The interpretation of language as a system develops a number of notions, namely: the notions of language levels and language units, paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations, the notions of form and meaning (function), of synchrony and diachrony, of analysis and synthesis, and some others.
The discrimination of language and speech is the fundamental principle of linguistics. This principle has sustained throughout the whole history of the study of language. With a special demonstrative force it was confirmed by I.A. Beaudoin de Courtenay (end of the XIX c.) and F. de Saussure (beginning of the XX c.) who analyzed the language-speech dichotomy in connection with the problem of identifying the subject of linguistics. The two great scholars emphatically pointed out the difference between synchrony and diachrony stressing the fact that at any stage of its historical evolution language is a synchronic system of meaningful elements, i.e. a system of special signs (Blokh, 2000).
Language vs Speech (verbal behaviour)
Saussure made what became a famous distinction between langue (language) and parole (speech, or verbal behaviour). Language, for Saussure, is the symbolic system through which we
communicate
. Speech refers to actual utterances. Since we can communicate an infinite number of utterances, it is the system behind them that is important, this is the primary object of study for the linguist. According to F. de Saussure, there is
langue
versus
parole
. By
langue, best translated in its technical Saussurean sense as language system, is meant the totality of regularities and patterns of formation that underlie the utterances of a language; by
parole, which can be translated as language behaviour, is meant the actual utterances themselves (URL: ht-tps://www.britannica.com/science/linguistics/The-20th-century).
The impact of Saussure's ideas on the development of linguistic theory in the first half of the twentieth century cannot be understated. Two currents of thought emerged independently of each other, one in Europe, and the other in
America
. The results of each incorporated the basic notions of Saussurian thought in forming the central tenets of
structural linguistics
.
The most important of the various schools of structural linguistics to be found in Europe in the first half of the 20th century included the Prague school, most notably represented by Nikolay Sergeyevich Trubetskoy and Roman Jakobson, both Russian émigrés, and the Copenhagen (or glossematic) school, centred around Louis Hjelmslev (URL: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ferdinand_de_Saussure).
Syntagmatic vs paradigmatic relations
Lingual units stand to one another in two fundamental types of relations: syntagmatic and paradigmatic. Syntagmatic relations are immediate linear relations between units in a segmental sequence (string). One of the basic notions in the syntagmatic analysis is the notion of syntactic syntagma. A "syntactic syntagma" is the combination of two words or word-groups one of which is modified by the other. To syntagmatic relations are opposed paradigmatic relations. They exist between elements of the system outside the strings in which they cooccur. The function of a grammatical paradigm is to express a categorial meaning (Blokh, 2000).
Plane of Content and Plane of Expression
This dichotomy was first studied by Louis Hjelmslev (1899-1965) – Danish linguist, the founder of the
Copenhagen School
of linguistics. Together with
Hans Uldall
he developed a
structural
theory of
language
which he called
glossematics
. The main interest of glosssematics was describing the formal characteristics of the language. L. Hjelmslev’s
sign model
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