Social varieties of language. Social-functional varieties of language

21.05.2024

Language varieties often appear at the phonetic, lexical, and grammatical levels.

What do we mean when we talk about varieties of language?
The fact is that in a certain territory or within some social groups (for example, student, professional, etc.) separate varieties arise that exist within one language. For example, slang. It functions in a certain social environment. Let's consider some types of language functioning in a certain environment.

Varieties of language of the social environment

Slang

Slang– English word (slang). It means a set of special words or new meanings of existing words used in different groups of people. The essence of slang is very accurately described: “Slang is a vagabond language that hangs around in the vicinity of literary speech and constantly tries to make its way into the most sophisticated society.” And, by the way, many slang words and phrases are now firmly established in the literary language
Youth slang- the most changing variety of language, which is explained by the change of generations. Linguists even identified three slang “waves” in Russia: the 20s, the 50s and the 70-80s of the 20th century.

Examples of youth slang:

Teacher (teacher)
Pofigist (a person indifferent to what is happening)
Funny (joke), etc.
Currently, youth slang is mainly Internet slang.
Internet (Internet)
Comp (computer)
Windows (Windows operating system), etc.

Jargon

Jargon is called sociolect, i.e. lexical and stylistic varieties of language characteristic of any social group: professional, age, subculture. In modern language, jargon has become widespread, especially in the language of young people. In fact, slang and jargon are hardly distinguishable.
There are more than 10 types of jargon. For example, Fenya(thieves' jargon). This language was formed in Rus' a long time ago, back in the Middle Ages. It was originally used by traveling traders called ofeni. The Ofeni created a new language, inventing new roots, but leaving traditional Russian morphology, and used the language to communicate “not for the ears of others.” Subsequently, the language was adopted by the criminal environment, and currently fenya is called thieves' jargon (to speak in such a language is to chat in a hairdryer).
There is journalistic jargon (newspaper duck, moths), military jargon (demobilization, banderlog), etc.

Padonkov jargon (“Albanian” yezig or padonkaff language)

A new type of jargon that arose in Runet in the early 2000s was the style of using the Russian language with phonetically almost correct (with some exceptions like bear, hare, etc.), but spelling deliberately incorrect spelling of words, frequent use of profanity and certain cliches characteristic of slang. The slang has given rise to many stereotypical expressions and Internet memes (for example, “preved”, “rzhunimagu”, “zhzhosh”, “afftar”, “drink up”, etc. It is believed that the “padonkaff” language did not arise spontaneously, but as a result of a purposeful activities of enthusiasts - first in written form on the Internet, and from there it got into oral speech.

Literary language

Literary language is, first of all, normative. It is multifunctional and stylistically differentiated. It functions in both written and spoken forms.
Literary language is the common written language of one or another people, and sometimes several peoples; the language of official business documents, school teaching, written and everyday communication, science, journalism, fiction, all manifestations of culture. This is a historically established language system, which is distinguished by strict codification, but remains flexible, covering all spheres of human activity.
Literary language is not only the language of fiction. “Literary language” and “language of fiction” are different, although correlative concepts. The language of fiction is based on literary language, but includes a lot of individual, not generally accepted, to reflect the life of the characters, the setting and the era in which the events described take place. In different historical eras and among different peoples, the degree of similarity between the literary language and the language of fiction was often not the same.

Vernacular

Vernacular speech is the speech of people who do not know literary norms. Vernacular speech is not limited to any geographical boundaries. The scope of functioning of vernacular is quite narrow and is limited only to everyday and family situations. It is realized mainly in the oral form of speech. But if necessary, vernacular language can be used in fiction to characterize characters.
Examples of vernacular: “skaka” (instead of “how much”), “right now” (instead of “now”), “kada” (instead of “when”), as well as addresses “bro”, “boy”, “father”, names “ Lenok" (instead of Lena), Lyokha, Tolyan, Sanyok, etc.

Social varieties of language

We will consider this question in hierarchical sequence, starting with the larger variety of language.

Adverb

Large subdivision of language. An adverb unites dialects and dialects of a particular language. The adverb could appear as a result of the unification of part of the dialects of the language or the merging into one language of closely related independent languages as a result of the unification of nationalities speaking these languages. In this case, previously independent languages continue to retain the previous differences between them, distinguishing each of them into a special dialect.
This is how the Northern Great Russian dialect came about on the basis of the dialects of Veliky Novgorod. And the South Great Russian dialect of the Russian language is based on the dialects of Kursk and Ryazan.

