{{Short description|Fundamental principle of linguistics}} {{distinguish|Coarticulation|Doubly articulated consonant}} In linguistics, '''double articulation''', '''duality of patterning''', or '''duality'''<ref name="trask1">{{cite book | last = Trask | first = R.L. | authorlink = Larry Trask | title = Language: the basics | publisher = [[Routledge]] | year = 1999 | isbn = 0-415-20089-X }}</ref> is the fundamental language phenomenon consisting of the use of combinations of a small number of meaningless elements (sounds, that is, [[phoneme]]s) to produce a large number of meaningful elements (words, actually [[morpheme]]s).<ref name="trask1"/> Its name refers to this two-level structure inherent to [[sign system]]s, many of which are composed of these two kinds of elements: 1) distinctive but meaningless and 2) significant or meaningful.
It is one of [[Hockett's design features]].
==Theory== ''Double articulation''<ref>Occasionally also "double segmentation".</ref> refers to the twofold structure of the stream of speech, which can be primarily divided into ''meaningful'' signs (like words or [[morphemes]]), and then secondarily into ''distinctive'' elements (like sounds or [[phonemes]]). 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 [[phonemes]], represent the secondary and lowest level of articulation in the hierarchy of the organization of speech. Higher, primary, levels of organization (including [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], [[syntax]], and [[semantics]]) govern the combination of these individually meaningless phonemes into meaningful elements.
==History== The French concept of ''double articulation'' was first introduced by [[André Martinet]] in 1949, and elaborated in his ''Éléments de linguistique générale'' (1960).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Martinet|first=André|url=|title=Éléments de linguistique générale |date=1960|publisher=Colin|edition=1st}} <br/>Revised edition: {{Cite book|last=Martinet|first=André|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/942996561|title=Éléments de linguistique générale |date=2008|publisher=Colin|edition=5th|isbn=9782200354473|oclc=942996561}}</ref> The English translation<ref>{{Cite book|last=Martinet|first=André|url=|title=Elements of General Linguistics|date=1964|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=9780571090792|translator=Elisabeth Palmer}}</ref> ''double articulation'' is a French [[calque]] for ''double articulation'' (spelled exactly the same in French). It may also be termed ''duality of patterning''.
"Duality of patterning" was proposed by American linguist [[Charles F. Hockett]] in a 1958 textbook ''A course in modern linguistics''.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Hockett, Charles Francis 1916-2000|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1072556808|title=A course in modern linguistics|date=1970|publisher=Macmillan|oclc=1072556808}}</ref> The two terms are similar but different, and Hockett and Martinet proposed their concepts independently. Both of them were probably inspired by Danish linguist [[Louis Hjelmslev]]'s theory of "two planes" of human language. Hjelmslev proposed that human languages have two kinds of planes: planes of ''plereme'' ("fullness" in Greek) and planes of ''ceneme'' ("emptiness" in Greek). The planes of ''plereme'' contain meaningful units, and the planes of ''ceneme'' contain meaningless units that make up the meaningful units. For example, the ''cenemes'' of spoken language are phonemes, while the ''pleremes'' are morphemes or words; the ''cenemes'' of alphabetic writing are the letters and the ''pleremes'' are the words.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ladd|first=D. Robert|date=December 2012|title=What is duality of patterning, anyway?|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/langcog-2012-0015|journal=Language and Cognition|volume=4|issue=4|pages=261–273|doi=10.1515/langcog-2012-0015|s2cid=147433105|issn=1866-9808|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
[[Sign language]]s may have less double articulation because more gestures are possible than sound and able to convey more meaning without double articulation.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Sedivy|first1=Julie|title=The Unusual Language That Linguists Thought Couldn't Exist|url=http://nautil.us/blog/the-unusual-language-that-linguists-thought-couldnt-exist|website=Nautilus|date=22 September 2014|accessdate=23 September 2014}}</ref>
==See also== * [[Origin of language]] * [[Origin of speech]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *Wendy Sandler et alii, [https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/512d/586997ffcdd35d5e0b1d69e9f40fc282e9f1.pdf "The gradual emergence of phonological form in a new language"], 2009.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Double Articulation}} [[Category:Linguistics]] [[Category:Philosophy of language]] [[Category:Semiotics]] [[Category:Theories of language]]