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Translated by Patrick Flack
pp.
Recent research has revealed the important role of opposition in all layers of language, from phonology up to syntax. Opposition is one of the principles that make up the language system [système de la langue].
The discovery of this fact has been a great stimulus to linguistic research and has profoundly changed the method of linguistic research: instead of meticulously recording isolated facts, its aim is to establish an order which allows one to see structures. The explanation of static and historical facts has been profoundly influenced by this new method.
Psychology and philosophy have a great interest in following this development of linguistics, which in turn can be deepened through this contact.
Opposition is not an isolated fact: it is a structural principle. It always brings together two things that are distinct, but which are linked in such a way that thought cannot pose one without posing the other. The unity of opposites is always formed by a concept, which, implicitly, contains the opposites within it and divides into explicit opposition when applied to reality. 182 concrete. The content of the opposition is posterior to the form and concept from which it originates.
Opposition in linguistic facts is not a scheme that science introduces to master the facts, and which would remain outside them. Its importance goes beyond the epistemological order: when linguistic thought arranges facts according to the principles of opposition and system, it meets a thought that creates these facts themselves.
Discussion:
K. Bühler (Vienna) points out that oppositions are only one element of the structure and that there are many other relationships than oppositions.
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