Dialect

It is a variety of the language of one territory. A dialect is a full-fledged system of speech (not necessarily written) with its own vocabulary and grammar.
Typically, dialects are understood primarily as rural territorial dialects. But now urban dialects are also distinguished: for example, the speech of the black urban population of the USA. Their English is different from other varieties of American English.

Talk

A variety of language that is used in communication between a small area of native speakers of a given language. The conversation can be croaking, cursing, clucking, etc. A group of similar dialects is combined into a dialect.

Idiolect

It is a variant of language used by one person, unique to that person. Each person has his own idiolect.
Idiolects are used by forensic linguists to determine whether a text (written or spoken) was created by the person to whom it is attributed.

Types of language

Types of language differ depending on the operating conditions, the presence or absence of writing, status, sphere of use, degree of proficiency, etc.
Let's look at some types of language.

Types of language depending on generally recognized status and prestige

Language may be state(Russian in the Russian Federation); but there may be several official languages in one country (Belarusian and Russian in Belarus; Russian and Tatar in Tatarstan).
Language may be official language or languages (for example, the Russian language in the official and business spheres of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan with the state status of the Kyrgyz language).
Language may be regional(for example, Russian in Latvia).
Language minorities(eg Turkish in Greece).

Types of language depending on the degree of proficiency of a person

Language may be relatives, learned in childhood, but then lost.
Language may be everyday used in intrafamily communication. It does not always correspond to the native language of each family member, for example, in interethnic marriages.
Colloquial language is the language of everyday communication within the family and outside it.
Worker language dominates the workplace
A person can master perfectly second(third, etc.) language.
Foreign language – the language of a foreign country.

What is the law of mirroring?

What is most often reflected in communication?

What functions does the law of mirroring perform?

What does mirroring contribute to in dialogue?

Why does a person need autogenic training? What communication law is it based on?

Why is any teaching, criticism or unsolicited advice in the process of communication perceived by us with hostility and wariness? Why do people not tolerate public comments and react to them almost always negatively, even if the remark, advice or suggestion is objectively correct? What communication law is manifested in this?

What communicative law is illustrated by the statement of the dashing Italian politician Niccolo Machiavelli (1496-1527): “the larger the crowd you are addressing, the easier your speech should be to understand”?

How can you, taking into account the law of speech self-influence, lift your mood?

Try to do this by choosing appropriate verbal formulas for yourself.

Considering the existence of the law of rejection of public criticism, formulate the rules for effective criticism. What is the best way to criticize someone so that the criticism is effective and improves performance?

Explain the essence of the law of detailed discussion of trifles and formulate recommendations that must be followed, taking into account the effect of this law during collective discussion of issues.

Define and explain the mechanism of action of the law of emotional suppression of logic. Name the consequences that follow from it.

Lecture 5 Social-functional varieties of language. Types of Russian speech culture. Functional-style differentiation of the literary language.

Social-functional varieties of language,

jargons, dialects, vernacular,

literary language, types of Russian

speech culture,

Social-functional varieties of language.

Language is a universal system. It is capable of serving the speech interaction of people belonging to different social groups. Therefore, the following should be distinguished and clearly differentiated: social-functional varieties of language(socially limited subsystems of linguistic means):

A) Dialects- territorially limited variants of the national language. Distinctive features of dialects: use in a certain territory, oral form of existence (they do not write in dialects), narrow sphere of functioning;

B) Jargons - subsystems associated with the professional specifics of the implementation of linguistic elements or determining the speech characteristics of communication implemented within individual social communities: youth environment, student environment, marginal groups, etc. Initially, the emergence of jargons is associated with the need to hide information from outsiders. One of the first - the jargon of the merchants-offensives gave the name to the criminal jargon - “fen”. Any jargon primarily affects the lexical system and is formed in three ways: 1) borrowing from other languages (“gerla”); 2) rethinking words already existing in the language (“head of cabbage” - “head”, “deadwood” - “drunk on the road”); 3) inventing new words (“mordomaz” - “hairdresser”, “muzzle-gazer” - “mirror”);

IN) Vernacular– unregulated speech of the uneducated urban population. The vernacular developed as a result of the mixing of different dialectal speech in the city, where people from various rural regions of Russia have long moved (“candy, brick, princess, capricious, zhizin, rubel, want, bake, places, delov, jam, apples, no coat, kin there will be no”, addressing strangers in terms of kinship: “daddy, mommy, sister, brother”).

