Lecture 3. Appearance of Linguistics

Lecture 3. Appearance of Linguistics

1. 
   The History of Linguistics
   
2. 
   Philology of Classical Antiquity
   
3. 
   Linguistics of Middle Ages and the Renaissance
   
4. 
   Linguistics of the XVII-XVIII centuries
   
5. 
   Linguistics of the XIX century
   
6. 
   The Development of Linguistics in Moldova
   
7. 
   Aspects and Schools of the Modern Linguistics
   

The stage from the antique philology to the linguistics of the XVIII century is the biggest one; the linguistics knowledge was stored slowly and gradually.

The first stage in the development of linguistics is divided into three periods:

1. 
   Philology of Classical Antiquity.
   
2. 
   Linguistics of Middle Ages and Renaissance.
   
3. 
   Linguistics of the XVII-XVIII centuries.
   

Every philologist must know some knowledge of the history of linguistics. Many of the ideas about language will seem less obviously self-evident if one knows something of their historical origin. This is true because "as Bloomfield has remarked of the common-sense way of dealing with linguistic matters, … much derives from the speculations of ancient and medieval philosophers". The history of linguistics is of interest today because linguistics is built on the past.

From the past, we find out that all languages manifest the same "parts of speech". The traditional theory of "the parts of speech" and the standard definitions of classical grammar reflect ancient and medieval attempts to force together the categories of grammar, logic and metaphysics. Other commonly held views about language derive from the subordination of grammar to the task of interpreting texts written in Greek and Latin by the classical authors. The history of linguistics also challenges traditional doctrines by developing and reformulating them. As an aid to the understanding of the principles and assumptions governing modern linguistics the knowledge of the history of the subject has a positive, as well as a negative contribution to make.

The necessarily brief outline of the history of linguistics is intended primarily as an introduction to the present state of the subject.

In the 16^th century, the European school of linguistics absorbed the traditions of the Latin, Greek and Hebrew schools and, in the 17^th century, with the tradition as the basis, General Grammar was compiled, published in Paris in 1660 and based on materials from French, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. This grammar confronts the similarities existing among these languages, analyzing them by means of logical schemes.

Despite its many faults, General Grammar must be considered a manifestation of concern with certain problems reaching back into antiquity and leading, in turn, to the creation of the comparative linguistics. Jewish grammarians of the 10^th and 11^th centuries confirmed the affinity of the Hebrew, Arabic and Arameic languages, which constitute the nucleus of the Semitic language family. In the 16^th century, the notion of the Romance, Celtic, Germanic and Slavic language families was established.

In the 17^th century, the affinity of the Ural-Altaic languages was hypothesized. In the 18^th century, interest in linguistics developed in the entire world, a phenomenon which to a great extent can be credited to G.W. Leibnitz (1646-1716) who encouraged the study of living languages.

In 1786, William Jones discovered the affinity among Sanskrit, Greek and Latin, at the same time suggesting that the Gothic, Celtic and Old Persian languages also belong to this group. Thus, the concept of the Indo-European family of languages originated. In 1800-1805 in Madrid, L. Hervas published his "Catalogue of Languages and Nationalities" in which he compares the vocabulary of three hundred languages. He was the first to establish the affinity of the languages of the large Malayo-Polynesian family. At the beginning of the 19^th century the Bantu Family in Africa, the Sino-Tibetan family in East Asia and the Dravidian family in India were discovered. The horizons of linguistics were immeasurably broadened; but this fact in itself is not what is most important to us.

People of the Ancient East and Asia had some elements of linguistics. The researches of the latest period demonstrate that elementary knowledge in the domain of linguistics have already appeared at ancient Egyptians, Hetts, Hits, Phinichians and other people of Ancient Babylon as a result of the appearance of writing and of the first schools for clerks. For example, some semantic determinants that divided the notional words from the formal ones (as a result of the lack of vowels) were used in the Ancient Egyptian consonant-ideographic writing.

Already in that period, there appeared such units of the language as the sentence, word, parts of the words. Ancient Egyptians composed glossaries of words for school necessities that had to be accurately written and remembered, that was the so-called "The Onomastikon of Ramsey" that contained words distributed according to the thematic groups: sorts of oils, corn, names of birds, animals, fruit, etc.

The myths and the philosophy of ancient Egyptians speak about their interests to the mysteries of the appearance of the language and writing. The creator and the author or writer and the defender of books was considered Tot, the God of the Wisdom and Moon.

In the Ancient Babylon the lexical and the grammatical knowledge of the Shumerian and Ackadian languages also were systematized in the process of teaching at schools. Writing, probably, stimulated the interest in the structure of the word relations with other words. There were created "philological" lists called "glossaries" in which there were met descriptions of the grammatical phenomena. The words were arranged in two columns: in one the Sumerian variant and in the other – the Ackadian.

