Open AccessVasily Abaev: the Russian Antistructuralist
Author(s) -
В.М. Алпатов
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
orientalistica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2687-0738
pISSN - 2618-7043
DOI - 10.31696/2618-7043-2021-4-4-1084-1093
Subject(s) - linguistics , phonology , ideology , syntax , element (criminal law) , semantics (computer science) , soviet union , sociology , computer science , philosophy , political science , politics , law , programming language
Some linguists did not accept the structural ideas in the 1920s–1950s. One of the serious critics of structural linguistics in the Soviet Union was Vasily I. Abaev (1900–2001). His works on general linguistics were ignored or criticized though some of Abaev’s ideas were interesting. He distinguished two sides of language: “language as ideology” and “language as techniques”. According to him, every “element of speech” has a “technical and empiric nucleus” and an “ideological envelope” consisting of unstable “notions, sentiments and associations”. He considered structural methods as convenient if this level of language is mainly systematic (phonology), however, did not see much use in them concerning syntax and semantics.