Speech is built from whole sentences, not pre-existing words

Evidence

For a long time psychologists have observed that the word is not the concrete element of speech—not even the word of the dialect or the word of the family with its particular variation; the elementary structure of speech is the sentence. It is within the sentence, in fact, that the word can receive a real function as a designation; outside of the sentence the word is just a propositional function—when it is not a pure and simple rubric designed to group absolutely disparate meanings. … The word therefore has only a purely virtual existence outside of complex and active organizations which integrate it. It can not exist “in” a consciousness or an unconscious before the use which is made of it: the sentence is not made out of words. … If this is true, then neither the words nor the syntax, nor the “readymade sentences” pre-exist the use which made of them. Since the verbal unity is the meaningful sentence, the latter is a constructive act which is conceived only by a transcendence which surpasses and nihilates the given toward an end. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1215

Categorization

• XREF: Paulhan’s Fleurs de Tarbes, referenced directly; also connects to later structural linguistics debates (Saussure on parole vs. langue) and to the concept grounding of speech-act theory. — connects to: Even ready-made sentences do not pre-exist their use in speech; Words emerge from whole speech, not from combination of words — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 749; Speech is a continuous signal flow, not discrete concatenated units (+1 more)
• DEFINE: Defines the sentence (not the word) as the primitive unit of meaningful speech, with the word having only virtual existence outside sentences.

Broader Connections

• Words emerge from whole speech, not from combination of words #corroborates (0.95) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 749
• Speech is a continuous signal flow, not discrete concatenated units #corroborates (0.95)
• Relying on isolated phrases ripped from context commits a fallacy #expands (0.80) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 1232