In old Phinickia the phonemographic writing was considered to have appeared for the first time being developed from the syllabic one. The old Phinickian syllabogramms consisted of a consonant and a vowel, sometimes of two consonants and a vowel the last being considered later on as letters. It is supposed that the ancient Phinickians had also elements of the grammar theory, they distinguished 12 parts of speech, the Infinitive and even the Voice of the verb.

In the Chinese tradition as well as in other ancient grammars the problem of nomination was developed, also the relation between a thing and its nomination. It appeared on the basis of Confucius’s philosophy which considered that the name is not a conditional one, it must contain an indication to the properties of the thing and its designation. The word may also reflect the relation between the people. This theory also reflected the ancient belief in myths, the so-called "taboo".

In antiquity the term "grammar" differed from the nowadays understanding, grammar supposed a philological knowledge of texts and the art of rhetorics, it was the art to initially build and explain the hieroglyphic signs that could designate whole words and morphemes. Grammar was limited to the formation of the rules and principles of the hieroglyphic formation, their semantic analysis, study of their etymology. These aspects were included into the most important works – "Hierya", "Planyan", "Sloven Tsetsy", "Shymin", that became the basis of the main grammar schools in the Chinese philology.

2.3. Linguistics in Ancient India.

The earliest systematic investigation of language developed in India around 500 B.C. It was believed that the recitation of sacred hymns from the Vedas fulfilled their religious-magical function only when performed with absolute linguistic accuracy. Thus, the need arose for defining the rules of correct speech, and this became the stimulus to phonetic investigations.

In time phonetic observations led to the theoretical formulation of language problems. In the 5^th century B.C. in India, the sacred language, Sanskrit, disappeared from daily use, at the same time remaining as the vehicle for all intellectual life. Sanskrit had to be specially learned in order to facilitate such study, descriptive-normative grammars began to be compiled, describing not only how the language was in fact spoken. A synthesis of such compilations was worked out by Panini, who probably lived in the 4^th century B.C. and who included in his grammar nearly four thousand short rules to be memorized. In Sanskrit the word of grammar is "vyakarana", "division", "analysis" – which fact alone indicates that the main concern of grammar was the morphological analysis of the word, breaking it down into the smallest units possessing an independent meaning value, called morphemes. In his investigations into the nature of morphemes and their designating function, Panini outdistanced all his predecessors. The further development of grammar in India involved primarily popularizing Panini's work.

"Vedy" appeared before the VI century in Ancient India monuments of literature. Even nowadays they are the holy books of the Hinduism. The oldest "vede" – Rygveda, the hymn veda, contains 11028 highly artistic lyrical works written in different poetic dimensions. The language of Rygveda is a vedic language being a part of the worked out Sanskrit. It is a canonic normal literary written language of Brahmans (the religions servicemen), scientists, poets. The empirical and descriptive grammar was created in order to canonize Sanskrit. The first monuments of writing – "Rămăyna" and "Mahăbharata" existed for a long time orally.

The first works on etymology appeared, e.g. work of the scientist Yaska "Nirukta", also a special science "vyokarana" – grammar. This science was highly developed in Panini’s grammar (the second half of the V or IV centuries BC) which contained 8 sections of the grammar rules and 3996 poetic rules – sutras. The main principle of grammar was the analysis. In his first part Panini gives the terms and rules, in the second – the compound words and the case endings (seven cases, they have no names, he calls them in such an order – the first, second, third, etc.); the third part includes the first suffixes and the rules of their combination in words; in the 4^th and 5^th – the secondary non-verbal suffixes; in the 6^th and 7^th – the rules of the stress and phonetic modifications; in the 8^th the rules of the phonetic modification are given, the levels of the sound, word and morpheme are analysed. The ancient Indian grammars distinguish four parts of speech, they also established the first elements such as: the stem, the root and the endings.

The well-known American scientist L.Bloomfield remarks that "Panini’s grammar is one of the greatest monuments of the human mind". Panini’s ideas were developed in the works of Vararuchi, Chandragomin, Patandgali. The works of the Indian scientists influenced greatly the Chinese linguistics, then they penetrated into Ancient Greece, in the XI century they came to Arabia, and already in the XIII century to Europe. The comparative-historical linguistics developed due to the acquaintance of the Europeans with Sanskrit and the works of the Indian philologists.

Another center of language investigations in antiquity was Greece. In the 4^th and 5^th centuries B.C., Greek philosophers were concerned with the question of the relation of words to things. Two theories existed. One theory considered this relationship a natural one (physei), while the other theory considered it conventional (thesei). The first group were followers of HERACLITUS of Ephesus (540-480 B.C.), and the second of DEMOCRITUS of Abdera (460-370 B.C.).

