I categorial structure of the word notion of Opposition. Oppositions in Morphology

II. SYSTEMIC CONCEPTION OF LANGUAGE
1. System as a Linguistic Notion
Human language is a verbal means of communication; its function consists in forming, storing and exchanging ideas as reflections of reality. Being inseparably connected with the people who create and use it, language is social and psychological by nature.
Language incorporates three constituent parts. They are the phonological system, the lexical system, and the grammatical system. The phonological system determines the material (phonetic) form of its significative units; the lexical system comprises the whole set of nominative means of language (words and stable word-groups); the grammatical system presents the whole set of regularities determining the combination of nominative units in the formation of utterances.
The aim of theoretical grammar of language is to present a theoretical description of its grammatical system. To achieve this aim it is necessary to scientifically analyze and define its categories and study the mechanisms of grammatical formation of utterances in the process of speech production.
Modern linguistics is essentially based on the systemic conception of language. System in general is defined as a structured set of elements related to one another by a common function. The interpretation of language as a system develops a number of notions, namely: the notions of language levels and language units, paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations, the notions of form and meaning (function), of synchrony and diachrony, of analysis and synthesis, and some others.
2. Language and Speech
The discrimination of language and speech is the fundamental principle of linguistics. This principle has sustained throughout the whole history of the study of language. With a special demonstrative force it was confirmed by I.A. Beaudoin de Courtenay (end of the XIX c.) and F. de Saussure (beginning of the XX c.) who analyzed the language-speech dichotomy in connection with the problem of identifying the subject of linguistics. The two great scholars emphatically pointed out the difference between synchrony and diachrony stressing the fact that at any stage of its historical evolution language is a synchronic system of meaningful elements, i.e. a system of special signs.
Language in the narrow sense of the word is a system of means of expression, while speech is a manifestation of the system of language in the process of communication. The system of language includes the body of material units-sounds, morphemes, words, word-groups, and a set of regularities or "rules" of the use of these units. Speech comprises both the act of producing utterances and the utterances themselves, i.e. the text made up of lingual units of various status.
From the functional point of view all the units of language should be classed into those that are non-meaningful semantically, such as phonemes, and those that express a certain semantic meaning, such as words. The non-meaningful units may be referred to as "cortemes", they provide a physical cover (acoustic, graphical) for meaningful units; the meaningful units, in distinction to cortemes, may be referred to as "signemes". Signeme is a lingual sign. The introduction of a special name for it is called upon to show that there is a profound difference between lingual signs and non-lingual, common signs.
Language and speech are inseparable, they form an organic unity. The stability of this unity is ensured by grammar since it dynamically connects language with speech by categorially determining the process of utterance production.
The signeme (lingual sign) in the system of language has only a potential meaning. In speech the potential meaning of the lingual sign is "actualized", in other words, it is made situationally significant as part of the grammatically organized text.
The functional dynamics of lingual units in speech is efficiently demonstrated by the branch of linguistics called "pragmalinguistics". Among other things, pragmalinguistics investigated the relevant contribution to the total communicative content of utterances made by different unit types. In this connection, stretches of speech have been described the role of which consists not in the expression of certain meanings, but in maintaining the contact between the communicants, or sustaining the "phatic communion". These elements have received the name of "phatic" (see: excerpt from "Papers in Linguistics'" by Firth J.R., p. 18 of the present book).