Language and the Expression of the Pure Forms of Relation: The Sphere of Judgment and the Concepts of Relation [Relation]

Even in the inflected languages, in which the opposition between the expression of substantial signification and the expression of formal relation is most clearly manifested, the equilibrium between the two elements of expression shows itself to be to a certain extent an unstable equilibrium. A concrete, sensible-objective expression always appears as a foundation, which, however, is stripped more and more of this initial character and transformed into a general expressive relationship. Instead of a pure relational being, the people find an expression that designates existence in this or that place, a being-here or being-over-there, or else an existence in this or that moment. Thus, the same basic tendency of language that the people were able to follow in all linguistic configuration of the particular concepts of relation proves itself in the general expression of relation that presents itself in the copula.