Followers of the theory of natural connection between words and things understood words as the necessary reaction of human nature to feelings and sense impressions, as in coughing, screaming and moaning. Followers of the theory of conventional connection, on the other hand, claimed that there is no necessary connection between the form of the word and the thing to which it refers, but that chance alone gave a given thing its name, and that a contract of convention agreed upon by the members of society established these meanings as permanent. The dialogue of PLATO (428-348 B.C.), Cratylus, in which the author confronts both traditional theories, represented a step forward in the development of notions about language.

The formulation of EPICURUS (341-270 B.C.) constitutes the most important attempt in antiquity to reconcile these two theories. He distinguished two periods in the development of language – the first natural, and the second – conventional, the theory of Epicurus was not generally accepted. In antiquity, the conventional theory triumphed.

In the 5^th and 4^th centuries B.C., alongside the problem of the relation of words to things, the problem of the structure of words themselves emerged. Democritus, Plato and Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) developed the view that language is composed of indivisible sound units, devoid of meaning of their own, but capable of comprising meaningful series, i.e., words and sentences. Such a unit was called "stoikheion", "prime element", equivalent in meaning to our phoneme. According to Plato, human speech cannot be understood unless a definite number of individual "stoikheia" is distinguished in the infinitely indivisible stream of sounds produced by the human voice, and, at the same time, we cannot recognize a single "stoikheion" without recognizing them all.

In the second period of the development of Greek linguistics, in the 3^rd and 2^nd centuries B.C., the problems of the language were the concern primarily of the Alexandrian philologists – who confronted such problems in connection with the editing of classical Greek texts – and philosophers of the school of Stoicism in Athens, on Rhodes, and in Pergamon – who studied language within the framework of their broad notion of logic. Two schools of thought arose, the analogists and the anomalists. The Alexandrian philologists were adherents of the first school, while the Stoics were anomalists. The term "analogia", "proportionality" and "anomalia", "irregularity" come from mathematics and were introduced by the principal founder of the school of stoicism, Chrysippus of Soli (282-208 B.C.) for the solution of the grammatical-logical problems.

The Alexandrian analogists held the view that regularity prevails in language, as attested by the total agreement between logical and grammatical categories. According to the anomalists in many cases, grammatical and logical categories do not correspond to one another. The analogists understood language as a system of proportional relations, the anomalists, on the other hand, criticized the oversimplified concept of the analogists. The anomalists claimed that the given word ending always refer to certain conceptual categories. The anomalists contested this view by pointing out various exceptions. This, in turn, forced the analogists to define those classes of words in which the given endings are exponents of the given categories. Thus modified, the analogists theory gained general recognition.

In Greece, the first formulation of grammar was accomplished by Dionysius of Thrace (170-90 B.C.) around 100 B.C. in a work entitled "The Art of Grammar". His views were developed and supplemented by the greatest of Greek grammarians, Apollonius Dyscolos ("The Crabbed"), who lived in the first half of the second century A.D. In his principal work "On Syntax" he presented the foundations of Greek syntax.

The true concern of Greek grammatical investigations was the function of words in a sentence, a subject most thoroughly embodied in their theory of the parts of speech. The theory of parts of speech is based on three criteria. First, Apollonius presented the criterion of inflection, dividing words into non-inflected and further dividing the latter category into declension according to case and conjugation according to person. The remaining parts of speech were defined on the basis of a syntactic criterion, i.e. the rules governing their use in the sentence (adverb, preposition, conjunction), and on the basis of a semantic criterion, i.e. their meaning (e.g., onoma "name").

The tradition of the Greek school of grammar was carried on in Byzantium up until the middle of the 15^th century B.C. – and the Judeo-Arabic school – which flourished between the 7^th and the 12^th centuries A.D. owe their origin to the influence of the Greek school. Of these three medieval schools of grammar, the most vital was the Latin school. In 1568 the first Polish grammar was published by Piotr Statorius-Stojenski. Russian grammar, published by Lomonosov in 1755, was of critical significance to the development of literary Russian.

Ancient philosophy considers nature as a unique entity. The questions of linguistics were solved in two ways: philosophically and grammatically. Linguistics is closely connected with the study of epistemology, the debates between two theories concerning the origin of the language.

Ancient Greek tried to explain the origin of language from the philosophical point of view. The ancient philosophers thought that a word must have a meaning either by nature or by convention. Either there was something in the nature of the thing described that made one particular word the right for it, or there was no natural connection between the word and its meaning, and the thing was described by such a word only because a number of people agreed on this meaning. These two different philosophical points of view may be called the natural school (Greek phussei "by nature") and the conventional schools (Greek tessei "by convention). Pythagoras (about 571-491 B.C.) and Plato (427-347 B.C.) belonged to the natural school and held that language had come into being out of "inherent necessity" or "nature" which Plato called "spirit", while Democritus (about 460-370 B.C.) and Aristotel (384-322 B.C.) believed that language had arisen by "convention" or "agreement" and that words are mere symbols. They considered that no name existed by nature but only by becoming a symbol. A correct understanding of the essence of language depends upon one’s approach to the great fundamental question of philosophy as a whole. The basis of all schools of philosophy is connected with the relation between thought and existence, spirit and nature. Is our thinking capable of the cognition of the real world? Are we able in our ideas and notions of the real world to produce a correct reflection of reality?

