Inflectional paradigms

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Inflectional paradigms and inflectional rules are expressed by [[A-rule]]s, a special formalism for introducing prefixes, infixes and suffixes to the base form.
 
Inflectional paradigms and inflectional rules are expressed by [[A-rule]]s, a special formalism for introducing prefixes, infixes and suffixes to the base form.
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== How to create inflectional paradigms ==
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[[How to create inflectional paradigms]]
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== Examples ==
 
== Examples ==

Revision as of 18:53, 19 February 2013

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.

What is to be included inside an inflectional paradigm

Inflectional paradigms must include only affixes (prefixes, infixes or suffixes) to the base form. Compound forms, such as those involving auxiliary words and other periphrastic constructions, must be defined as subcategorization frames and not as inflectional paradigms.

Accordingly, the simple past and the simple present must be included into the inflectional paradigms for English verbs, but the compound tenses (past perfect, past progressive, future, etc) must be defined inside a subcategorization frame, because involve the insertion of new words that play different syntactic roles and may not be contiguous to the base form (the negation, for instance, comes between the auxiliary verb and the main verb, as in I will not work).

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.

Syntax

Inflectional paradigms and inflectional rules are expressed by A-rules, a special formalism for introducing prefixes, infixes and suffixes to the base form.

How to create inflectional paradigms

How to create inflectional paradigms


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
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