ABSTRACT
In L.Hjelmslev’s glossematics and drawing on F.de Saussure’s Cours de linguistique générale, the distinction between the two levels of analysis of the linguistic sign. The expression plane refers to the material aspect of the linguistic sign, the content plane to the semantic aspect, there not necessarily being a one-to-one correspondence between both aspects of the linguistic sign. In analogy to de Saussure’s bilateral model of the sign, the two levels are again subdivided through the dichotomy of ‘form vs substance.’ Derived from the combination of the four levels are the linguistic subdisciplines of phonetics (i.e. the substance of the expression), semantics (the substance of the content), phonology (the form of the expression), and grammar (the form of the content). In Hjelmslev’s autonomous linguistics only the langue-specific form-oriented domains of phonology and grammar are objects of linguistic study, while the substance domains of phonetics and semantics are extralinguistic aspects. ( also langue vs parole)
References
Hjelmslev, L. 1943. Omkring sprogteoriens grundlaeggelse. Copenhagen. 1961. Prolegomena to a theory of language, trans. F.J.Whitfield. Madison, WI.
