The concept that a language contains a large number of meaningful words and also contains a small number of elements that combine to form words is known as:
A) derivation
B) lexical insertion
C) phrase structure
D) duality of patterning

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The concept described in the question is duality of patterning. This refers to the ability of a language to have a small number of distinct sounds (or phonemes) that can be combined in different ways to create a large number of distinct words. For example, in English there are just 44 phonemes but they can be combined in countless ways to create thousands of words with different meanings.

The Concept That a Language Contains a Large Number of Meaningful