At every stage, the structure of language is nothing but the unstable balance between the needs of communication, which require more numerous and more specific units, each of them of comparatively rare occurrence, and man’s inertia, which favours less numerous, less specific, and more frequently occurring units. It is the interplay of these two main factors that constitutes the essentials of linguistic economy. We shall therefore concentrate on language as a communicative tool, since this use of language gives it a form likely to be imitated in all its other uses. We may thus posit, as the basic principle of language economy, that the amount of energy spent toward linguistic ends will tend to be proportionate to the amount of information to be conveyed.
- Martinet (1962), a pag.139-140

The obvious advantage of second articulation is economy.The first articulation was economical in the sense that with a few thousands of fairly unspecific monemes, it was possible to shape an infinity of different communications. In the same way the second articulation is economical, since the judicious combination of a few dozen phonemes enables man to keep distinct all the monemes he needs […] It is clear that the lexical expansion made necessary by the progress of mankind would have been unthinkable without the tremendous economy entailed by the breaking up of 'signifiants' into phonemes. But there is more to it than economy.
- Martinet (1962), a pag.24