THE ROLE OF STRUCTURALISM IN THE CONTEXT OF LINGUISTIC UNDERSTANDING

Abstract

Structuralism as a method of getting knowledge generalizes structural methods aiming to systematize knowledge and model it within the general methodology. The study of structuralism began in France as a result of a series of studies carried out in the social sciences and humanities in the 1950s and 1970s. Structuralists sought to understand human culture and experience within a system of signs governed by rules to form the meaning or values in various contexts: linguistic, social, literary and cultural. Linguistics as a philological science initiates structural methods within the framework of semiology, which later penetrated into narratology, the theory of text and discourse based on the works of F. de Saussure, K. Lévi-Strauss, and M. Foucault and these methods do not lose their relevance in modern linguistic studies. The purpose of the article is to analyze the stages of development of structuralism in linguistics. Methods include general scientific approaches that include analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, and formalization method. The results are related to the identification of three aspects of understanding structuralism in linguistics as a general method of the humanities, the meaning as a structural phenomenon, and F. de Saussure’s semiology in connection to linguistic activity. Conclusions. As the result of the theoretical analysis, it was established that according to the selected aspects of structuralism in linguistics, its role is decisive not only in the context of structural, but also cognitive methodology in linguistics. In addition, structuralism as a general method of humanities becomes a general principle that prompts the development of this philosophical concept in studying not only language structures, but also thinking process. Purely linguistic features of structuralism are that it investigates functioning of basic units and connections in language, which characterize formation of lexical meaning through a set of defined rules and operations in a relatively closed and necessarily structured system. It is promising to develop theories of cognitive linguistics that do not deny the existence of a semantic or lexical structure, but, on the contrary, it aims to interpret it in connection with the consciousness and mental activity of a person.