Open AccessADDRESSING THE PRINCIPLE OF LINGUISTIC ECONOMY AGAIN
Author(s) -
Lydia A. Stanovaïa
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
teoretičeskaâ i prikladnaâ lingvistika
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2410-7190
DOI - 10.22250/2410-7190_2016_2_4_50_75
Subject(s) - frugality , polysemy , linguistics , meaning (existential) , term (time) , russian language , language change , russian economy , economy , sociology , economics , epistemology , political science , economic system , philosophy , law , physics , quantum mechanics
After a long and very heated discussions in 60s-70s of the last century, the term «linguistic economy» is firmly established in Russian linguistics. However, the analysis of modern publications of Russian linguists indicates «embarrassing» polysemy of the term, which is used in different meanings: 1) ordinary, determined by the meaning of the word «economy» in the Russian language as frugality, thrift; 2) special, determined by A. Martinet theory, where economy is considered as the principle of organization and evolution of the language system; 3) mixed due to the mixture of different terms, ideas and concepts. The article discusses the main issues related to defining the essence of linguistic economy, its place and role in language evolution. Many postulates concerning these issues contradict well-known facts of language change on different levels of language system. However, if we strictly separate economy in speech from economy in language many contradictions disappear.