ABSTRACT
Speech implies two fundamental operations: the selection of certain linguistic units in the code or common lexical storehouse and the combination of those elements into larger units of a greater complexity. Selection is the choice of one term from amongst other possible terms and it implies the possibility of the substitution of one term for another, given the number of associations which may be made between words on the basis of some similarity or other. The term refers to the idea of link, context and connexion: each linguistic unit serves as a context for simpler units and finds its own context in a more complex unit. The planes of selection and combination are in a close connexion which F. De Saussure has explained by means of the following comparison: each linguistic unit is like a column in an ancient building. The plane of combination is more closely connected with speech and the plane of selection with language as a system.
