The Place of the Etymon and the Phonetic Matrix in the Arabic Mental Lexicon

Abdessatar Mahfoudhi

doi:10.5617/jais.4583

Abstract

Two units have traditionally been proposed as the basis of the organization of the Arabic lexicon: the root and the stem. The root approach, the most common, is based on the root and pattern theory of Arabic morphology (e.g., McCarthy 1981), which contends that derivation is based on the interleaving of consonantal roots into patterns. By contrast, the stem approach is based on the stem-based theory of Arabic morphology (e.g., Benmamoun 1999) whose main tenet is that the stem is the basis of derivation. More recently, Bohas (e.g., 2000) has challenged these two approaches. He proposes that the Arabic lexicon is organized in three layers under three units: the phonetic matrix, the etymon, and the ‘radical’. These three proposals have different implications for the Arabic mental lexicon. This study discusses these theories with a focus on the validity of the notions of the etymon and matrix in the Arabic mental lexicon in light of old and new psycholinguistic evidence. Keywords: Arabic morphology, root, pattern, etymon, phonetic matrix, psycholinguistics, lexicon.

Highlights

Most Arabic dictionaries have been organized around the root.1 This assumption is based on the traditional root and pattern theory of morphology
The main objective of this study is to review the theory of the etymon/phonetic matrix and test the cognitive validity of the notions of the etymon and the matrix it proposes in light of old and new psycholinguistic evidence; that is, whether they have any special status in the Arabic mental lexicon
The present study The present study examines the cognitive validity of the etymon and its more abstract form, the phonetic matrix, their relevance in the Arabic mental lexicon, using lexical decision with masked priming

Summary

Introduction

Most Arabic dictionaries have been organized around the root. This assumption is based on the traditional root and pattern theory of morphology. Most Arabic dictionaries have been organized around the root.. Most Arabic dictionaries have been organized around the root.1 This assumption is based on the traditional root and pattern theory of morphology. The root, being the main carrier of meaning, has been used in most Arabic dictionaries as the head of lexical entries. The main tenet of the stem-based theory is that the stem is the basis of derivation, as is the case in concatenative languages, and by implication the basis of the organization of the lexicon. Bohas (1997; 2000) has proposed that the root should be replaced by the biconsonantal etymon, which is the segmental manifestation of the more abstract notion of the phonetic matrix, in the organization of the Arabic

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