But becoming conscious of the paramount importance of function in linguistics will normally lead to a greater respect of reality. And what is meant here by ‘reality’, is not any physical or semantic trait which happens to be singled out, but linguistic reality, that which is recognized as such because it belongs to a given language where it exerts a definite function.
- Martinet (1962), a pag.3

Function is the criterion of linguistic reality. Our duty is how to describe that reality, and it should be no cause of alarm if one of our operational devices is found to fail us at a certain point. These devices, such as phonemes, for instance, do correspond to definite aspects of linguistic reality as shown by the speakers’ comportments, and we value them in so far as they do, but no farther.
- Martinet (1962), a pag.5

There is something we have a right to call linguistic reality which combines 'signifiants' and 'signifiés' and which is distinct from both the phonic and the mental realities.
- Martinet (1962), a pag.70