The Place of the Etymon and the Phonetic Matrix in the Arabic Mental Lexicon
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5617/jais.4583Abstract
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.
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