ORDER AND CHAOS IN LANGUAGE

Abstract

The article deals with a problem of correlation of cosmos and chaos, order and randomness in language and speech. Semantic analysis of polysemantic Greek terms cosmos and chaos is given. The role of enthropy and emptiness is tentatively touched upon. Binarity is the sphere of cosmos, the excessive plurality is the field of chaos. The notion of stratification of order and chaos is introduced. The hierarchy of these two phenomena in horizontal layers and their interrelations in language and speech are investigated. Layers of cosmos and chaos alternate and interleave either regularly or irregularly. It is stressed that order in nature is an exception because chaos prevails. The concepts of cosmochaos and chaocosmos are explained. Three kinds of cosmos can be discerned – macrocosm, microcosm and mesocosm. The latter includes the sphere of language. Stochasticity of matter correlates with occasionalism in language. The correlations of order and chaos on all the levels of linguistic units (phoneme, morpheme, word, word combination, phrase, sentence) in phonology, lexicology, grammar and stylistics are analyzed. The problem of writing is touched upon. Sociolinguistic aspect (especially, human progress from chaos to cosmos) is investigated. Social pragmatic level concerns the struggle between official and regional languages.