[+Voice] or [-Voice]

Before we learned to walk;we knew distinction,a binary decision,this sound not that,a contrast in the throat,[+voice] or [-voice]

Minimal pairs are minimal revolutions.Change one feature,and ‘tied’ becomes ‘died’;‘breed’ becomes ‘bleed’.

Morphology is a molecular engineering.Take a rootfree and wandering.Bind it.Affix it.Inflect it for tense.

Add -er and invent an agent.Add -ed and bury an action.Nominalize a verband responsibility evaporates.‘Destroy’ becomes ‘Destruction’,no subject required.

Deep structure humsbeneath the surface;while transformation rearranges the skylineand calls it natural.

Even silence has strength.Ellipsis pregnant with power.What's unsaidbinding tighter than speech

Semantics promises truth conditions,but meaning shifts with deixis.'I' is a moving target.'We' a political invention.

Discourse is whereideology catches itself.Collocation conspires.'National Security''Collateral Damage',and what never collocates,'Security for All''Collateral Lives'

And still we think we use language,but language uses us.Positions us in case system.Marks us for gender, number, person.Assigns us the theta-roles,before we choose a role to play.

The system that generates infinite sentencescan also generates a different world.