This is the initial essay in a projected series, entitled The Gate of Languages, 'seeking the laws that govern language and its relationship with other social institutions'. The series is dedicated to the memory of an eminent Dutch linguist, Nicolaas van Wijk, who pioneered in the study of structural laws of language in relation to time and space. This essay is written by two authoritative students of linguistics who intend it mainly as a survey of current views on phonology—the study of the evolution of basic units of speech sounds, the phonemes, within a particular language and of the ultimate semantic elements—the morphemes. It thus represents the microscopic description of language structure. The second, and shorter, portion deals with a few linguistic problems in their global aspects. These include the twofold nature of language in general, as expressed in disorders of similarity and contiguity, as well as in aphasia; also the phenomena of metaphor and metonym.

The major portion of the essay dealing with the phonemes discusses