Double articulation


Double articulation, or duality of patterning is a concept used in linguistics and semiotics. It refers to the two-level structure inherent to a sign system, insofar as it is composed by two kinds of elements: 1) significant or meaningful, and 2) distinctive or meaningless.

Theory

Double articulation refers to the twofold structure of the stream of speech, which can be primarily divided into meaningful signs, and then secondarily into distinctive elements. For example, the meaningful English word "cat" is composed of the sounds /k/, /æ/, and /t/, which are meaningless as separate individual sounds. 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 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. The English calque double articulation is sometimes replaced by duality of patterning.
According to Charles F. Hockett and other linguists, this duality is an important property of human languages, since it allows for the expression of a potentially infinite number of meaningful language sequences. Strictly speaking, however, such expressiveness follows from generativity or productivity, not of duality per se. For further discussion, see figurae, as well as Hockett's design features, which treats productivity and duality as distinct essential properties of language.
Sign languages may have less double articulation because more gestures are possible than sound and able to convey more meaning without double articulation.