Engendering the Formula: Engendering a Notion in the Early Kristeva

The present text is focused on the genealogy of one of Julia Kristeva's early notions - the notion of formula that appeared first in Semeiotiké (1969). The origin of the notion can be traced back to an earlier linguistic theory - that of Sebastian Shaumyan and Polina Soboleva. Kristeva integrated some of Shaumyan-Soboleva's central notions in her essay "L'Engendrement de la formule." She used, the notion of formula, in the first place, but also two other concepts that formed the basis for the functioning of the formula, the concepts of phenotypical and genotypical language that also appear in her later work. The present text claims that Kristeva didn't simply adopt these notions but presented several very important critical remarks. She re-modelled them, endowing them with a new meaning. Thus, we explore the terminological consequences of the transformations introduced by Kristeva, namely replacing language in the phrase phenotypical and genotypical language with the new concept of text and, hence, giving rise to the new terminological couple, phenotext and genotext.