A separate sign subsystem is represented by obscene(taboo) vocabulary, the use of which in the speech of an educated, intelligent person is unacceptable.

Above all these socially limited subsystems of the language stands the literary language, which unites all speakers of the popular (national) language into a single whole, ensuring the activities of the state, law enforcement, educational and social structures. Literary language is the highest form of existence of a language; it is a standardized, exemplary language.

Usually, when talking about the difference between literary and colloquial languages, they use a metaphor: colloquial language is a wildflower, and literary language is an indoor flower.

The concept of literary language is based on the concept of linguistic norms. Language literary norms represent the rules of pronunciation, word usage, and use of grammatical forms that have traditionally developed and been accepted in the social and linguistic practice of educated people.

Compliance with the norms of speech interaction required by the literary language is mandatory for participants in business (official and professional) communication and is one of the most important indicators of the level of a person’s general speech culture (for more details, see the topic “Language norms of the modern Russian literary language”)

Signs of a literary language:

presence of writing;

normalization is a fairly stable way of expression that reflects the historically established patterns of development of the Russian literary language.

Standardization is based on the language system and is enshrined in the best examples of literary works. This method of expression is preferred by the educated part of society;

codification, i.e. consolidation in scientific literature, this is expressed in the presence of grammatical dictionaries and other books containing rules for using the language;

stylistic diversity;

relative stability;

prevalence.

Depending on the use of one or another subsystem as a base one, types of Russian speech culture are distinguished in relation to the literary language.

Types of Russian speech culture

Outside the literary language are: Folk speech

(retained among the rural population speaking the dialect); Vernacular

(typical for poorly educated city dwellers); Argotic

All language researchers agree that the Russian-speaking community is experiencing a time of sharp intensification of jargon (argot, slang). Jargon overwhelms people's speech, the media, and fiction. This process is often called barbarization. That is, there is a need for new words, as new realities and concepts appear. In addition, barbarization, as a rule, accompanies extremely unstable periods in the life of society. There is an intense and disordered search for means of expression. The instability of language reflects the instability of society.

Barbarization is a natural process. But excessive barbarization is dangerous. The safety margin of the norm is very large. Research 1 today shows that barbarization - despite colossal quantitative indicators (i.e., with a huge volume of jargon and borrowings) - had almost no qualitative impact on the modern Russian language. For example, Peter’s barbarization in this regard was several orders of magnitude more powerful. The main danger of this period is the disruption of communication mechanisms, i.e. communication, mutual understanding.

So, all the vocabulary of a language is divided into literary and non-literary. Literary ones include 2:

book words

standard spoken words

neutral words

All this vocabulary is used either in literature or in oral speech in an official setting. There is also non-literary vocabulary, which includes:

Professionalisms

Vulgarisms

Jargonisms

This part of the vocabulary is distinguished by its colloquial and informal character.

Professionalisms are words used by small groups of people united by a particular profession 3.

Vulgarisms are rude words, usually not used by educated people in society, a special vocabulary used by people of lower social status: prisoners, drug dealers, homeless people, etc. 4 .

Jargons are words used by certain social or interest groups that carry a secret meaning that is incomprehensible to everyone.

Slang are words that are often seen as violating the norms of standard language. These are very expressive, ironic words that serve to designate objects that are talked about in everyday life.

It should be noted that some scientists classify jargon as slang, thus not identifying them as an independent group, and slang is defined as a special vocabulary used to communicate between a group of people with common interests.

Let us consider these elements of the non-literary Russian language in more detail.

Characteristics of a non-literary language: main elements and features

Dialects and vernaculars in modern Russian

A dialect is a language system that serves as a means of communication for a small territorially closed group of people, usually residents of one or several rural settlements. In this meaning, the term “dialect” is synonymous with the Russian term “dialect”. A dialect is also called a set of dialects united by common linguistic features. The continuity of the territory of distribution as a condition for the unification of dialects into a dialect is not recognized by all researchers.

It is customary to distinguish between territorial dialects - varieties of language used in a certain territory as a means of communication by the local population - and social dialects - varieties of language spoken by certain social groups of the population.

