Investigations into the Image

Abstract

1) Rhetoric: study of the formation of figures of speech, persuasive procedures used in human communication/ art of speaking well, eloquence studied according to the rules of the formal logic of speech (Aristotle)/ a symbolic system. 2) Phoneme: the smallest, autonomous, indivisible, and nonsignificant unit of phonetic language/ sonorous element of articulate language/ distinctive unit suitable for constructing semantic units of a spoken language/ classified into vowels, diphthongs, and consonants. 3) Moneme: aggregate of phonemes that corresponds to a content of meaning (Andre Martinet); key sign, lexeme, semanteme/significant unit made out of phonemes in a spoken language (e.g., sing in singing). 4) Morpheme: element of formation conferring a predetermined grammatical aspect to a moneme. 5) articulation: articulation of distinctive nonsignificant units phoneme and articulation of significant units or moneme and morpheme/ double articulation is the condition of every spoken language (Andre Martinet). 6) Andre Martinet, Element de linguistique general, 3rd edition (Paris: A. Colin, 1963). 7) Monosemic: one universal, unambiguous meaning/ universal relationship between the signifier and the signified/ mathematic and topology, topography and graphics that admit only three basic relationships: proposition, order, and difference are monosemic/ opposed to polysemic. A system is considered monosemic when a knowledge of the significance of each sign precedes the observation of their totality (acques Bertin). The linguistic code Our mother tongue, that unique linguistic code given to us at birth, is a convenient tool that is often taken for granted. Yet, language is not simple and cannot be acquired by apprenticeship or educated reflexes alone. Time and reasonable thinking are required to understand how the language works. In order to have speech, it is essential to go through grammar, syntax, vocabulary, structural analysis, semantic analysis, rhetoric, and rules of composition simultaneously. In addition to auricular representation, there are also orthographic and visual modes: handwriting and typesetting. Together these enable us to master the linguistic code. But what about the essence of language: Is there a hidden agenda? By now, it is well known that the relevant units in the linguistic code are not just the letters or the words, but also phonemes, monemes, and morphemes. The phoneme2 is a distinctive unit that corresponds to a sound. The moneme3 is a significant unit that has a particular meaning. With fewer than 50 phonemes (no matter how they are spelled, letter pronunciation having no particular coherence in English!), thousands of monemes can be made (figure 1), articulated or not, with morphemes.4 This twofold articulation is an extravagant phenomenon, which lies at the very root of human knowledge. All phonetical languages share this double articulation.5 Andre Martinet has said Double articu-