[...] these taxemes as a rule may be [...] partitioned on the basis of a ‘universal’ division, which appears when they are ordered on the basis of special rules into systems of two, three, or more dimentions. [...] when a taxeme inventory is “set up into a system” the logical consequence is a further partition of the individual taxeme [...] The members of the dimentions will thus appear as taxeme-parts and as irreducible invariants. Whether such a “setting up into a system” of a taxeme inventory may be carried out depends essentially on the size of the inventory. When it may be carried out, it will be the members of the dimensions and not the taxemes that are the end-points of the analysis; these end-points we call ‘glossemes’, and if we assume that one taxeme of expression is usually manifested by one phoneme, then a glosseme of expression will usually be manifested by a part of a phoneme.
- Hjelmslev (1961), Pag. 99-100