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Double articulation
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<h2 id="theory">Theory</h2> <p><i>Double articulation</i><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> refers to the twofold structure of the stream of speech, which can be primarily divided into <i>meaningful</i> signs (like words or <a href="/facts/Morphemes/4JNcPMHs">morphemes</a>), and then secondarily into <i>distinctive</i> elements (like sounds or <a href="/facts/Phonemes/EXGHlJ7a">phonemes</a>). For example, the meaningful English word "cat" is composed of the sounds /k/, /æ/, and /t/, which are meaningless as separate individual sounds (and which can also be combined to form the separate words "tack" and "act", with distinct meanings). These sounds, called <a href="/facts/Phonemes/EXGHlJ7a">phonemes</a>, represent the secondary and lowest level of articulation in the hierarchy of the organization of speech. Higher, primary, levels of organization (including <a href="/facts/Morphology_(linguistics)/fWkzsYE8">morphology</a>, <a href="/facts/Syntax/6PxSV98p">syntax</a>, and <a href="/facts/Semantics/1L4WwLAP">semantics</a>) govern the combination of these individually meaningless phonemes into meaningful elements. </p> <h2 id="history">History</h2> <p>The French concept of <i>double articulation</i> was first introduced by <a href="/facts/Andr%C3%A9_Martinet/DQMPoJPp">André Martinet</a> in 1949, and elaborated in his <i>Éléments de linguistique générale</i> (1960).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> The English translation<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> <i>double articulation</i> is a French <a href="/facts/Calque/A9M3UtAo">calque</a> for <i>double articulation</i> (spelled exactly the same in French). It may also be termed <i>duality of patterning</i>. </p><p>"Duality of patterning" was proposed by American linguist <a href="/facts/Charles_F._Hockett/mcWEr8P4">Charles F. Hockett</a> in a 1958 textbook <i>A course in modern linguistics</i>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> The two terms are similar but different, and Hockett and Martinet proposed their concepts independently. Both of them were probably inspired by Danish linguist <a href="/facts/Louis_Hjelmslev/DFKn71Pd">Louis Hjelmslev</a>'s theory of "two planes" of human language. Hjelmslev proposed that human languages have two kinds of planes: planes of <i>plereme</i> ("fullness" in Greek) and planes of <i>ceneme</i> ("emptiness" in Greek). The planes of <i>plereme</i> contain meaningful units, and the planes of <i>ceneme</i> contain meaningless units that make up the meaningful units. For example, the <i>cenemes</i> of spoken language are phonemes, while the <i>pleremes</i> are morphemes or words; the <i>cenemes</i> of alphabetic writing are the letters and the <i>pleremes</i> are the words.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> </p><p><a href="/facts/Sign_language/Wjfl9Db6">Sign languages</a> may have less double articulation because more gestures are possible than sound and able to convey more meaning without double articulation.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Origin_of_language/j8QkTM86">Origin of language</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Origin_of_speech/FC0DjB6T">Origin of speech</a></li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li>Wendy Sandler et alii, <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/512d/586997ffcdd35d5e0b1d69e9f40fc282e9f1.pdf">"The gradual emergence of phonological form in a new language"</a>, 2009.</li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Trask, R.L. (1999). Language: the basics. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-20089-X. <a href="0-415-20089-X" target="_blank">0-415-20089-X</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Trask, R.L. (1999). Language: the basics. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-20089-X. <a href="0-415-20089-X" target="_blank">0-415-20089-X</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Occasionally also "double segmentation". <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Martinet, André (1960). Éléments de linguistique générale (1st ed.). Colin. Revised edition: Martinet, André (2008). Éléments de linguistique générale (5th ed.). Colin. ISBN 9782200354473. OCLC 942996561. <a href="9782200354473" target="_blank">9782200354473</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Martinet, André (1964). Elements of General Linguistics. Translated by Elisabeth Palmer. Faber & Faber. ISBN 9780571090792. <a href="9780571090792" target="_blank">9780571090792</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Hockett, Charles Francis 1916-2000 (1970). A course in modern linguistics. Macmillan. OCLC 1072556808.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) <a href="http://worldcat.org/oclc/1072556808" target="_blank">http://worldcat.org/oclc/1072556808</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Ladd, D. Robert (December 2012). "What is duality of patterning, anyway?". Language and Cognition. 4 (4): 261–273. doi:10.1515/langcog-2012-0015. ISSN 1866-9808. S2CID 147433105. <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/langcog-2012-0015" target="_blank">https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/langcog-2012-0015</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Sedivy, Julie (22 September 2014). "The Unusual Language That Linguists Thought Couldn't Exist". Nautilus. Retrieved 23 September 2014. <a href="http://nautil.us/blog/the-unusual-language-that-linguists-thought-couldnt-exist" target="_blank">http://nautil.us/blog/the-unusual-language-that-linguists-thought-couldnt-exist</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>