If we consider double articulation as the core of language, and would see in the rest just margins, it is because this removes language farthest from indiscriminate, unanalysed, interjectional, prehuman, or, should we say, proto-human, forms of communication. This alone can secure for language the stability and the rigour that results from the use of discrete units. We all, at one time or another, may get impatient with double articulation because some intonation or some interjection will enable us to achieve what we want far more quickly at a much lower cost. But this means nothing more than the observation that it often consumes more time and energy to get someone to do something through asking him than through giving him a push.
- Martinet (1962), a pag.28