On the other hand, the absence of a jacket or its permutation with a jersey changes the significance of the way someone is dressed. The traffic sign lacks double articulation, but rather than having no articulation, it would more commonly be referred to as having first articulation only. These meaningful units are complete signs, each consisting of a signifier and a signified. In systems with double articulation, these signs are made up of elements from a lower level of articulation. These lower units are nonsignifying sign elements.
Semiotic codes have either single articulation , double articulation or no articulation .
The infinite use of finite elements is a feature which in relation to media in general has been referred to as 'semiotic economy'. Double articulation does not seem to occur in the natural communication systems of animals other than humans. As to other human semiotic systems with double articulation, N th notes that these include systematic codes used in library or warehouse catalogues, and 'many codes of data-processing'. Suzanne Langer claims that 'photography has no vocabulary', and neither do other visual media such painting or drawing. A symbolism with so many elements, such myriad relationships, cannot be broken up into basic units.