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7
aspects - the system of signs (language proper) and the use of signs (speech proper). The generalizing term
"language" is also preserved in linguistics, showing the unity of these two aspects [, 1986, 18].
The sign (meaningful unit) in the system of language has only a potential meaning. In speech, the potential
meaning of the lingual sign is "actualized", i.e. made situationally significant as part of the grammatically
organized text.
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). E.g.:
The spaceship was launched without the help of a booster rocket.
In this sentence syntagmatically connected are the words and word-groups "the spaceship", "was launched",
"the spaceship was launched", "was launched without the help", "the help of a rocket", "a booster rocket".
Morphemes within the words are also connected syntagmatically. E.g.: space/ship; launch/ed; with/out;
boost/er.
Phonemes are connected syntagmatically within morphemes and words, as well as at various juncture points
(cf. the processes of assimilation and dissimilation).
The combination of two words or word-groups one of which is modified by the other forms a unit which is
referred to as a syntactic "syntagma". There are four main types of notional syntagmas: predicative (the
combination of a subject and a predicate), objective (the combination of a verb and its object), attributive (the
combination of a noun and its attribute), adverbial (the combination of a modified notional word, such as a
verb, adjective, or adverb, with its adverbial modifier).
Since syntagmatic relations are actually observed in utterances, they are described by the Latin formula as
relations "in praesentia" ("in the presence").
The other type of relations, opposed to syntagmatic and called "paradigmatic", are such as exist between
elements of the syctem outside the strings where they co-occur. These intra-systemic relations and
dependencies find their expression in the fact that each lingual unit is included in a set or series of connections
based on different formal and functional properties.
In the sphere of phonology such series are built up by the correlations of phonemes on the basis of vocality
or consonantism, voicedness or devoicedness, the factor of nazalization, the factor of length, etc. In the sphere
of the vocabulary these series are founded on the correlations of synonymy and antonymy, on various topical
connections, on different word-building dependencies. In the domain of grammar, series of related forms
realize grammatical numbers and cases, persons and tenses, gradations of modalities, sets of sentence patterns
of various functional nature, etc.
Unlike syntagmatic relations, paradigmatic relations cannot be directly observed in utterances, that is why
they are referred to as relations "in absentia" ("in the absence").
Paradigmatic relations coexist with syntagmatic relations in such a way that some sort of syntagmatic
connection is necessary for the realization of any paradigmatic series. This is especially evident in a classical
grammatical paradigm which presents a productive series of forms each consisting of a syntagmatic connection
of two elements:
one common for the whole of the series (stem), the other specific for every individual form in the series
(grammatical feature-inflexion, suffix, auxiliary word). Grammatical paradigms express various grammatical
categories.
The minimal paradigm consists of two form-stages. This kind of paradigm we see, for instance, in the
expression of the category of number: boy-boys. A more complex paradigm can be divided into component
paradigmatic series, i.e. into the corresponding subparadigms (cf. numerous paradigmatic series constituting
the system of the finite verb). In other words, with paradigms, the same as with any other systemically
organized material, macro- and micro-series are to be discriminated.
§ 5. Units of language are divided into segmental and suprasegmental. Segmental units consist of
phonemes, they form phonemic strings of various status (syllables, morphemes, words, etc.). Supra-segmental
units do not exist by themselves, but are realized together with segmental units and express different
modificational meanings (functions) which are reflected on the strings of segmental units. To the supra-
segmental units belong intonations (intonation contours), accents, pauses, patterns of word-order.
The segmental units of language form a hierarchy of levels. This hierarchy is of a kind that units of any
higher level are analysable into (i.e. are formed of) units of the immediately lower level. Thus, morphemes are
decomposed into phonemes, words are decomposed into morphemes, phrases are decomposed into words, etc.
But this hierarchical relation is by no means reduced to the mechanical composition of larger units from
smaller ones; units of each level are characterized by their own, specific functional features which provide for
the very recognition of the corresponding levels of language.
The lowest level of lingual segments is phonemic: it is formed by phonemes as the material elements of the
higher-level segments. The phoneme has no meaning, its function is purely differential: it differentiates
morphemes and words as material bodies. Since the phoneme has no meaning, it is not a sign.