A Self-Organizing Model of Word Storage and Processing: Implications for Morphology Learning.

In line with the classical cornerstone of "dual-route" models of word structure, assuming a sharp dissociation between memory and computation, word storage and processing have traditionally been modelled according to different computational paradigms. Even the most popular alternative to dual-route thinking - connectionist one-route models - challenged the lexicon-grammar dualism only by providing a neurally-inspired mirror image of classical base-to-inflection rules, while largely neglecting issues of lexical storage. Recent psycho- and neuro-linguistic evidence, however, supports a less deterministic and modular view of the interaction between stored word knowledge and on-line processing. We endorse here such a non modular view on morphology to offer a computer model supporting the hypothesis that they are both derivative of a common pool of principles for memory self-organization.