LANGUAGE AND SPEECH IN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES

Abstract

Language research as a multifaceted object plays an important role in traditional and modern linguistic studies. The article deals with the interpretation of language and speech in the interaction of linguistic and psychological aspects. The main theoretical approaches to the study of language are analysed, taking into account the basic principles of general psychology, linguistics and psychotherapy in the diachronic perspective.
The basics of the speech activity theory are characterized, where speech activity is defined as the main type of symbolic action, the key characteristics of which is purposefulness. In the context of the activity interpretation of speech models, the processes of speaking and understanding are distinguished as a speech activity and as an aspect of speech phenomena at the same time.
It is stated that language and speech denote two different aspects of a communicative activity of a person and reflect his or her existence. Related to consciousness in general, human speech is involved into certain relationships with all mental processes, but the basic and decisive thing about language is its connection with thinking. Words, like images, sound or visual, do not constitute speech, the whole process of speech is defined and regulated by the semantic relations between the meanings of words. The study emphasizes that it is impossible to reduce thinking to speech and to establish an identity between them, as well as to separate thinking from speech.
It is noted that in one’s own language communicative and cognitive need, language is considered only in the categories of activity (like thinking) with the help of the language, acting as a means of the activity. Speech activity of people as a set of language actions can be an independent activity or it can be a part of another, wider activity, for example, cognitive. Speech activity is determined by the following characteristics: structural organization (internal and external), subject (psychological) content, motivation and commitment.
In addition, it describes interdisciplinary aspects closely related to the study of personality in general, as well as from the point of view of its intellectual and communicative activity. The essential characteristics of a language determine its sets and goals.