The problem of the correlation of logics and grammar was put for the first time in the works of the greatest ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle who considered that the study about the parts of speech appeared in logics and oratory. There is a concept about the word, the parts of speech are distinguished as the elements of the sentence. The sentence is the combination of the name and the verb, these parts of speech have their own independent meaning. The verb differs from the name by the fact that has a tense and possesses predicativity. In his work "Poetics" Aristotle singles out 8 parts of speech: element (so to say sound), syllable, conjunction, article, noun, verb, case, sentence. Aristotle’s studies about the parts of speech have no grammatical meaning but they served as a stimulus for the creation of future grammars. But the final separation of grammar from philosophy and the canonization of the eight member system of the parts of speech is connected with the epoch of ellinism.

2.5. The System of the Alexandria’s Grammar

As the result of Alexander Macedonsky’s conquer the Greece culture and science spread on the Eastern Mediterranean, Asia and Black Sea. The cities Pergamon in Asia and Alexandria in Egypt had a special significance for the development of philology. Here the greatest deposits of the manuscripts – the libraries from Alexandria and Pergamon were created.

Pergamon philologists underline the anomaly of the language, i.e. the discrepancy between the word and thing. The philologists from Alexandria spoke about the role of analogy, i.e. the tendency to the uniformity of the grammatical forms.

The greatest representatives of that period were Aristarh Samofrakiisky, Dionisii Frakiisky and Apollonii Diskol (the second century B.C.), they were known by their works in the domain of syntax.

Aristarh distinguished 8 parts of speech: noun, verb, participle, article, pronoun, preposition, adverb, conjunction.

Roman philologists investigated the works of the Greek scientists, developed and described many scientific facts. Thanks to Roman philologists, Varron’s grammar of the Latin language, Donat’s grammar, Priscian’s "Learning of the Grammatical Art" – the works of Ancient Greeks became famous all over Europe. Even nowadays Greco-Roman terminology in grammar is used in the linguistics of many countries of the world.

The Arabian caliphate, created in 632 hold enormous areas in the northern Africa, Fore-Part of Asia, Transcaucasia, the Pireney peninsula. In order to reinforce their military state Arabs imposed to the people of the occupied territories their Islam religion and the Arab language as the scientific and official-administrative language. The Arab culture and science achieves specific flourishing in the VIII-XIII centuries when there appeared three main linguistic centres: Barsa, Kufe and Bagdad.

Although the Arab scientists had taken, something from the Indian and Greek philologists nevertheless there is much original material in the Arab linguistics. The Arab language differs from the languages of the Indo-European language. That was why the description of the linguistic phenomena required a new system of the grammatical concepts.

The first work of the Arab linguistics that is known up to now – "Al-Kitab" ("Book") Sibavaihi, which gives a wide and detailed description of the main aspects of the Arab language – phonetics, morphology, syntax, word formation. Highly developed are lexicology and lexicography. They distinguish words and dialects, borrowings, polysemy, synonyms, homonyms.

There appeared many dictionaries – defining dictionaries, multilingual dictionaries of synonyms etc. Very popular was the dictionary "Kamus" al-Firusabadi.

Mahmud al-Kashgari's well-known work "Divan lugat at-turc" takes a special place in the Arab linguistics of the Middle Ages. It contains the lexics of the Turkish languages, classification of these languages, data on their phonetics and grammar, history, geography, ethnography, poems, folklore of the Turkish people, even the most ancient map of the world in the Turkic language. This was, probably, the first investigation of such a kind in the world linguistics. Al-Kashgari for the first time used the comparative method in his work.

Middle Ages didn’t have any events in the development of linguistics. But in this period school appears, the first methods of teaching languages are created.

Latin is considered as the school of logical thinking. The rules and concepts of the Latin grammar were considered common to all languages and were introduced in the grammars of the new languages.

In the XI-XII centuries, there appears the opposition between the realists and nominalists. The realists (among them Anselim) considered that the general notions are real and they precede the things. The nominalists (Abelear and others) affirmed that only things are real with their individual qualities. Here it is necessary to maintain the works of Raimond Lulliu, Phoma Akvinsky who, to a great extent, prepared the basis for the so-called universal and rational grammars.

The chronological boundaries of Renaissance are between the XIV and XVI centuries for Italy; the end of the XV-XVI centuries – for other European countries. The destruction of feudalism and the appearance of capitalism began in this period, this signified the transition from the Middle Ages culture to the Modern one.

