A Linguist Deaf To The

Speech Sounds Cannot Be Understood, Delimited, Classified And Explained Except In The Light Of The Tasks Which They Perform In Language.

Languages Differ Essentially In What They Must Convey And Not In What They May Convey.

The Search For The Symbolic Value Of Phonemes, Each Taken As A Whole, Runs The Risk Of Giving Rise To Ambiguous And Trivial Interpretations Because Phonemes Are Complex Entities, Bundles Of Different Distinctive Features.

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.