‘The principle of reduction: Each operation in the procedure shall be continued or repeated until the description is exhausted, and shall at each stage lead to the registration of the lowest possible number of objects’.
- Hjelmslev (1961), a pag.61

In respect of the analysis we give the following ‘refined formulation of the principle of reduction’: ‘Each analysis (or each analysis complex) in which functives are registered with a given function as basis of analysis shall be so made that it leads to the registration of the lowest possible number of elements’.
- Hjelmslev (1961), a pag.61