CLASSIFYING LANGUAGE FUNCTION

DOI: 10.24412/2470-1262-2022-1-41-51

Abstract:

The article is devoted to the study of language as a dissipative system that performs various functions in the socio-anthropological space. The study revealed that, along with other functions, language performs a classifying function. This function has a cognitive character and is expressed primarily in the ability of a person to classify the world, defining its phenomena by means of various categories and thereby distinguishing one phenomenon from another. The classifying function can be represented as a set of rules that divide the vector space into subspaces associated with classes. It defines both intracategorical and intercategorical relations of linguistic units and elements within the linguistic structure. And from this point of view, language is a classification of a high degree of reliability and a classifier of reality at the same time. The study showed that language plays a huge role in transforming the world. In this respect, it is a construct of the world and at the same time a constructor through which a person builds the world around her/him. In conclusion, the study concluded that the linguistic activity of individuals acting within the social space contributes to the formation of language as a system, presented in an objective form (as a metalanguage) and in a subjective form (as an idea of the language of a single individual) in the form multilevel classification. Language, structuring and classifying ideas about the world, quickly adapts to changes in the external environment and determines the survival of a person. Therefore, the classifying function is one of the main cognitive functions of the language, ensuring the survival of humanity. This is achieved by attributing cause and effect relations to the phenomena of the world, as well as by identifying essential and non-essential signs and categories in the world.

Keywords: language as classification, language functions, classifying function of the language

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Information about the author:

Nekipelova Irina (Izhevsk, Russia) – PhD, Head of the Department «Russian as a Foreign Language», Director of Testing center, M.T. Kalashnikov Izhevsk state technical university. Winner of the “Scientist of the Year 2020” in the category “Humanities: languages and literature” (International Achievements Research Center) (Chicago, USA). Research fields: history of Russian language, language philosophy, teaching Russian as a foreign language; author of over 140 publications, 5 monographs and textbook «Russian as a foreign language: Step by step». E-mail: irina.m.nekipelova@mail.ru ORCID: 0000-0001-8448-3000 SCOPUS ID: 57191414786 Web of Science ResearcherID: AAS-9439-2021 SPIN-код: 8968-4493 AuthorID: 394021

For citation: Nekipelova Irina M., (2022).

Classifying language function. Cross-Cultural Studies: Education and Science, Vol. 7, Issue 1, (2022), pp. 41-51 (in USA)

Manuscript received: 10/01/2022 – Accepted for publication: 28/03/2022