言語学の対立する教義のなかででも，とりわけ矛盾に満ちた対立として標題の2つがある．H. Osthoff and K. Brugmann に代表されるドイツの青年文法学派 (Neogrammarians) が唱えた Ausnahmslose Lautgesetze "sound laws without exception" とフランスの方言学者 Gilliéron の唱えた chaque mot a son histoire "every word has its own history" である．前者は音韻法則がすべての語に例外なく作用することを，後者はすべての語が独自の発展を示すことを明言している．このような対立はどのように解消（あるいは解釈）すべきだろうか．真実は，両者のあいだのどこかにあるということなのだろうか．
　Robins (213) は，両者はそれほど矛盾していないと考えている．語彙が全体として同じ変化を経るという同質性の側面と，各語が個別な振る舞いを示すという異質性の側面が，共存していると考えるのが妥当ではないかと．

Changes in the pronunciation of words involve two things: the transmission from generation to generation of articulatory habits rests on the learning in childhood of sets of sounds heard first in certain words but, once mastered, used without effort in any number of words; but for various reasons, not by any means all understood, changes take place in the course of successive transmission between the generations, and the recurrence of a relatively small number of sounds in the virtually limitless vocabulary of a language makes for the universality of sound changes. But words are also learned as whole lexical units, and any hesitation, individual change, or other peculiarity in the pronunciation of such a unit is also learned, and may be retained and propagated in later generations or within people's speech during their lifetime. Every word has its individual history in its semantics, grammar, and pronunciation. In most cases its phonetic evolution can be described by reference to the phonetic evolution of the sounds occurring in it (this is the basis of historical 'sound laws'), but in certain cases its pronounced form must be particular history. The neogrammarians stressed phonetic uniformity; Gilliéron and his disciples stressed etymological individuality.

　現代の言語学の発想は，たとえ個別の点については疑問があっても，原則として Neogrammarian であり続けている．Ausnahmslose Lautgesetze に寄りかかるためにも，この弁証法的な言語変化の理解は重要だろう．

　・ Robins, R. H. A Short History of Linguistics. 4th ed. Longman: London and New York, 1997.

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