Translation of Yuri Rozhdestvensky’s 1967 article ‘Language theory and the problem of language development’

Abstract

The article describes changes in language, which regularly happen after the introduction of new communication technologies, identifying the pattern: repeated changes in ways of creation, replication and conceptualization of language. The article points out that the electronic stage, just like oral, written and printed stages, requires human effort to adjust language to its new environment. The author argues for human agency: language theory consciously formulated to lead the necessary changes. The author proposes a new discipline, language semiotics, which would study the processes of creation and replication in language in order to suggest successful solutions during the turning points, aka crisis situations in language history.