Did Jean Aitchison Mean Double Articulation of Duality of Patterning?

Was Jean Aitchison Calling Bird-Song Doubly Articulated? · Did Jean Aitchison Mean Double Articulation of Duality of Patterning?

They are used interchangeably, but they are not the same.

Hjelmslev and Hocket speak of what is normally called Duality of Patterning, distinguishing TWO levels or planes.

Martinet speaks of Double Articulation, distinguishing THREE levels.

I think at least in Chomsky or somewhere (which I read in the 90's or early 2000's borrowing from a library I can now not access), because I did not read Martinet himself, it is THREE levels.

Obviously on order to have the word "come" equal a phrase, composed of more than one morpheme, one needs the zero-morpheme for imperative. This is however perfectly reasonable.

There is a difference between "come" as imperative, "come" as participle, "come" as infinitive, and "come" as indicative not third singular, and "come" with additions like "-s" for third singular or "short o => long a" for past. There is no human language where all phrases are made up of 1 morpheme + a zero-morpheme, which in that case would be highly just theoretical. The zero-morphemes in any language where they exist (not sure if some language has none, it is certain some do not have them where English would expect them, like "any nominative or accusative noun in the singular" which would not describe Latin or Polish) actually contrast with non-zero morphemes, like for "come" additions like 3 p sg -s (older -th), or change of root vowel in the past or other words like auxiliaries and non-3 p sg subjects.

So, I dissed her because she missed that double articulation = articulation of phrase into morphemes + of morphemes into phonemes.

Not lightly, since I highly respect her on "Language change: progress or decay" but still.

I would suggest, a) sorry for not knowing the phrasing of Hocket and Hjelmslev and hence being impolite, b) do take into account Martinet or his derivation in Chomsky (or others).

My criticism stands in substance, though I have to mitigate it in tone.

And no, I do not have access to the linguistics books I borrowed from Lund Municipal Library in the 90's or between 2000 and 2004. Perhaps it's even in her own Language change, which I read in 1993, same term as my grandmother died. So, I cannot give the reference.

The truth of the statement is however obvious. A one-word sentence does not mean a one-morpheme sentence apart from the special case of perfectly zero-morpheme after verb root = imperative. Pluit has plu-it. In Greenlandic, you can certainly say "I'm looking for [snow]/[material] to build an igloo" in one word, but it is not one morpheme, but a compound word, with "igdlu" as the lexical base and the rest (material, look for, present indicative non-perfect 1st person singular) as derivation endings and conjugation endings. Don't ask me how this is spelled or pronounced in Greenlandic, I just remember the fact.

And this fact means, Jean Aitchison, alas, your statement that birds have double articulation, in this sense, is still incorrect. They just have two levels in songs, double articulation in this sense has three.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
St. Romuald
7.II.2025

Sancti Romualdi Abbatis, Monachorum Camaldulensium Patris, cujus dies natalis tertiodecimo Kalendas Julii recensetur, sed festivitas hac die, ob Translationem corporis ejus, potissimum celebratur.

German wiki has, correctly:

Ein Zeichensystem ist zweifach gegliedert, wenn eine darauf basierende Nachricht wie folgt strukturiert ist:

1. Die Nachricht besteht aus Ausdruckseinheiten, deren jede eine Bedeutung trägt. Eine solche Einheit heißt signifikativ („bedeutungstragend“). Dies ist die erste Gliederung.

2. Jede signifikative Einheit ist zusammengesetzt aus Ausdruckseinheiten, die keine Bedeutung tragen, sondern lediglich Bedeutung unterscheiden. Eine solche Einheit heißt distinktiv („bedeutungsunterscheidend“). Dies ist die zweite Gliederung.

In dem Satz Jan arbeitet treten drei signifikative Einheiten auf: Jan („Jan“), arbeit- („pflichtmäßig zum Broterwerb tätig sein“) und -et („3. Person Singular Präsens“). Die signifikative Einheit Jan ist aus drei distinktiven Einheiten zusammengesetzt: /j/, /a/, /n/.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zweifache_Gliederung