Inflectional paradigms
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There are two predefined paradigms in the UNLarium: | There are two predefined paradigms in the UNLarium: | ||
;INVARIANT | ;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 | + | : 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 an existing paradigm, as in irregular forms (such as "man", "mouse", "foot" and "child" listed above). In this case, the corresponding inflectional rules should be provided in the field "Inflectional Rules". | : If the word is inflectional but does not follow an existing paradigm, as in irregular forms (such as "man", "mouse", "foot" and "child" listed above). In this case, the corresponding inflectional rules should be provided in the field "Inflectional Rules". | ||
Revision as of 13:55, 2 October 2009
Inflectional paradigms are used to generate the inflected forms out of the lemma.
Contents |
When to use inflectional paradigms
Inflectional paradigms must be created in case of regular or almost regular inflective behavior, 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 should not be used in case of non-inflectional words (such as adverbs) or words that are already inflected (such as personal pronouns). Inflectional paradigms should also be avoided in case of irregular behavior, which should be described rather by inflectional rules.
Example
The plural of English nouns is considerably regular and can be treated, in most cases, by the following inflectional paradigms:
| Paradigm | Rule | Description | Example |
| 1 | PLR:=0>"s"; | Add "s" to the end of the word | boy > boys |
| 2 | PLR:="y">"ies"; | Replace "y" by "ies" at the end of the word | city > cities |
| 3 | PLR:=0>"es"; | Add "es" to the end of the word | kiss > kisses |
| 4 | PLR:="f">"ves"; | Replace "f" by "ves" at the end of the word | woolf > woolves |
However, there are several special cases that, being very limited, should be treated by inflectional rules instead of inflectional paradigms:
| Rule | Description | Case |
| PLR:="men"; | Replace the whole word by "men" | man > men |
| PLR:="mice"; | Replace the whole word by "mice" | mouse > mice |
| PLR:="feet"; | Replace the whole word by "feet" | foot > feet |
| PLR:="children"; | Replace the whole word by "children" | child > children |
| ... | ... | ... |
The difference between inflectional paradigms and inflectional rules is mainly a question of range. If a rule is applicable to several different words, it should be defined as a general inflectional paradigm; if it is applicable to a single word or to a very limited number of cases, it should be defined as an inflectional rule inside the very entry.
Syntax
Inflectional paradigms (as well as inflectional rules) should comply with the M-rule formalism for writing morphological rules in the UNLarium framework.
Predefined paradigms
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 an existing paradigm, as in irregular forms (such as "man", "mouse", "foot" and "child" listed above). In this case, the corresponding inflectional rules should be provided in the field "Inflectional Rules".