The representatives of Renaissance set reason and the forces of the man above all were leaning on the antique tradition of the Greek and Romans. The most famous works of the antique classics we are published and commented, especially the works of Julius Caesar Skaliger, Robert Stefanus and others.

The formation of the national languages required their study and the working out of the norms and rules of their application. There appeared many grammars of different languages, the translation of religious texts conditioned by the reform of the church contributing to this.

One of the first "advocates" of the Italian Renaissance in linguistics was the famous Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) – "the last poet of the Middle Ages and the first poet of Renaissance". He writes the treaty "De vulgari eloquentia" ("About the Expressivity of the People’s Language"), in which he defends the so-called "real languages in contrast to Latin "an artificial" language.

We can follow later elements of the culture of Renaissance, views on the philosophy and development of the language and science in general in the works of the Moldovan scientists Miron Costin and Dmitry Cantemir.

The geographical discoveries of the XV century, conditioned by the development of commerce, travels of the XVI-XVII centuries allowed to discover many new languages. There were formed new people and nations, new literary-written languages; bookprinting appeared, education, art and science have been developing. This period was later on named the Age of Enlightenment. These new phenomena required not only the description but also the interference of the people into the language processes that took place before the writers, philologists, poets.

Great multilingual dictionaries appeared. The first dictionary-catalogue appeared in St.Petersburg, this was the work of the traveler and the naturalist A.S.Palas "The Comparative Dictionaries of All the Languages and Idioms" (1787-1789). The problem of the origin of the language is put as the problem of the history of the people. The philosophers and linguists began to look for the causes of the language origin. The most significant works: "Reasoning about the Beginning and the Basis of the Inequality among the People" (1755) and "The Experience of the Origin of Languages" (1761) written by J.J.Russo and "Investigations about the Origin of the Language" (1776) by Johann Gerder. There are attempts to connect the history of the language with the history of the human society, the language of Gods – tribal system, the language of the heroes – feudal system, the language of the people – precapitalist system.

There came an idea to create a universal grammar. In 1666 logician A.Arno and the linguist K.Lanselo (French scientists) published "The Universal Rational Grammar" which together with the work "Logics or the Art of Thinking" of A.Arno and P.Nickolea got the name of grammar and logics of Por-Royal (the name comes from the monastery of Por-Royal in the suburbs of Paris where these works were published). They greatly influenced the development of the grammatical theory. The Por-Royal Grammar, a logico-typological grammar, was created on the materials of ancient Greek, ancient Hebrew, Latin and French languages. Its creators tried to formulate a number of principles and rules on the basis of the comparison of these languages that can be applied to the understanding and research of different languages, i.e. to deduce the so-called universalies. The Por-Royal Grammar challenged great resonance in Europe, there appeared many similar works which brought to the creation of a new trend in linguistics, a logical one.

The comparative-historical linguistics and the comparative-historical method appeared in the first half of the XIX century. I.Dobrovocy, A.X.Vostokov and F.Mickloshich founded the bases of slavistics as the science of the Slavon languages and literatures, P.Rask, Ia.Grimm, F.Bopp created the basis of germanistics-science of the German languages and literatures.

The comparative grammar of the Indo-European languages was created in 1833-1849. F.Bopp edited his "Comparative Grammar of Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic and German Languages". In 1861-1862 "The Kompendium of the Comparative Grammar of the Indo-European Languages" of A.Shleicher appeared.

Historical grammars of different languages appeared simultaneously. In 1819-1837 Ia.Grimm’s "German Grammar" appeared in four volumes, in 1858 "The Experience of the Historical Grammar of the Russian Language" by F.I.Buslaev appeared.

The philosophy of language worked out by Wilhelm von Gumboldt influenced greatly the development of linguistics. W.von Gumboldt considered that language is the activity of the individual closely connected with the people’s conscience. He wrote: "The language of the people is its spirit, and the people’s spirit is its language".

The logical and psychological trend in linguistics is formed in the middle of the XIX century. It was reflected in the modern linguistics. Logical trend was formed earlier than the psychological one by the appearance of the "Universal Rational Grammar" written by A.Arno and K.Lanselo in France. The greatest representative of the logico-grammatical trend in Russia was F.I.Buslaev.

