In the final operations of the analysis linguistic theory will lead to a partition descending to entities of smaller extension than those which until now have been viewed as irreducible invariants. This is true not merely in the content plane [...] but also in the expression plane. In both planes the partition based on relation will reach a stage in which selection is used for the last time as the basis of analysis. The analysis at this stage will lead to an inventorying of ‘taxemes’, which will be virtual elements; for the expression plane the taxemes will ‘grosso modo’ be the linguistic forms that are manifested by phonemes, but in this connexion the reservation must be made that an analysis carried out strictly according to the simplicity principle often leads to essentially different results from the phonemic analysis hitherto attempted.
- Hjelmslev (1961), a pag.99