The weight of tradition in the verbal classification of Catalan

Abstract

In Catalan, the existence of submodels of conjugation with augments in all dialects and conjugation classes, along with the limited number of verbs that conjugations ii (batre, témer, poder, dir) and iiia (dormir) have, leads to the conclusion that two proposals are reasonably possible with regard to the organization of verbal classes. Either one admits that all conjugations display regular subconjugations with augments (velar or palatal) (in line with Viaplana’s 1994 seminal work), or one accepts that regular conjugations are limited to the classes that are productive, i.e., conjugation i (cantar) and, far away, conjugation iiib (servir) (in line with Ferrater’s 1970 remarks). In any case, based on frequency and dialectal variation, the maintenance of the models of regular conjugation proposed by the traditional grammar (i: cantar; ii: batre o témer; iiia: dormir, iiib: servir) does not seem operative any more. With these observations in mind, the aim of this paper is twofold: on the one hand, to revise the traditional and dialectological motivations that still sustain the verbal classification and, on the other, to rethink the traditional models of regular conjugation in the light of language teaching efficiency.