Routledge dictionary of language and linguistics - Developers

A-Z 397
expression plane vs content plane
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.
Saussure, F. de. 1916. Cours de linguistique générale, ed. C.Bally and A.Sechehaye. Paris. (Course
in general linguistics, trans. R.Harris. London, 1983.)
expressive aphasia aphasia, Broca’s
aphasia
expressive function of language
The expressive function of language constitutes one of the three subfunctions of the
linguistic sign in K.Bühler’s organon model of language. It refers to the relation
between the linguistic sign and the ‘sender,’ whose intention is expressed as a ‘symptom’
by the linguistic sign. ( also appellative function of language, representational
function of language)