Spoken language is a phoneme series. Phonemes are not separate and independent sounds but have specific sound sequences. Phonemes have contexts. Contexts determine possible phoneme substitutions {contrast, grammar} {paradigm, grammar}, which have different probabilities or strengths. Substitutions can change next-phoneme contexts. All utterances have paradigms. Words and spoken language have morpheme series, which have paradigms. People first learn frequently used grammar contrasts, which resist change most.
In context paradigms, linguistic units can be more distinct {marked, grammar} {positive, grammar} or more general {unmarked, grammar} {neutral, grammar}.
6-Linguistics-Grammar-Inflection
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Date Modified: 2022.0225