À la recherche du substrat cognitif du submorphème SM-

Abstract

The overall objective of this study is to find traces in the English lexicon of a notional invariance attached to a formal invariance, possibly dating back to a very early stage of the language. In the English lexicon, I explore the class of lexical items beginning with sm-. From the definitions of ‘sm- words’ attested in the Oxford English Dictionary and the English Dialect Dictionary, I shall endeavour to show that the phonological invariance of this heuristically-formed class corresponds to a submorphemic invariance which may be traced back to a very ancient process of conceptualization of the human body. Drawing on various approaches of cognitive linguistics (Lakoff & Johnson, Langacker, Heine, Sweetser), I suggest a description of the way the brain conceptualizes the referents of ‘sm- words’, and I shall show the convergence with the etymological data.Ultimately, I claim that the meanings of most ‘sm- words’ access mental representations relating on the one hand to experiential information collected by the nose and/or the mouth, and on the other hand to physical expressions of emotions through movements or positions of these two body parts. Special emphasis will be laid on the duality prevailing in several fields: two-way movements between the object and the subject of perception (smoke, smother, smoulder, smell); relations between the ‘in-movement’ of impressions or sensations (smell, smooth, smutty) and the ‘out-movement’ of the expression of emotions (smile, smirk, smug); overlap between features pertaining to the senses of smell / taste, and touch (smack, smart, smear, smite).