ABSTRACT
In the preceding chapters of Part 1, we focused on the nature of signs, showing many similarities between signs and spoken words. Both are characterized by duality of patterning-both spoken words and signs are meaningful units built up from different combinations of units that have no meaning. Both signs and words can also be comprised of more than one meaning-bearing unitcompounds consist of two words in one, and meaningful prefixes or suffixes can be added to a word to make it more complex. From a linguistic standpoint, then, signs and words have much in common.
