“It is not easy to determine what are the units of speech. Some would say speech sounds, others phonemes… The general opinion is, however, that words, not phones or phonemes or phoneme systems, are the units of speech.”

Source: Speech, 1930, p. 182-183; As cited in: Angela Senis (2016: 293)

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John Rupert Firth14

English linguist 1890–1960

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John Rupert Firth (1890–1960) English linguist

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Word of no speech
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For the Garden
Where all love ends.

“It is not easy to determine what are the units of speech. Some would say speech sounds, others phonemes… The general opinion is, however, that words, not phones or phonemes or phoneme systems, are the units of speech.”

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John Rupert Firth14

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