Language personality - how is formed and what affects

In the 20th century - and now in the 21st century - the humanitarian field of knowledge increasingly places a person - its features, behavior, character - in the center of scientific research. In linguistics the same thing is observed: we are interested in language not as an abstract phenomenon, but as a manifestation of human nature, development, achievements. In science there is still no single concept and definition of what a "language personality" is. Nevertheless, along with the "language picture of the world" - a related concept - this phenomenon takes scientists at all levels of language learning - from phonetics to textology. In a very general formulation, we can say that a linguistic personality is a set of language behavior and self-expression of a person. The formation of the discourse of an individual imposes an imprint primarily on his native language.

And here we should remember those linguistic hypotheses (for example, the hypothesis of Sapir-Whorf), according to which, it is language that determines thinking. For example, for Russian-speaking people, the concepts of definite and indefinite articles are complex, which are elementary perceived by the speakers of Germanic languages (English, Danish, German). And in comparison with Polish, in Russian there is no "female-real category". That is, where the Pole distinguishes (say, with pronouns or verb forms), is it a group in which there were only women, children or animals, or else a group in which at least one man was present, for the Russian There are no fundamental differences. What does it affect? On mistakes in the studied languages, which are the consequence of not bad instruction, but of another linguistic consciousness, of a different linguistic personality.

Even speaking their own language, we differently communicate, say, among peers, with teachers, on forums. That is, depending on the sphere of communication, we involve different qualities of our individuality - what our linguistic personality is, choosing vocabulary, constructing sentences, style. Its formation is affected not only by the native language as such, but also by the environment of upbringing, and the level of education, and the field of specialization. It is worth paying attention to the fact that the language personality of the doctor, for example, will differ from the linguistic personality of the programmer or agricultural worker. Physicians will use medical terminology more often, even in ordinary speech, their associations and comparisons will be more often associated with the human body. While in the speech of engineers metaphors are more often associated with mechanisms and machines. Thus, the structure of the language personality depends on many factors. The environment in which we were brought up creates the foundation, however, just like our character and personal characteristics, this structure is in constant development and influenced by the environment of our residence. Pay attention to how getting into another family - let's say, marrying - a girl begins to speak a little differently, using sayings or "sayings" taken in her husband's family. The situation is even more interesting if the language personality continues to develop in a foreign environment. Thus, the speech of emigrants is characterized by a number of features, it is imprinted with the language in which they have to communicate daily.

In the theory and practice of linguistics, the linguistic personality of the translator occupies a special place. The fact is that the translator is not only a bearer of a certain culture, but also a mediator - an intermediary - a transmitter of the phenomena of one culture to another. Its task is not only to transmit information, but also, often, to recreate the same power of emotional impact on the reader, to convey the same range of feelings and associations that the original language evokes. And it turns out that an absolutely "objective" transmission is impossible in practice, because everything - from those places that have been misunderstood or misunderstood, and ending with a choice of phraseology and metaphors - is affected by the linguistic identity of the author of the translation. This can be seen especially clearly in the example of translations of the same poem by different translators. Even within the same time interval (for example, Petrarch's translations performed by the poets of the Silver Age), the style, the figurative system and, ultimately, the overall impact of the same poem in different translations will be radically different.