kand. of philosophical sciences Tinyakova E.A.

Sergiev-Possad of Non-state educational establishment of higher professional education

“Moscow Institute of Entrepreunership and law”

Language communication as a factor of civilization development

In culture studies civilization is interpreted as a huge step in history movement. As a scientific notion civilization is defined from the view point of history on the one hand and from the view point of culture on the other. Definition of civilization is much connected with development of human language; many scientists argue that civilization started with written form of language. Language pacing of civilization is possible. In this fragment of research this approach will be elaborated and applied. The claim is that we can focus main living facilities and achievements to steps in development of language. This claim is supported by our consideration that language is universally related to all kinds of human activity and helps to describe all kinds of objects in ideal and material forms. Language communication is a through backbone in civilization; it helps to keep various images in life development, to embrace and include more and more space into our vision of life, to support interrelations of people dynamic and diachronically, to use the past experience, to create hierarchical picture of the world people live in, to introduce human desires into on-going life, to construct world of fantasy. In this respect language is a tool in civilization and communication is a strategy.

Let’s try to point out functions of language that promote cultural development, which on the summarizing level of most prominent marks is called civilization. First language has a constructing function, that is due to accumulating the past experience, reconsidering it with human needs and then putting the elaborated plans into practice. The second function is protective: language helps human beings to be safe in surroundings. The third one is sociable that is connected with human interrelations because in the process of civilization human activity is becoming more and more dependent on use of language in contacts. The fourth function is entertaining, amusing, related to psychology and emotional world.

In the process of civilization we can point out three huge stages in relation of language communication to civilization. The first stage is the archaic period when communication didn’t exist, human beings contacted through reflexes and natural human behavior. Nature was carrying information, human beings obeying the dynamic force. These contacts were one time, had no time prospects. The first period was over with tribal organization: here communication could already be recognized but locally. These local examples (tribal life) put important prerequisites to communication marks: visual, sound and action symbols served as communication focuses; traditions gave permanent conception and stability; first information cells, rather syncretic in essence, were created.

The second period already recognizes the notion of language as a means of signs and symbols for communication. Communication space began to widen from tribal to exploring more new lands. The development of communication was supported by development of means of transport. The first means to transfer language and hence information and news were post and newspapers, the original ones being written in hand. Some researchers point out this step in civilization development as passing from “hand-made language” to “tool- made”. By and by there appeared publishing, meeting the two crucial demands−to keep the information for long and preserve the past experience in a wider time span. The history of post is a special sub-page in this huge second stage of civilization. The history of post in Russia goes back to the end of the X-th century. At first letter messages and news-carrying blended in performance, later they differentiated. First newspapers go back to Julius Caesar, but those tables were not on paper but clay boards. The word “gazetta” is of Italian origin, it proceeded from the name of the coin “gazetta”. Of course origin of newspapers is dependent on invention and application of paper, which goes further backward in comparison with newspapers, these two events overlap but I underline that my periodization of civilization is oriented to language. The first newspapers in Russia were connected with German and Holland’s influence. It happened in 1702 by the order of Peter the Great. The origin of press is closely connected with post and is dependent on it. With respect of book publishing Germany is considered the cradle of the invention. By the end of the XV-th century there were more than 50 publishing houses in Germany and more than 200 craftsmen. From Germany this technique spread all over Europe. The origin of publishing among the Slavs is a separate branch. The first Slav publishing house was founded in Montenegro 1494. In Russia the development of publishing was under the influence of Church.

The history of photography has roots in ancient times. The first photo image was made by Nicephore Niepce 1822 (Wikipedia). The origin of photography as an invention is registered in 1839 by Jacques Daguerre. Color photography appeared in the middle of the X1X-th century. 1861 it was done by James Maxwell. 1907 the brothers Lumieres got patented their photography invention. As we see that at a certain step in language communication development it became necessary to support language communication with visual information. Here are three sub-stages: published illustrations, photography and films, television. Language communication got to embracing all our planet with the invention of radio and television. The first wireless communication was declared by Mahlon Loomis in 1866, 1872 he got his patent. In Germany Henrich Herz presented his invention 1888. In the United States of America David Hughes and Thomas Edison developed the idea of radio, in Russia− Popov A. May the 7-th 1895 in St-Petersburg. Visual content of information transferred and its presentation in language united in television. The idea of television began to develop since 1880-s. There had been much research beforehand. Some variants of electronic-ray tubes were proposed by inventors. The first device of mechanic scanning was made by the German engineer Paul Nipkov 1884. Television got popularity in the 50-ies, XX century, in the United States; in Russia−in the 60-ies. The history of television is interwoven with cinematography. This is the end of the second period in civilization development: humans elaborated information, united it into flows and transferred globally..

The third period begins with the invention of computer techniques and internet. The new demands included: immense growth of information, need to compress it from being published on paper (paper began to limit the volume of information to be transferred), to satisfy multi-layer disposition, individualization of information and higher speed of its spreading, cancelling choice of information for tranferrence.

As conclusion we can state that communication as way of transferring information can be put as the guiding principle of interpreting civilization on-going. The source of communication is hidden in nature, by and by a man tried to extract it from nature depths and get the leading position in communication process. That is why the conception presented is supported by the idea of the author about the ecological origin of human language. Communication process is getting orientation to far off future and leaving not only our Earth but the solar system. Here human language is losing its anthropological form and passing to digital forms. Human language is seeking for contacts with cosmic communication to join it.

Note: dates are matched with Wikipedia; possible alternatives in other research literature are probable; non-linear succession of events should be taken into consideration.

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