Now the identification of individual sounds by phonetic observation is an artificial way of proceeding.

In poetic language, in which the sign as such takes on an autonomous value, this sound symbolism becomes an actual factor and creates a sort of accompaniment to the signified.

Acoustic phonetics, which is developing and increasing in richness very rapidly, already enables us to solve many of the mysteries of sound, mysteries which motor phonetics could not even begin to solve.

Speech sounds cannot be understood, delimited, classified and explained except in the light of the tasks which they perform in language.

The function of poetry is to point out that the sign is not identical to the referent.

A linguist deaf to the poetic functions of language and a literary scholar indifferent to linguistics are equally flagrant anachronisms.

It is once again the vexing problem of identity within variety; without a solution to this disturbing problem there can be no system, no classification.