A dialect can differ from a standard language at all levels of the language system: phonetic, morphological, lexical and syntactic. So, for example, some northern dialects of the Russian language are characterized by a rounded pronunciation, replacing the sound “Ch” with “C” (“tsai” instead of “chai”, “tserny” instead of “black”, etc.). Another feature of some northern dialects is the coincidence of the endings of the instrumental and dative cases of the plural of nouns. For example: “work with your hands” instead of the all-Russian “work with your hands.” But, of course, the biggest differences are in the area of vocabulary. So, in Northern Russian dialects, instead of the all-Russian “good” they say “baskoy”, instead of “neighbor” they say “shaber”; in Siberian villages, gooseberries are called “argus”, huts are called “buda”, and instead of the common Russian “branch” they say “gilka” 5.

Dialectal differences in the Russian language as a whole are very small. A Siberian easily understands a Ryazan, and a resident of Stavropol understands a Northern Russian. But in countries such as Germany or China, the differences between individual dialects can be even greater than the difference between Russian and Polish. Since in such countries communication between people speaking different dialects is very difficult or even impossible, the role of a national literary language in them increases sharply. Literary language here serves as a factor that unites the entire population of the country into one people. On the other hand, there are languages in which there is no dialect division at all. An important difference between dialects and literary languages is the absence of an independent form of writing in dialects (exceptions are few).

The relationship between dialects and literary language in modern European countries is largely similar. For dialect speakers - residents of rural areas - it is typical to have (at least partial) knowledge of the literary language and treat it as a prestigious language (official, written, cultural language). The prestige of a dialect is limited to the territory of its distribution.

There are cases when a dialect, as a result of the formation of its own literary norm, became a separate independent language.

It can be considered that the function of the “language of literature” in relation to dialects is performed by the language of folklore; Moreover, the language of folklore works often does not coincide with the dialect of the environment in which these works exist. An important difference between dialects and literary languages is the absence of an independent form of writing in dialects (exceptions are few).

The functions of a more or less pure dialect are steadily decreasing, and now the most typical areas of its use are the family and various situations of relaxed communication between fellow villagers. In all other communicative situations, mixed forms of dialect speech can be observed. As a result of the erasure of dialect features under the influence of the literary language, so-called semi-dialects are formed

The speech of the inhabitants of a modern village, firstly, is socially stratified and, secondly, has a situational conditionality; in other words, it is distinguished by properties that are traditionally considered specific to the literary language. The social and situational heterogeneity of the modern territorial dialect is a consequence of the changes occurring in it, taking place under the powerful influence of the literary language.

One of the obvious features of the modern linguistic situation in Russia is the intensification of the use of elements of urban vernacular in unusual, previously uncharacteristic spheres of communication - in the media, in official speech, in journalism, in the author's narration of literary texts. Many scientists and linguists think so, and one cannot but agree with this.

Modern vernacular is “also (and first of all) a special functional variety of the Russian language, a specific sphere of everyday, oral, non-literary, predominantly expressive and often vulgar communication, which involves the deliberate, registered use of non-normative (substandard) units with certain communicative settings » 7.

Vernacular, unlike jargon and dialect, is a national variant of the language. In this it comes close to literary language. However, unlike the literary language, the vernacular is neither standardized nor multifunctional. The main area of its application is everyday oral speech.

Vernacular speech is a linguistic sphere that is heterogeneous in composition and always blurred in its boundaries, in which the non-literary speech of poorly educated urban residents, regional dialects, partly the colloquial form of the literary language, and professional speech interact in a complex manner. Vernacular speech - especially in the area of syntax - very often cannot be clearly distinguished from the colloquial form of the literary language: there is a lot in common. Undoubtedly vernacular are only those linguistic means that are either colored by the expression of emphasized rudeness, or clearly and tangibly contradict the literary norm, and are perceived as unconditionally incorrect 8.

The vernacular is not closed to speakers of a literary language: they know it, and they use it in contexts that are expressively or humorously colored, when vividly reproducing various life events and situations. Vernacular speech is freely and consciously introduced by writers into fiction and thus acquires the properties of an aesthetically significant category.

A characteristic feature of the current state of this subsystem of the Russian language is its stratification into two varieties, “old” and “young”. “Two circles of speakers of modern vernacular are distinguished: older townspeople who have no education (or have primary education), whose speech shows clear connections with the territorial dialect (vernacular-1), and middle-aged and young townspeople who have incomplete secondary education and do not speak norms of literary language; their speech is devoid of dialect coloring and is largely jargonized (colloquial speech-2)” 9.

