L'écriture et la double articulation du langage

Abstract

I am going to discuss the subject of the "double articulation" of language, starting from the well-known debate held in the Forties, with reference to works of A. Martinet, Vachek, Hjelmslev and Uldall. The discussion was about the conditions under which written language could "admitted" into the linguistic field. I will discuss in particular the severe judgment of French linguistics concerning glossematics and script, considering the double articulation. I will show that the way in which French linguists are presenting this debate is misguided, because one has to take into account the fundamental asymmetry of writing and speech. We must now open up new approaches to the relationships between the two models. This is what F. Coulmas, among others, is doing for the Chinese Language. Although they are quite opposite, the two media are not two different languages, but a single having two types of competence, which, because of this partnership, is changed and becomes richer (L Prime Theory).