A significant role in the development of linguistics was played by the Leipzig school, the representatives of which were called young grammarians: K.Brugman, B.Delbruck, H.Paul, etc. The young grammarians contributed to the principles of historism and concreteness in linguistics. They considered that the subject of linguistics is the speaking man that was why linguistics had to be connected with psychology and culture. They introduced the concept of the internal laws of the language, learning laws of the language, learning the sound laws and learning of analogy They created semasiology and dialectology, contributed to the appearance of sociology.
6. The Development of Linguistics in Moldova

The first texts into the Romanian literary language date from the XVI century. In general these are translations of religious books, juridical documents, correspondence. In the XVII-XVIII centuries the Romanian culture is strongly attracted by the Russian and Polish culture. The representatives of this period are the chroniclers Varlaam and Dosoftey. At the same time the masters of Moldova also participate in the process of formation of the literary language: they actively correspond with other rulers of the epoch, codes of laws are created, the so-called "Regulations" or "Rules"; some of the researchers are engaged in the comparison of the language peculiarities of these documents from the period of Vasile Lupu (1645) and Mathei Basarab (1652). The creation of the first typographies with the help of the Kiev Metropolitan Peter Movila contributed to the spread of writing.

Especially well-known are the manuscripts of Grigore Ureche, Miron Costin, Ion Neculce which brought a new trend in the development of the written language and education in Moldova. Special and remarkable contribution was brought by Dmitry Cantemir, one of the enlighteners of Moldova who played a great role in the Moldovan culture like Peter the Great and M.V.Lomonosov in Russia. The chronicles in their works rose important problems such as the origin of the language, its roots and the diachronic development differentiated the mundane literature from the religious one, introduced elements of the lively language in the literary one, at the same time they enriched the Moldovan language by "scientific" borrowings from other languages, especially from the classical ones – Greek and Latin and also succeeded in literary composition.

In the XIX century attempts are taken to unify the grammatical rules and norms of the literary language, many dictionaries were created. A great number of neologisms appeared in the linguistic terminology. Due to the contribution and active participation of such scientists, publishers and writers as M. Cogîlniceanu, Al.Russo, C.Negruzzi, V.Alexandri, C.Stamati the active investigation of folklore and ancient manuscripts began, the people’s language becomes the basis for the development of the literary language. The XIX century becomes the time of flourishing of the talents of such famous writers as M.Eminescu, I.Creangă, I.L.Caradgiale who made a great contribution for the development of the literary language.

After the joining of Bessarabia to the Russian empire there were attempts to present two languages – Moldovan and Romanian. But very many well-known scientists confirmed their complete identity, considering that the Moldovan language is only a form of the Romanian literary language used in oral speech like a dialect.
7. Aspects and Schools of the Modern Linguistics

In the last third of the XIX – beginning of the XX centuries new linguistic schools were formed.

I.A.Baodouin de Curteney was the founder of the Kasan linguistic school, his followers were N.V.Krushevsky, B.A.Bogoroditsky, L.V.Shcherba, A.A.Potebnea. The Kasan linguistic school distinguished general linguistics in a special science, opposing the theoretical linguistics to the applied one.

F.F.Fortunatov, professor of the Moscow University founded the Moscow linguistic school. His followers were M.M.Pokrovsky, D.N.Ushakov, A.A.Shahmatov, A.M.Peshkovsky. They worked out the problems of the Indo-European phonetics and morphology as well as the history of the Russian language.

F. de Saussure, one of the greatest linguists of the world, was the creator of the Geneve linguistic school. He taught in Paris then in Geneve. His ideas were developed in the works of Sh.Bally, A.Meier, I.Vandries, E.Benveniste. F. de Saussure considered as most important the investigation of the language relations. Language was understood as a sign system.

In the 30-s of the XX century a new linguistic trend was formed – the structuralism. The leading schools of this trend were: 1) The Prague linguistic school founded by V.Matesius. This school was also called the functional school, its active scholars were N.S.Trubetskoy and R.O.Jakobson. 2) Yale’s school of American linguistics founded by L.Bloomfield. Its members considered the principal task of investigation to be the description of the language, that was why it was called the school of descriptive linguistics. 3) At the beginning of the 30-s the Copenhagen circle appeared. Its founder was L.Hjelmslev who investigated glossematics, i.e. the investigation of the functions and figures of the language.

The historical linguistics, its aspects are actively developing – Indoeuropean as well as Germanic and Slavonic linguistics. New directions are being worked out in linguistics: psychological, sociological, mathematical, engineering, areal linguistics.

The structure of the modern linguistics may be represented schematically in the following way:

1. 
   The Definition of Language
   
2. 
   The Philosophical Point of View on Language in Ancient Greece
   
3. 
   Non-Linguistic Means of Communication
   
4. 
   Pavlov’s System of Signals in Relation to Language
   

Language is at the heart of human life. Without it, many of our most important activities are inconceivable.

Interest in language, how it originated, how it works and develops, has existed from time immemorial. For a long time the word "language" was a general notion used to mean the entire communicative means of man. For many, this was the broadest way of regarding language. Language is a product of human society and can exist only in human society.

Language can be understood properly if it is studied in close connection with the history of human society. Language reflects the character, mentality and social activity of the people who use it.

