THE CONTRIBUTION OF URIEL WEINREICH TO THE STUDY OF INTERLINGUAL INTERFERENCE

Abstract

The article concentrates on an attempt to disclose the contribution of the well-known American linguist Uriel Weinreich to the study of a current linguistic problem – interlingual interference. It is emphasized that his scientific heritage has not lost its significance until now and takes a key place in modern studies. The author points out the axiomatic of his statements and definitions in linguistic researches. The main stages of the linguist's life and scientific biography are briefly outlined. After the publication of Uriel Weinreich's work "Language in Contacts" in 1953 the definition of language contact and also the concept of interference was established in linguistics. The researcher singled out interference in language and speech. He distinguished two phases of interference: in the utterance of bilingual speaker as a result of his personal knowledge of the other tongue (in speech )and interference phenomena in the speech of bilinguals which become habitualized and established. The linguist traced carefully the interference manifestations at the phonetic, lexical and grammatical levels of language and established the dependence of interference types related to the socio-cultural conditions of language interaction. Uriel Weinreich saw the problem of phonetic interference in the fact that speaking one language, a person perceived and reproduced its sounds from the sounds of another. The researcher identified four factors that cause phonetic interference: under-differentiation, over-differentiation, reinterpretation, actual phonesubstitution. Uriel Weinreich also described the types of lexical interference in details. He distinguished the lexical interference of simple words and compound words and phrases. The scientist considered the issue of grammatical interference as one of the most difficult and controversial problems in linguistics. He suggested different approaches of famous scholars, which indicated its presence or absence. At the same time, he pointed out the existence of the phenomenon of grammatical interference, identified its features and gave many practical examples confirming his position. Studying interlingual interference, Uriel Weinreich paid considerable attention to the interference types related to the socio-cultural conditions of language interaction.