| Summary: | In French lexicalized Creole, the onomatopœic words blip, blo, blogodo, etc., which denote the notions of rapidity or brutality, all begin with bl-. Although it refers to the same notions, this segment does not function morphemically (not being a prefix), and so can only be analysed as a submorpheme, i.e. as part of a morpheme which paradoxically conveys meaning. In reality, the paradox in question stems from the dimorphic conception of the linguistic sign as being composed of a signifier and a signified, and from the construal of the morpheme as the smallest meaningful linguistic unit. I argue that the phenomenon may be the concern of semiophony, i.e. that the bl- segment under study is both a phonosign and a phonoseme, and is therefore iconic rather than arbitrary.
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