Abstract
The author argues that besides the basic functions of language, defined by Vilém Mathesius as the ways and means of calling the selected elements of reality by names and the ways and means of organizing these names in specific situations into sentences, a separate basic function should be considered - that of permanent addition of new ways to express and cover the changing and rising needs of their respective society. The resulting complex structure of each language, largely differing from any other fellow natural language, can only be acquired through social contact.
The Chomskian "universal grammar", if accepted as a general concept on a high level of abstraction, can rather be identified with the basic prelinguistic cognitive capacities of the human mind.