What is "articulation"

Articulation \Ar*tic`u*la"tion\, n. [Cf. F. articulation, fr. L. articulatio.]

1. (Anat.) A joint or juncture between bones in the skeleton.

   Note: Articulations may be immovable, when the bones are directly united (synarthrosis), or slightly movable, when they are united intervening substance (amphiarthrosis), or they may be more or less freely movable, when the articular surfaces are covered with synovial membranes, as in complete joints (diarthrosis). The last (diarthrosis) includes hinge joints, admitting motion in one plane only (ginglymus), ball and socket joints (enarthrosis), pivot and rotation joints, etc.

2. (Bot.)

   1. The connection of the parts of a plant by joints, as in pods.

   2. One of the nodes or joints, as in cane and maize.

   3. One of the parts intercepted between the joints; also, a subdivision into parts at regular or irregular intervals as a result of serial intermission in growth, as in the cane, grasses, etc.
      --Lindley.

3. The act of putting together with a joint or joints; any meeting of parts in a joint.

4. The state of being jointed; connection of parts. [R.]

   That definiteness and articulation of imagery.
   --Coleridge.

5. The utterance of the elementary sounds of a language by the appropriate movements of the organs, as in pronunciation; as, a distinct articulation.

6. A sound made by the vocal organs; an articulate utterance or an elementary sound, esp. a consonant.

early 15c., "a joint or joining; setting of bones," from Old French articulation, from Medieval Latin articulationem (nominative articulatio) "separation into joints," noun of action from past participle stem of articulare "to separate (meat) into joints," also "to utter distinctly," from articulus, diminutive of artus "joint" (see article).

n. 1 (context countable or uncountable English) A joint or the collection of joints at which something is articulated, or hinged, for bending. 2 (context countable English) A manner or method by which elements of a system are connected. 3 (context uncountable English) The quality, clarity or sharpness of speech.'' 4 (context music uncountable English) The manner in which something is articulated (tongued, slurred or bowed). 5 (context accounting English) The interrelation and congruence of the flow of data between financial statements of an entity, especially between the income statement and balance sheet.

1. n. the aspect of pronunciation that involves bringing articulatory organs together so as to shape the sounds of speech

2. the shape or manner in which things come together and a connection is made [syn: join, joint, juncture, junction]

3. expressing in coherent verbal form; "the articulation of my feelings"; "I gave voice to my feelings" [syn: voice]

4. (anatomy) the point of connection between two bones or elements of a skeleton (especially if the articulation allows motion) [syn: joint, articulatio]

5. the act of joining things in such a way that motion is possible

Articulation may refer to:

Articulation, or more specifically course articulation, is the process of comparing the content of courses that are transferred between postsecondary institutions such as TAFE institutes, colleges or universities. In other words, course articulation is the process by which one institution matches its courses or requirements to course work completed at another institution. Students use course articulation to assure that courses they complete will not have to be repeated at the institution to which they are transferring.

Course articulation is distinct from the process of acceptance by one institution of earned credit, from another institution, as applicable towards its degree requirements, i.e. "transferring credit". For example, a university may be able to include units of academic credit earned at a community college towards its minimum number of units for a bachelor's degree, but it might not treat certain previously taken courses as fulfilling its own specific course requirements for a particular major or concentration for that same degree, if the articulation process reveals that the other institution's course curricula is not equivalent to or not as rigorous as its own course curricula. In that latter situation, a transferring student may discover they cannot graduate until they take courses at the second institution which partially overlap or repeat material they have previously studied at the first one.

Course articulation may be done on an ad hoc basis when a student actually wishes to transfer. It may also be done pursuant to existing course-to-course comparison data, or based on formal articulation agreements. In the last case, representatives of each institution compare their respective course curricula, to determine which courses are comparable and which are not. Their consensus is then formalized in a written agreement which is used by students and advisors and is regularly updated according to a mutual schedule.

Articulation between institutions with different academic terms is particularly difficult. For example, an institution on the quarter system may have three first-year courses in a subject, while an institution on a semester system may have two first-year courses. While both might cover approximately the same material by the end of one academic year, they may tackle subtopics in a different order, meaning that a student who transfers without taking the entire sequence at one institution will have significant knowledge gaps.

