Marxism and Problems of Linguistics - From Marx to Mao

and in words combined into sentences, the results of theprocess of thinking and achievements of man’s cognitiveactivity, and thus makes possible the exchange of thoughts inhuman society.Exchange of thoughts is a constant and vital necessity, forwithout it, it is impossible to co-ordinate the joint actions ofpeople in the struggle against the forces of nature, in thestruggle to produce the necessary material values; without it,it is impossible to ensure the success of society’s productiveactivity, and, hence, the very existence of social productionbecomes impossible. Consequently, without a language understoodby a society and common to all its members, that societymust cease to produce, must disintegrate and cease to existas a society. In this sense, language, while it is a mediumof intercourse, is at the same time an instrument of struggleand development of society.As we know, all the words in a language taken togetherconstitute what is known as its vocabulary. The chief thingin the vocabulary of a language is its basic stock of words,which includes also all the root words, as its kernel. It is farless extensive than the language’s vocabulary, but it persistsfor a very long time, for centuries, and provides the languagewith a basis for the formation of new words. The vocabularyreflects the state of the language: the richer and more diversifiedthe vocabulary, the richer and more developed thelanguage.However, by itself, the vocabulary does not constitute thelanguage — it is rather the building material of the language.Just as in construction work the building materials do notconstitute the building, although the latter cannot be constructedwithout them, so too the vocabulary of a languagedoes not constitute the language itself, although no language21