  The two operations, deletion and contraction of an edge, on multigraphs
directly lead to the Tutte polynomial which satisfies a universal problem. As
observed by Brylawski in terms of order relations, these operations may be
interpreted as a particular instance of a general theory which involves
universal invariants like the Tutte polynomial, and a universal group, called
the Tutte-Grothendieck group. In this contribution, Brylawski's theory is
extended in two ways: first of all, the order relation is replaced by a string
rewriting system, and secondly, commutativity by partial commutations (that
permits a kind of interpolation between non commutativity and full
commutativity). This allows us to clarify the relations between the semigroup
subject to rewriting and the Tutte-Grothendieck group: the later is actually
the Grothendieck group completion of the former, up to the free adjunction of a
unit (this was even not mention by Brylawski), and normal forms may be seen as
universal invariants. Moreover we prove that such universal constructions are
also possible in case of a non convergent rewriting system, outside the scope
of Brylawski's work.
