UNIVERSAL SEMANTIC CONTINUA AND FUNCTIONAL GRAMMATICAL INTEGRALS

Abstract

One of the logical effects of the principle of asymmetric dualism of the linguistic sign is that languages are incomparable, at least, what regards separate grammatical forms, even if these forms are of one and the same type. A certain correlation between languages can only be found at the universal level, in the form of a potential of formal means and grammatical integrals, which unite elementary meanings (atomic senses). In some sense, one can find, in any language of the world, and in the shape of underformed, non-grammatized, potential oppositions, atomic (elementary) meanings, which appear as grammatized in some other language. The majority of oppositions between forms get defragmentated in language contrasts. More universal units for comparing languages are found either at a lower (atomic senses), or at a higher (grammatical-contextual complex) level. If 'full grammar' is considered, it is likely to suppose that all elementary senses of a universal grammatical integral find their representation in any language, within the grammatical-contextual complex. Thus, various languages complement each other within the framework of the universal human language. Separate grammatical forms of particular languages also complement each other within the framework of universal grammatical concepts. Grammatical integrals taken as wholes, as well as types of grammatical-contextual complexes are not just chaotic sets of occasional senses. In interlingual contrasts, if one of the languages is 'perfect-devoid' ('article-devoid', etc.), the relevant functional types retreat to the potential, covert domain. Formally, a semantic zone, or the functional potential of a universal grammatical integral, finds its representation in formal means that belong to different levels of language structure, but get united in a complex.