Although credit transfer can be conducted between education bodies in separate countries, the process of articulation can become very complicated when students transfer courses earned at multiple and international campuses, more than 5–10 years ago, or have alternative credit experiences such as exam or military credit.

In sociology, articulation labels the process by which particular classes appropriate cultural forms and practices for their own use. The term appears to have originated from the work of Antonio Gramsci, specifically from his conception of superstructure. Chantal Mouffe, Stuart Hall, and others have adopted or used it.

In this theory, cultural forms and practices (Antonio Gramsci's superstructure and Richard Middleton's instance or level of practice) have relative autonomy; socio-economic structures of power do not determine them, but rather they relate to them. "The theory of articulation recognizes the complexity of cultural fields. It preserves a relative autonomy for cultural and ideological elements ... but also insists that those combinatory patterns that are actually constructed do mediate deep, objective patterns in the socio-economic formation, and that the mediation takes place in struggle: the classes fight to articulate together constituents of the cultural repe[r]toire in particular ways so that they are organized in terms of principles or sets of values determined by the position and interests of the class in the prevailing mode of production."

This is because "the relationship between actual culture...on the one hand, and economically determined factors such as class position, on the other, is always problematical, incomplete, and the object of ideological work and struggle. ... Cultural relationships and cultural change are thus not predetermined; rather they are the product of negotiation, imposition, resistance, transformation, and so on....Thus particular cultural forms and practices cannot be attached mechanically or even paradigmatically to particular classes; nor, even, can particular interpretations, valuations, and uses of a single form or practice. In Stuart Hall's words (1981: 238), 'there are no wholly separate "cultures"...attached, in a relation of historical fixity, to specific "whole" classes'. However, "while elements of culture are not directly, eternally, or exclusively tied to specific economically determined factors such as class position, they are determined in the final instance by such factors, through the operation of articulating principles which are tied to class position".

Articulating principles "operate by combining existing elements into new patterns or by attaching new connotations to them". Examples of these processes in musical culture include the re-use of elements of bourgeois marches in labor anthems or the assimilation of liberated (in the Marcusian sense) countercultural 1960s rock into a tradition of bourgeois bohemianism and the combination of elements of black and white working-class music with elements of art music that created countercultural 1960s rock.

Some scholars may prefer the theory of articulation, where "class does not coincide with the sign community", to the theory of homology, where class does coincide with the sign community and where economic forces determine the superstructure. However, "it seems likely that some signifying structures are more easily articulated to the interests of one group than are some others" and cross-connotation, "when two or more different elements are made to connote, symbolize, or evoke each other", can set up "particularly strong articulative relationships". For example: Elvis Presley's linking of elements of "youth rebellion, working-class 'earthiness', and ethnic 'roots', each of which can evoke the others, all of which were articulated together, however briefly, by a moment of popular self-assertion".

In music, articulation refers to the direction or performance technique which affects the transition or continuity on a single note or between multiple notes or sounds.

Articulation, in art and architecture, is a method of styling the joints in the formal elements of architectural design. Through degrees of articulation, each part is united with the whole work by means of a joint in such a way that the joined parts are put together in styles ranging from exceptionally distinct jointing to the opposite of high articulation—fluidity and continuity of joining. In highly articulated works, each part is defined precisely and stands out clearly. The articulation of a building reveals how the parts fit into the whole by emphasizing each part separately.

In phonetics and phonology, articulation is the movement of the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs (the articulators) in order to make speech sounds.

Sound is produced simply by expelling air from the lungs. However, to vary the sound quality in a way that can be useful for speaking, two speech organs normally need to come close to each other to contact each other, so as to create an obstruction that shapes the air in a particular fashion. The point of maximum obstruction is known as the place of articulation, and the way in which the obstruction is formed and released is known as the manner of articulation. For example, when making a p sound, the two lips come together tightly, blocking the air for a little while and causing a buildup of air pressure. The lips are then released suddenly, leading to a burst of sound. The place of articulation of this sound is therefore called , and the manner is called (also known as a plosive).

Articulation can be shown with magnetic resonance imaging to demonstrate how the tongue, lips and jaw move and the rise and fall of the soft palate. Such movement alters resonant properties of the vocal tract, and imposes a "time-varying formant structure" onto the speech signal. The study of articulation in making speech is called articulatory phonetics.