Bloomfield 26: "sub-multiple"?

[s.t. bischoff]

Hi all,

I've got a question about Bloomfield 1926 (A set of postulates for the
science of language)...several times Bloomfield uses the term "sub-multiple"
e.g.:

17. Assumption 5. The number of different phonemes in a language is a small
*sub-multiple* of the number of forms.
28. Assumption 9. The number of constructions in a language is a small *
sub-multiple* of the number of forms.


Can anyone clarify for me what Bloomfield means by this term?

Thanks,
Shannon