Catalan morphology and low-level patterns in a network model

Abstract

The fact that more specific or low-level morphological patterns may coexist with the most general or abstract ones is a characteristic insight of Cognitive Morphology. According to the bottom-up approach of the model, it is even to be expected that low-level patterns may have a more relevant role than the most inclusive and abstract ones. On the basis of the analysis of an aspect of Catalan inflection (velar verbs of the second conjugation) and one aspect of Catalan word-formation (complex words with the prefixoid radio-), we will show the advantages of incorporating to the model salient low-level patterns and the local paradigmatic relations in which they are based.