Language is human and only human. The latest research has shown that some species of animals also communicate, but they do not talk in the sense in which we usually use this word. People can also use other means of communication, such as red lights, or flags, but these signs are interpreted into language. Language is the normal form and means of communication and it is determined by the social, economic and cultural history of the people speaking it.

Language is of social character by its origin. Many definitions of language have been made by different thinkers.

Here are some definitions of language that have been given by various scientists from several countries:

Hegel (1770-1831), the prominent German philosopher, said that "language is the art of theoretical intelligence in its true sense, for it is its outward expression."

F. de Saussure (1857-1913), the famous French linguist, defined language as "a system of signs expressing ideas".

E. Sapir (1884-1939), an outstanding American linguist, considered language "to be a purely human and non-instinctive-method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols".

The American linguist L. Bloomfield (1887-1949) stated that "language enabled one person to express a reaction to another's stimulus". He considered language in terms of behavioral patterns like walking, eating, etc. According to this approach, this set of patterns can remain unused for a long period of time and then be called into operation by an appropriate stimulus.

In defining language, everything depends on the investigator’s methodological starting-point and the aims with which he sets out.

All these definitions were influenced by various forms of idealistic philosophy.
2. The Philosophical Point of View on Language in Ancient Greece

The controversy in linguistics may be traced from ancient times when the first impulse to understand language came from the speculation of philosophers on questions involving language and its origin, and on the nature of language itself.

These two different philosophical points of view may be called the natural school (Greek phussei "by nature") and the conventional school (Greek tessei "by convention"). Idealistic philosophers of ancient Greece like Pythagoras (about 571-491 B.C.) and Plato (427-347 B.C.) belonged to the natural school and held that language had come into being out of "inherent necessity" or "nature", which Plato called "spirit", while Democritus (about 460-370 B.C.), and Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), believed that language had arisen by "convention" or "agreement" and that words are mere symbols. They considered that no name existed by nature but only by becoming a symbol. Their way of explaining the meaning of a word through arbitrary selection and acceptance was more materialistic because it showed people agreeing on name-giving conventions instead of appealing to an idealistic spirit.

A correct understanding of the essence of language depends upon one's approach to the great fundamental questions of philosophy as a whole. The basis of all schools of philosophy is connected with the relation between thought and existence, spirit and nature.

Materialism regards nature as primary and spirit as secondary; being is first and thinking second. Philosophical materialism asserts that thinking, consciousness, being secondary in their character, nevertheless exist in reality in the same way as different forms of movable matter.

From the point of view of dialectical materialism secondariness of spirit, thinking, consciousness and primariness of matter is manifested in the fact that thinking, being closely connected with material physiological processes, can occur and occurs only by and with the help of language.

Language is the most important means of human intercourse. This definition describes comprehensively the essential substance of language.

The question arises why language is the most important means of human communication. The answer will become clear if we analyse non-linguistic means of communication.

There are other means of transmitting the meaning. The transmission of meaning, the conveyance of significant concepts, may be realized not only by language, but also with sign-posts, the Morse code, gesture language and signal fires, and so on, i.e., by devices that have nothing to do either with spoken language or with its written counterpart. African natives, for example, use drums as a long-distance telephone. The same goes for the smoke signals of the American Indians.

Some non-linguistic forms of communication come close to spoken language. The whistling language used by the natives of Gomera, in the Canary Islands, who can communicate in it over very long distances (about six miles), is one of these.

Other kinds of non-linguistic means of communication come close to written language, and are supposed by some to have been its embryonic form. The "quipu", or "knots", used by the Peruvian Incas, for instance, had red ropes to symbolize soldiers, yellow ropes for gold, white ropes for silver, green ropes for grain, with a single knot signifying 10, two knots 20, a double knot 100, and so on. The messages conveyed by means of the "quipu" were so complicated that special officials called "quipucamayocuma", or "keeper of the knots" were appointed to interpret them.

A third important field of non/linguistic communication is gestures, which have no connection with either spoken or written language. Gestures accompany all our speech. American Indian plain tribes, for example, accompany language with gestures, strange to us, but quite intelligible to them: the hand, palm in, thumb up, is held just under the eyes to represent spying; a fist is clapped into a palm for a shot; two fingers imitate a man walking, and four the running of a horse. Some call this gesture language the "Esperanto" of the primitive world.

Gesticulation as an aid to spoken language is universally used by all human communities on Earth, but to different degrees and with different symbolic meanings. Differences in the meanings of gestures are often striking, and are governed by social convention. To the Russians, for instance, a downward nod of the head means "yes", and a shaking of the head from side to side, "no". On the other hand, the modern Czechs express "no" by a downward jerk of the head.

The question why the language of gestures did not become universal instead of spoken language may be explained by the fact that it occupies the hands, while spoken language leaves the hands free for other tasks; it also requires light and a clear view, while spoken language can be used in the dark and through obstacles.

