Inflectional paradigms

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: If the word is not inflectional (case of adverbs in English, for instance) or does not accept any inflectional variant (case of "clothes", used only in plural, or "species", that has the same form in singular and plural). In this latter case, the field "Descriptive Morphology" should explicit the value of the lemma.
 
: If the word is not inflectional (case of adverbs in English, for instance) or does not accept any inflectional variant (case of "clothes", used only in plural, or "species", that has the same form in singular and plural). In this latter case, the field "Descriptive Morphology" should explicit the value of the lemma.
 
;IRREGULAR
 
;IRREGULAR
: If the word is inflectional but does not follow any existing paradigm, as in irregular forms (such as "man", "mouse", "foot" and "child"). In this case, the corresponding inflectional rules should be provided as "inflectional rules".
+
: If the word is inflectional but does not follow any existing paradigm, as in irregular forms (such as "man", "mouse", "foot" and "child"). In this case, the corresponding inflectional rules should be provided as [[inflectional rules]].
  
 
== Examples ==
 
== Examples ==

Revision as of 11:11, 20 March 2010

Inflectional paradigms are sets of rules used to generate the inflected forms out of the base form.

Contents

When to use inflectional paradigms

Inflectional paradigms are used in case of regular inflective behaviour, i.e., whenever there can be stated a regular pattern for inflecting words, such as nouns, adjectives and verbs.

When not to use inflectional paradigms

Inflectional paradigms are not used in case of non-inflectional words (such as adverbs) or words that are already inflected (such as personal pronouns). Inflectional paradigms are also avoided in case of irregular behaviour, which is described by inflectional rules.

Reference

The paradigms are referred as follows:

  • by its common name (such as "first declension", "first group"), in case of well-established reference;
  • by the rule itself, in case of single-rule paradigms;
  • by the most distinctive rule, if any; or
  • by a "leading form", i.e., a typical example (a prototype) representative of the whole category, otherwise.

There are two predefined paradigms in the UNLarium:

INVARIANT
If the word is not inflectional (case of adverbs in English, for instance) or does not accept any inflectional variant (case of "clothes", used only in plural, or "species", that has the same form in singular and plural). In this latter case, the field "Descriptive Morphology" should explicit the value of the lemma.
IRREGULAR
If the word is inflectional but does not follow any existing paradigm, as in irregular forms (such as "man", "mouse", "foot" and "child"). In this case, the corresponding inflectional rules should be provided as inflectional rules.

Examples

Name Rules Description Examples
PLR:=0>"s" PLR:=0>"s" Add "s" to the end of the form table>tables, boy>boys, etc
PLR:="y">"ies" PLR:="y">"ies" Replace "y" by "ies" at the end of the form baby>babies, city>cities, etc
PLR:="f">"ves" PLR:="f">"ves" Replace "f" by "ves" at the end of the form wolf>wolves, half>halves, etc
PAS:=0>"ed" PAS:=0>"ed";GER:=0>"ing";PTP:=0>"ed";3PS&PRS&IND:=0>"s"; Add "ed" in the simple past, "ing" in the gerund, ... work>worked, ask>asked, etc
PAS:=0>"d" PAS:=0>"d";GER:=e>"ing";PTP:=0>"d";3PS&PRS&IND:=0>"s"; Add "d" in the simple past, replace the final "e" by "ing" in the gerund, ... use>used, arrange>arranged, etc

Syntax

Inflectional paradigms (as well as inflectional rules) comply with the A-rule formalism for writing morphological rules in the UNLarium framework.

Software