The age differentiation of vernacular speakers is complemented by differences by gender: those who speak vernacular-1 are predominantly older women, and among those who use vernacular-2, a significant (if not predominant) percentage are men.

In the system of cultural and linguistic varieties of the Russian language, vernacular speech occupies an intermediate position between the literary language, adjacent directly to literary colloquial speech, on the one hand, and local dialects, social and professional dialects, on the other hand.

Argo: reasons for existence and area of functioning

Jargon (slang, argot) is a social variant of language. Jargon is the language of a more or less closed social group. There is youth slang, student slang, sailors' slang, criminal world slang, etc. In some cases, such as in the criminal environment, jargon is used as a secret language, incomprehensible to the uninitiated, in others it is just a language game, a way to make one’s speech more expressive and unusual. In addition, jargon can serve as a kind of “password”: the use of slang words and expressions by someone in the environment where it is accepted, as it were, signals: “I belong here.” Jargon differs from the national language solely in its vocabulary. There is no special slang phonetics or grammar.

1. Conversational version of professional speech.

2. Elements of the colloquial version of one or another professional or social group, which, penetrating into the literary language or in general into the speech of people who are not directly related to this group of people, acquire in these varieties of language a special emotional and expressive coloring.

Thus, slang, according to many researchers, is a secondary formation in comparison with jargons and argot, adapting borrowed units to its needs.

So, words whose use is characteristic of people who form separate social groups constitute slang vocabulary. Thus, the jargon of the ofeni - itinerant traders who existed in Russia in the 19th century - included the words: eye- house, melech- milk, Sarah- money, mind you- speak, tinker- build, etc. In the jargon of the students - students of Bursa (a school that combined cramming and caning discipline) - there were the words bond– steal, bug – strictly exact, etc. Some lexical elements that penetrated in the past from social jargons into common vocabulary are preserved in it now. These include, for example, the words swindler, nimble, linden- fake, etc.

In addition, the vocabulary of youth - school and student - jargon is preserved and constantly updated. The modern state is characterized, for example, by numerous Anglicisms, often deliberately distorted.

There are class-stratum jargons, industrial jargons, youth jargons, and jargons of groups of people based on interests and hobbies 11 .

Youth jargons are divided into industrial and household ones. The industrial vocabulary of students is closely connected with the learning process, and that of soldiers with military service. The general everyday dictionary is much wider than the industrial one; it includes words not related to the process of study, work or service

Slang are some re-interpreted words of common vocabulary.

Slang vocabulary has a narrow scope of use: it is used mainly among “our own” people, i.e. in communication with people of the same social circle as the speaker. In works of art, slang words can serve to characterize characters in speech and be used for stylization purposes.

However, the use of jargon in a literary text must be justified both by the general intent of the work and stylistically.

Penetrating into many areas of reality, jargon becomes a means of creating a unique expression and flavor in cinema and literature, as well as an essential part of everyday linguistic communication. Today, jargon can be heard on radio and television: especially often in the lyrics of youth rock bands. They give the text an emotional coloring and emphasize the closeness and understandability of these songs for young people, although words that have not been translated into Russian are often used.

If we compare the lexical capabilities of common language and jargon, it becomes obvious that in terms of the number of units, jargon is much poorer than the standardized language. As in any variety of language, jargon has a concept of norm. But here “the norm is confined within the framework of one society. Jargon is aimed at the mass, underground culture of native speakers” 12.

Argo is a term used to designate a set of linguistic means (mainly special words and idiomatic expressions) developed by members of certain social groups for the purposes of intra-group, often secret communication. “The fact that argot is intended to be understood only within a certain limited group of people distinguishes it, on the one hand, from slang, i.e. a variety of expressions essentially intended for wide use, and, on the other hand, from jargon, which, although it is the special language of a certain class or profession, is not deliberately limited to the framework of one or another specific group” 13.

A special place among social dialects is occupied by the argot of déclassé elements, which existed in ancient times. Some researchers consider argot to be an artificial and secret language, others (D.S. Likhachev) believe that it is a reaction of declassed elements to a (hostile) environment.