All these means of communication (called "sign-systems" in modern foreign linguistics) differ from each other both in their material form (sign-posts, signal fires, painting and so on) and in their structures and functions. But they differ from language to even greater extent. Some modern foreign linguists, such as the Danish philologist L. Hjelmslev, do not acknowledge any difference between language and such signals as semaphore signs or the striking of a clock.

Some Russian linguists admit that there are common features between language and other sign-systems. These common features are the following:

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  they serve as a means of expression, conveying ideas or feelings;
  
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  they are of a social character, as they are created by society with a view to serving it;
  
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  they are material in essence though their material form is different (sound-waves, graphic schemes, the Morse code, and so on);
  
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  they all reflect objective reality.
  

(1) Language is the total means of expressing ideas and feelings and communicating messages from one individual to others, used by all people in all their spheres of activity. All other sign-systems are restricted in their usage and limited in their expressive capacity. For instance, music conveys emotions, but it does not name them; it cannot express concepts and judgments, or transmit ideas. It embraces only those people who understand it and is limited to those musical works which have actually been created by composers. Other people can perceive this "sound system", but they cannot use it actively.

(2) Language conveys not only the essence of the facts, but the speaker's attitude towards them, his estimation of reality and his will.

(3) All sign-systems apart from language are artificial, and they are created and changed by convention. They are made not by the people as a whole, but by a relatively small group of representatives of the given speciality. The development of language does not depend upon the will of the members of society.

To sum up. All sign-systems are subsidiary to language. Each of them has its own advantages over language, such as precision, brevity, abstraction, clarity and so on. But none of them can replace language as the universal means of communication of people in all fields of activity, conveying ideas, thoughts, and emotions, and they cannot be called important for those reasons.

Some scientists claim that certain animal species communicate by non-linguistic devices; that bees, for example, convey meaningful messages to one another by odour or by dancing in their hives, or that ants use their antennae in a significant way. It must be pointed out that the marvelous coordination achieved by groups of animals can only be explained by some form of intercommunication. Sound as the medium for this is common enough: crickets, for instance, call other crickets by noisily rubbing the legs against the body.

Chimpanzees understand between themselves the expression of definite desires and urges.

Numerous investigations on monkey have shown that the chimpanzee, for instance, obtains his object with the mutual understanding that exists between members of the same small local group. There is abundant evidence of this mutual understanding and solidarity.

It is generally agreed that the apes have so many phonetic elements which are common to human languages that their lack of articulate speech cannot be ascribed to secondary limitations. The chimpanzee produces sounds which vary greatly in quality and intensity. Some investigators believe that the chimpanzee is able to utter 32 words or elements of speech.

R.L.Garner, in his book Apes and Monkeys, has described the language of monkeys as a grammarless system of monosyllables. He claims to have learned some of their words, and to have used them successfully to communicate with monkeys from other parts of the world. He says that there are sounds, which are easily identified but difficult to describe, such as that used to signify "cold" or "discomfort", another for "drink" or "thirst", another for "illness". There are, perhaps, a dozen more words, he continues, that can be easily distinguished.

Many people would be surprised to learn that there have been dictionaries of animal words in existence for a long time.

We should emphasise that animal cries are characterized by invariability and monotony. Dogs have been barking, cats miaowing, lions roaring and donkeys braying in the same way since time immemorial, while all languages evolve to some extent. Human language, as opposed to animal cries, displays infinite variability, both in time and in space. Flexibility and change may be described as the essence of all living languages. Other characteristics of human speech are its abstraction and its great differentiation, that distinguish it from the signal-like actions of animals.

"What do we find once more as the characteristic difference between the troupe of monkeys and human society?" – ask the people and they answer – "Labour!" The scientists put their fingers on another difference between animal and man. But what from the very first distinguishes the most incompetent architect from the best of bees is that the architect has built a cell in his head before he constructs it in wax. …What happens is not merely that the worker brings about a change of form in natural objects; at the same time, in the nature that exists apart from himself, he realizes his own purpose…"


4. Pavlov’s System of Signals in Relation to Language

A great contribution towards solving the problem of language was made by I. P. Pavlov, the distinguished Russian physiologist and psychologist. His discovery of conditioned reflexes and his description of the animal's new nervous connections with its conditions of life represent a great step forward in the development of the theory of reflexes. Pavlov regarded conditioned or temporarily acquired reflexes as a function of the animal organism specially adapted to achieve a more and more perfect equilibrium between the organism and its environment.

In the animal, reality is signalized almost exclusively by stimulations and by the traces they leave in the cerebral hemispheres, which come directly to the special cells of the visual auditory or other receptors of the organism. This is what we, too, possess as impressions, sensations and notions of the world around us, both the natural and the social – with the exception of the words heard or seen.