Between Twenty and Twenty-One: Synchrony and Diachrony — Two Ways of Understanding Language
Introduction Why do some English numerals, such as sixteen , seventeen , eighteen and nineteen , clearly display their internal composition ( six + teen ), while others — eleven and twelve — do not reveal such structure? At first glance, this may appear to be a trivial irregularity. Yet the contrast conceals a profound theoretical question: how can a single linguistic system contain signs that expose their internal logic while others conceal it? The answer depends on the perspective from which we observe language. From a historical or diachronic point of view, the focus falls on the origin and evolution of forms. From a synchronic perspective, by contrast, the interest lies in their present functioning, regardless of their past. In the first case, the linguist reconstructs genealogies; in the second, the speaker simply uses the signs as they exist in the current system. This distinction between studying the history of language and studying its present structure lies at th...