Language Description and Mother Tongue of the Linguist

Abstract

Vladimir M. Alpatov (Moscow, Russian Federation)

On the material of a number of languages it is presented the principles of describing the language in different linguistic traditions. The differences are explained, among other things, by the fact that the traditions of describing the language developed at different times in different linguistic areas on a material of languages that differed significantly in their structure. Particular attention to some areas of linguistics (and inattention to others) can also be explained by the difference in the structure of the languages themselves. Chinese has a poor morphology, but in ancient Greek and Latin it is very rich. In China, grammar was not written, but many dictionaries were written, and in Europe antiquity was primarily concerned with the task of describing grammar. The areas of linguistics that have a priority in their development in one linguistic area may not be considered as priorities in another linguistic area. Thus, to comparative-historical linguistics, focused primarily on the establishment of family ties of languages and the reconstruction of the proto-languages, the developed area in European linguistics, in Japan, for an extended period, there was no intrinsic interest. The comparativehistorical method developed within the European tradition was stimulated by the presence of linguistically relevant material of numerous genetically related Indo-European languages. National variants in approaches and concepts also appear in directions of linguistics, dating back to the ancient tradition. The discrepancies between Russian and English linguistic traditions are described, including the semantic inconsistencies of similar linguistic terms (phrase), the absence of exact equivalents in a number of English and Russian linguistic terms (phrase), attempts to find an equivalent (introduction of the term in Russian linguistic discourse clause as a match of the English clause). The connection between the linguistic thinking of native speakers of Russian and English languages is emphasized with the properties of the languages themselves – a parallel is drawn between the need for a strict order of words in the English language and the need for grammatical wording in the Russian language. It is pointed out that in connection with the absence of word-change by modern Western science, it is proposed to combine morphology and syntax into a single whole – morphosyntax. This approach in domestic science is not widespread and is intuitively rejected. Difficulties are described with the definition of the boundaries of words in the study of languages that differ significantly from European ones in their structure and graphics. The influence of the native language is manifested even in the transcription of sounds: the English transcription for the Japanese language differs from the Russian in this regard; where Russians notice the opposition in hardness-softness, English speakers hear something else. It is emphasized the need to take into account the fact that the native language of the researcher can influence his approaches to language.

Key words: linguistic traditions, parts of speech, Indo-European languages, Chinese, Russian, Japanese.

DOI 10.23683/1995-0640-2017-4-24-35

Quote:

Alpatov, V. M. (2017). Language Description and Mother Tongue of the Linguist. Proceedings of Southern federal university. Philology. 4, 24‒35.