Main functions of Argo 14:

1. Conspiratorial. Argo is developed spontaneously, many words can pass from argot into ordinary spoken language (there are words that came to us from the argot of 17th century robbers), moreover, in our time more and more “declassed” words are penetrating into the language. However, the argot is incomprehensible to the ‘uninitiated’, and the underworld uses this for its own purposes.

2. Identification. Argo is the password by which declassed elements recognize each other

3. Nominative. In argot there are a large number of words and phraseological units that are used to designate those objects and phenomena for which there is no equivalent in the literary language.

4. Worldview. The lowness and vulgarism of a thief’s speech is a feature of our perception, and in the perception of the thief himself, it has a heroic, upbeat character

However, this “heroic” character depends on the situation. When declassed people communicate with each other, many “bad” words from a generally accepted point of view have a neutral character.

A significant number of argotisms are perceived differently by the criminal world than by law-abiding people.

1 The culture of Russian speech and the effectiveness of communication.

M., 1996.

2 See ibid.

3 Dictionary of linguistic terms / Ed.

O.S. Akhmanova. - M., 1964

5 See, for example: Grachev M.A., Kozhevnikov A.Yu. On the issue of social dialectology of the Russian language // Philological Sciences. No. 5. 1996

6 See Russian language of the late 20th century. M., 1996.

7 Chemist V.V. Modern Russian vernacular as a dynamic system // Collection of articles “Stylistic system of the Russian language”, St. Petersburg, 1998

8 Chemist V.V. Modern Russian vernacular as a dynamic system // Collection of articles “Stylistic system of the Russian language”, St. Petersburg, 1998

9 Literary norm and vernacular. / Ed. Skvortsova L.I. - M.: Nauka, 1977. – 252 p.

10 Slang // Dictionary of linguistic terms / Ed. O.S. Akhmanova. - M., 1964

11 Fedosyuk M. D. Lodazhenskaya T. A.,. Mikhailova O. A., Nikolina N. A. Russian language. M.: Nauka, 2001

12 Grachev M.A. Russian argot. Monograph. N. Novgorod, 1997

Comprehensive goal:

know

basic concepts and terms: sociolinguistics, social dialect, argot, professional languages, slang (jargon), social functions of language, single and multinational languages, regional varieties of language, language of interethnic communication, language of international communication, “world language”, interlinguistics, language situation;

be able to

Apply the acquired knowledge when discussing the main problems of the topic: the reasons and conditions for the differences in the social functions of languages; the problem of the functioning of majoritarian and minority languages as an ethnic characteristic against the backdrop of intensified processes of interlingual integration;

own

the ability to explain the meaning and content of the concepts “language policy” and “language situation”.

Social dialects and their varieties

Social differentiation of language.

Having emerged at the beginning of the 20th century, sociolinguistics received particularly active development in the 70s. in Russian (Soviet) and American linguistics. Currently, sociolinguistics is experiencing a new upsurge associated with the study of social dialects, social functions of languages and linguistic situations. It is these questions that will be the subject of discussion in the last chapter of the textbook.

Let's think about the following questions: do we always use the correct literary language? Do we talk like our parents? Do men and women speak the same? We are sure that you gave negative answers to all these questions. Then let’s pose another question: when, with whom and under what circumstances do you allow yourself to use language fairly freely? The answers to all these questions can be found in this paragraph.

When considering the stratification of the national language in the previous chapter, we deliberately did not touch upon social dialects => [diagram 15.1, p. 606], since their study - unlike other forms of language existence - is not the subject of linguistics itself, but of sociolinguistics. Any society is characterized by social differentiation (stratification), which is directly reflected in language: class, professional, age, cultural, ethnic (for example, the socio-ethnic dialect of African Americans in the USA). Back in the middle of the 19th century. I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, who is rightfully considered one of the founders of sociolinguistics, drew the attention of scientists to the need to study the “languages” of various classes: soldiers, merchants, artisans, and even swindlers and thieves.

Social dialects are a general designation for all varieties of language corresponding to one degree or another to isolated communities or groups within society (micro-societies).

This concept unites phenomena that are quite heterogeneous in their functional and structural characteristics: professional languages, argot and slangs (jargons). Unlike territorial dialects, social dialects do not have their own grammar, their phonetic features are limited to some deviations in pronunciation, they differ from the literary language and from each other primarily lexically, by a set of a certain number of specific words and expressions, as well as reinterpreted common words.

