Our paper tackles the polylexicality which is based on data on the phonics and the writing of the Chinese language. By dissociating the writing and phonics of Chinese, we have carried out formal and stratified analyses of these two aspects. By means of the triple articulation of language, we have shown the interdependence of the different articulations of language and the ambivalence of the Chinese lexical unit in its form and function.

We have found out that the frozenness and the polylexicality are omnipresent in the Chinese language, from phonics to combinatorics, and that modern standard Chinese is doubly articulated in both phonics and writing, which explains the gestalt perception of this language and the specific content of the mold which is the lexical unit. We have also drawn on the principle of linguistic economy to clarify certain basic linguistic concepts that are problematic for the Chinese language, such as morpheme, grapheme, word, etc.