Cahiers du Centre de Linguistique et des Sciences du Langage

Submorphemics, also known as submorphemia or submorphology, is the ‘watershed’ of the Théorie des Matrices et des Étymons (TME), which was developed by the linguist Georges BOHAS. This theory has its origins in the lexical analysis of Arabic and Semitic languages. It aims to model the organisation of relations between form and meaning within lexical units, based on three distinct levels of formation:

- The matrix - µ, an unordered combination of a pair of consonant feature vectors (binary combination) linked to a ‘generic notion’, a ‘notional invariant’ is the lexicogenic source of large notional fields. The matrix is a virtual structure where referents are ‘translated’ into simple phonetic features.

- The etymon - Î is an unordered biconsonantal base, made up of two phonemes from a given matrix and displaying both the features of this matrix and its notional invariant.

- The radical - R (nominal or verbal), an etymon developed by diffusion of the last consonant or incrementation/affixation (at the initial, internal or final) and containing at least one vowel and developing the etymonal notional invariant (Bohas and Dat, 2006, p.11).

This theory has now been extended to the Romance languages (French, English, Spanish and Italian) and to other languages, heralding its universal potential. MCT goes beyond two linguistic traditions, that of the ‘trilitarian’ paradigm for traditional Arabic and that of the ‘arbitrariness of the sign’ in general linguistics according to the work of F. de Saussure.

In her preface to the book ‘La submorphologie motivée’ by Georges Bohas, entitled ‘Vers un nouveau paradigme en sciences du langage’ and published by Honoré Champion in 2021, Danielle Leeman expresses her opinion that the work heralds a ‘completely new theory’. This theory is distinguished by its opposition to the Saussurian postulate of the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign and by its revelation of minimal significant units, the submorphemes, which lie below the morpheme and possess an iconic meaning.

Didier Bottineau (ibid, p. 66), for his part, sees an epistemological break in the sense that ‘MCT does not replace pre-existing theories, it inaugurates a level of modelling and analysis where previously there was nothing’.

This book takes stock of the current state of the theory, presents new data that have enriched its understanding, and compares Matrix and Etymon Theory (MET) with data from Indo-European languages.