Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

A-Z 421Referencesborrowing, language contact, language maintenance, stylisticsformThis term is used in various ways, depending on the terminological context:1 In traditional grammar ( school grammar), it is the designation for words of thesame stem, but different inflection: in this sense run, ran, runs are different word formsof the word run.2 Since antiquity (Aristotle), form has denoted the sensorily perceptible aspect of thelinguistic sign ( signifier vs signified), in contrast to content/meaning or function.3 In American structuralism, form is an unclassified linguistic utterance to which ameaning is attributed. A distinction is drawn between (a) free forms, which can occuralone, such as the word, which is defined as the smallest free form, and (b) bound forms,such as inflectional or word formation suffixes, which can only occur together with other,i.e. free, forms.ReferenceBloomfield, L. 1926. A set of postulates for the science of language. Lg 2. 153–64.4 In glossematics, form in the opposition ‘form vs substance’ denotes abstractcharacteristics (which are at the base of all possible substantial realizations of a linguisticexpression). Substances represent material linguistic realizations at the level of parole,whereas forms represent units at the level of langue ( langue vs parole). Thedistinction of form vs substance applies to all levels of description: thus, form on thecontent level refers to the abstract semantic relations of the lexicon, by which themeaning substance (=unstructured set of thoughts and concepts) is differently structuredfrom language to language. For an impressive example cf. the designation of the basiccolors in different languages: the substance (the chromatic spectrum) is structuredlanguage, specifically through different formal relations ( color terms).glossematicsReferences