The term ‘language system’ is here meant to designate the system of a specific language. A full theoretical explanation is found elsewhere. The concept is delimited by contrast with at least two opposite concepts:
- The language system is opposed to discourse (or text). Linguistic activity produces discourse by actualizing, and sometimes changing, the system, which is virtual.
- The language system is opposed to any other kind of knowledge shared by the speech community and involved in linguistic activity, including in particular encyclopedic knowledge, which borders on the lexicon, and social conventions, which provide part of the basis of linguistic pragmatics.
The relationship of the language system to discourse is visualized in the following diagram:
Language system and discourse
The language system is composed of two formative and one significative subsystems. The two formative subsystems are phonology and semantics. These form significantia and significata, resp., of the language (s. note on terminology).1 They apply phonological rules to phonological units and semantic rules to elements of meaning, resp. These do not concern us any further here.
Structure of the language system
The significative subsystem matches significantia onto significata to form signs of the language. Now human languages fulfill the requirement of effability (extensive discussion of this concept elsewhere). To meet this requirement, the significative system is articulated in two subsystems:
- Ready-made significative units are stored in the lexicon.
- New significative units are generated in the grammar.
Language signs may be accessed in two ways which form a polar contrast. If the association of expression and meaning is idiosyncratic, access is holistic; if the association is regular, access is analytic. Idiosyncratic signs are stored in the lexicon; regular signs are formed in the grammar. This is visualized in the following diagram:
Structure of the significative system
Lexicon and grammar – the two significative subsystems – differ gradually by the more or less holistic vs. analytic access to language signs, which in the diagram constitutes the horizontal axis. Both are structured by complexity levels, which constitute the vertical dimension of the diagram. Of particular importance here are the phrastic level (upwards from and including the syntagma) and the word level.
- Grammar below and including the word level is morphology; grammar above the word level is syntax.
- Lexicology above the word level is phraseology.
The segment of the lexicon which is most idiosyncratic with regard to the association of significans and significatum is the morpheme inventory or morphemicon. The most regular segment of morphology is inflection. Between these two sections, in the transition area between lexicon and grammar, word formation is positioned. Within it, derivation is slightly more regular than compounding. Above the word level, formations which are accessed holistically belong to phraseology, those accessed analytically belong to syntax.
1 Significatum is the Latin counterpart to Saussurean signifié and means the same as this. The term designates a concept that is needed and must be distinguished from other kinds of meaning.