Ferdinand de Sausser suggested that the system of a language should be studied on the opposition of its concrete forms (units). The opposition is a pair of grammatical forms, opposed to each other both in meaning and in form. Three main qualitative types of oppositions were established in phonology:
"privative",
"gradual",
"equipollent"
By the number of members contrasted, oppositions were divided into binary (two members) and more than binary (ternary, quaternary, etc.).
The gradual opposition is formed by a contrastive group of members which are distinguished not by the presence or аbsenсе of a feature, but by the degree of it. An example of the gradual morphological opposition can be seen in the category of comparison:
strong — stronger — the strongest
The equipollent opposition is formed by a contrastive pair or group in which the members are distinguished by different positive features. An example of the equipollent opposition can be seen in the correlation of the person forms of the verb be:
am — are — is.
Both equipollent and gradual oppositions in morphology, the same as in phonology, can be reduced to privative oppositions.
The most important type of opposition is the binary privative opposition; the other types of oppositions are reducible to the binary privative opposition.
The binary privative opposition is formed by a contrastive pair of members in which one member is characterised by the presence of a certain differential feature ("mark"), while the other member is characterised by the absence of this feature.
In various contextual conditions, one member of an opposition can be used in the position of the other, counter-member. This phenomenon is usually referred to as “oppositional reduction” (some authors use the term “oppositional substitution”). Two major types of oppositional reduction are differentiated: neutralization and transposition.
Neutralization as a linguistic concept by which we mean suspension of otherwise functioning oppositions. The position of neutralization is, as a rule, filled in by the weak member of the opposition due to its more general semantics. Neutralization is stylistically indifferent, the use of the unmarked member of the opposition in the position of the marked member does not transgress the expressive conventions of ordinary speech.
e.g. The exhibition opens next week.
The example presents a case of neutralization of the opposition “present vs. future”. The present form “opens”, which is the weak member of the opposition, is used in the position of the strong member and denotes a future action.
Neutralization is possible due to the presence of the adverbial modifier of time
(“next week”), which plays the role of the neutralizer in this case.
The other type of oppositional reduction called transposition takes place when one of the members of the opposition is placed in contextual conditions uncommon for it, that is, the use of the form is stylistically marked. Transposition is based on the contrast between the members of the opposition, it may be defined as a contrastive use of the counter-member of the opposition. As a rule, it is the marked member of the opposition that is employed transpositionally, but not always so.
e.g. He is always borrowing my pen.