From the above it follows that the general function of any social dialect is the linguistic isolation of a group within society, although the motives for such isolation may be different. Accordingly, in some social dialects (argot, secret languages of artisans) the esoteric function predominates, i.e. function of classifying information, in others - expressive function (slang)1.

The idea of the linguistic class stratification of St. Petersburg in the 19th century. can be obtained from the book by V.V. Kolesov “Russian Speech. Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow" (St. Petersburg, 1998), which describes the speech of the "big world", the nobility, bureaucrats, military, merchants, burghers, commoners, as well as folk speech and professional jargon. Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary “The Language of Old Moscow” by V. S. Elistratov. M., 1997. (URL: torrentino.com>torrents/632429) and “Dictionary of a St. Petersburger” II. A. Sindalovsky. SPb., 2002 (URL: starling.rinet.ru>) reconstruct the everyday life of the two Russian capitals.

Any modern society is internally heterogeneous in its social composition. It is possible to distinguish separate groups of people in it - by gender, age, territory of residence, level of education, social status, profession, etc. Each of the social groups has its own characteristics, uses the language in its own way, in different conditions and for different purposes, which cannot but be reflected in their speech. This is how social variants of language (strata) are formed.

In the modern Russian language, several main strata can be distinguished, that is, social varieties (variants) of the language: literary language, territorial and social dialects, vernacular.

The literary language is not limited either territorially or socially, since it must be understood by all speakers of Russian. Literary language can be used in everyday communication (literary colloquial speech), but its main function is to serve high spheres of communication: state, politics, science, religion, education, art, etc. That is why it cannot exist spontaneously. On the contrary, society (primarily with the help of specialists) constantly monitors its improvement and maintenance in a “suitable” condition. This ensures unity, accuracy, expressiveness and stability of literary speech.

Literary language is a language processed by “masters of words” and standardized. Its norms are reflected in grammars and various types of dictionaries (grammatical, explanatory, spelling, etc.). It exists in both oral and written form. However, the written form is still fundamental for literary speech. This is quite natural, since for high spheres of communication (state, science, art, etc.) this form is fundamental.

Territorial dialects (dialects) are varieties of the national language, characteristic of a particular rural area. The Russian language is widespread over a vast territory. Therefore, there is a whole system of dialects, and the differences between them are sometimes quite significant.

Social dialects (argot, jargons) are language variants that serve as a means of communication between different social and professional groups. Initially, jargon was used as a “secret” language, the purpose of which was to recognize “friends” and “strangers” and to hide the meaning of what was being said from a stranger.

Jargon and professionalism usually refer to phenomena that are in one way or another connected with the professional activities and social interests of a certain social group. For example, in the speech of aviators: on all fours- “airplane take-off with jumps”, girlish eyes- “locator”, master of the sky- "dispatcher" forecast- "weather station" chatterologist- "signalman" cigarette butt, whistle- “Yak-40 aircraft”; in students' speech: spur- “cheat sheet”, tail- “academic debt”, swim- “perform poorly on an exam” fishing rod- “satisfactory assessment.”

Vernacular is mainly the everyday speech of uneducated layers of urban residents. The specificity of this social variant of the language is most clearly manifested in the vocabulary. For example: drip- “to convey” railway carriage- “about a large amount of something”, eat- “listen, meekly endure the offensive, offensive.” Differences from the literary language are also manifested in the peculiarities of pronunciation, the formation of individual words and constructions. For example: tranway instead of literary tram, quarter instead of literary quarter, flows instead of flows etc.

The presence of various social variants of the language is historically determined - this is evidence of the richness of the language and the high creative potential of the people.

At the same time, the pattern of coexistence of different social variants (strata) of the national language does not mean their equality. The most important thing in the life of a country is the literary language. This is due not only to the fact that only this version of the language can be the language of the state, science, the media, and fiction. This stratum is not limited territorially and socially. Therefore, when speaking in a literary language, a person can be quite confident that he will be well understood by any addressee.

The use of other social options is limited territorially and functionally, thematically and situationally. Communication in jargon, dialect, and vernacular is appropriate and advisable only in an informal setting and only if it involves representatives of the same group who understand it well, and the subject of the conversation does not go beyond a fairly narrow range of topics.

(By: Balashova L.V., Dementyev V.V. Russian language course. Saratov, 2005)