are
mutually defined: the object might be seen as
the integrity of its elements (synthetic
systematic approach); on the other hand, it
might be seen through the set of connections
and relationships among its integral parts, i.e.
its elements (analytical structural approach).
• Structure - is the attribute of the system
 Academician O. Melnychuk
(1921–1997)
• “The system is a set of interrelated and
interdependent elements forming a complex
unity seen from the side of its elements, its
parts; the structure is the composition and
internal organization of a whole, regarded
from the integral point of view”
• «Поняття системи і структури мови у
світлі діалектичного матеріалізму» (1970)
 Double articulation
• Double articulation was worked out by French linguist A.
Martine. It is significant feature of the natural language.
• In the result of the first division of language such units as
sentence syntagmas, words, morphemes are separated).
These units are meaningful.
• In the result of the second division of language such entities
as phonemes, syllables as non-meaningful units of the
language stand out.
• But the last ones differentiate the meaning of the
units of the first language division
 Double Articulation
• The notion of double articulation of
language is related primarily to the
division of the language material
exposition (план вираження мови) and
demonstrates the mechanism of
correlation between the meaningful
elements of the language and its non-
meaningful elements
А. Martine (1908 – 1999)
 Language as a system of system
• Language is a system of units which belong to
different language levels and are interconnected in
the regular way in horizontal dimension (phoneme
and phoneme, morpheme and morpheme, word and
word, etc.) and in vertical dimension (phoneme and
morpheme, morpheme and word, word and
sentence, etc).
• The fundamental principle of language organization
is the principle of inclusiveness
 Language levels
(systems, stratums)

• MAIN:
• Phonetic system (subsystems: phonological,
syllabic, prosodic; units correspondingly:
phoneme, syllable, prosodeme)
• Semantic system (morphological, lexical; units
correspondingly: morpheme, word= lexeme)
• Syntactic system (unit scheme=construction)
 Secondary systems

• Morphonology – no separate
unit
• Phraseology – no separate unit
Theory of isomorphism of lingual elements

• Polish linguist Jerzy Kurilovich proves the

absence of essential differences among
different levels of language
• Syllable and Sentence
 What is phonetics?
• Phonetics (from Old Greek φωνητικόσ - 'sound,
voice', from φωνή - 'sound, voice') is a science
about the sound structure of the language.
• 1) general studies the general theoretical
aspects of human language, phonetic
universals (in the languages of the world there
are at least 3 vowels (i, u, a)
• 2) separate describes the phonetic system of a
certain language
 What is grammar?
• Is the set of structural rules governing
the composition of clauses, phrases,
and words in any given natural language.
And the name of the discipline which
studies them.
• Since grammar is quite complex, it’s been
divided into morphology and syntax.
 What is morphology ?
• It is the study of words’ formation, their
relationship to other words in the same
language. It analyzes the structure of words
and parts of words, such as stems, roots,
prefixes, suffixes. Morphology also looks
at parts of speech.
 What is syntax?
• It is the set of rules, principles, and processes
that govern the structure of sentences in a
given language. The term syntax is also used
to refer to the study of such principles and
processes.
• The goal of many researchers is to discover
the syntactic rules common for all languages
(N. Chomsky).
 Questions to the topic:
• 1. When systematic and structural approaches in the science
were formed?
• 2. What can you say about general theory of systems?
• 3. What statements have been formulated in the frames of
this theory?
• 4. How integrity of any system is formed?
• 5. What is adaptability?
• 6. What is self-organization?
 Questions:
• 8. Who gave a full and consistent understanding of the language’s essence as
a systemic, structurally organized phenomenon?
• 9. What types of systems might be outlined?
• 10. In what exact words the principle of language systemic organization was
formulated by F. de Saussure?
• 11. Why notion of opposition might be considered as a kind of prototype for the
later concept of language structure?
• 12. Give your understanding of the term “la valeur”.
• 13. Give your examples of lexical values, grammar values, inflectional values.
• 14. What kind of “la valeur” realizations is called associative (paradigmatic)
relations / syntagmatic relations?
• 15. Why, to your mind, language system could be seen only in synchrony?
• 16. Name please three types of associative relations.
• 17. What is syntagma according to F. de Saussure.
• 18. What reasons gives us ground to state, that notions of system and structure
might be mutually defined?
 Questions:
• 19. What kind of definition did academician O. Melnychuk give to system and strucutre?
• 20. What French scholar formulated the doctrine of double articulation?
• 21. What entities appear in the result of the first division of language ? Are they
meaningful?
• 22. What entities appear in the result of the second division of language ? Are they
meaningful?
• 23. Has the notion of double articulation of language any relation to the division of
language material exposition?
• 24. Why do we consider any language to be a system of systems?
• 25. In what way do you understand the principle of inclusiveness ?
• 26. What language levels (systems, stratums) could be outlined?
• 27. Name, please, the main systems of the language.
• 28. Name, please, the secondary systems of the language.
• 29. What is morphology?
• 30. What is phonology?
• 31. What is syntax?
 Questions:
• 19. What kind of definition did academician O. Melnychuk give to system and strucutre?
• 20. What French scholar formulated the doctrine of double articulation?
• 21. What entities appear in the result of the first division of language ? Are they
meaningful?
• 22. What entities appear in the result of the second division of language ? Are they
meaningful?
• 23. Has the notion of double articulation of language any relation to the division of
language material exposition?
• 24. Why do we consider any language to be a system of systems?
• 25. In what way do you understand the principle of inclusiveness ?
• 26. What language levels (systems, stratums) could be outlined?
• 27. Name, please, the main systems of the language.
• 28. Name, please, the secondary systems of the language.
• 29. What is morphology?
• 30. What is phonetics?
• 31. What is syntax?
 Literature
• Beaken, V. (2011)The Making of Language (2-nd edition)
Dunedin Academic Press.
• Brown, and S. Attardo (2005) Understanding Language
Structure, Interaction, and Variation (2nd edition) Univesity of
Michigan Press.
• Crystal, D. (2003) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English
Language (2 nd edition) Cambridge University Press.
• Taylor, J. (2003) Linguistic Categorization (3rd edition) Oxford
University Press.
• Tomasello, M. (2003) Constructing a Language Harvard
University Press.