Root of Language

The development of the global information society leads to a revision of traditional concepts of language. In this regard, there is a need to compile a new conceptual apparatus for the science of linguistics, including to define the very concept of “language”.

Language is a multi-valued phenomenon. Given this variety of meanings, it is advisable to consider them in a certain hierarchy. The most important concept in this hierarchy is the concept of the root of the language. This concept is so specific that it is unlikely to be able to find a sufficiently reliable definition for it.

The term "root of language" has a long history, but is relatively rare in systematic linguistics. According to Ozhegov’s dictionary, “root” is: 1) the main part of the plant; 2) underground part of the root. From the point of view of a linguist, the root of a word can be called the root of a language. It turns out that the root includes all the main features of the word or isolates the lexical meaning and grammatical form from it.