Inflection
(New page: In grammar, '''inflection''' is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, mood, voice, aspect, person, number, [[gender]...)
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Revision as of 11:40, 19 March 2010
In grammar, inflection is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, mood, voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case. Conjugation is the inflection of verbs; declension is the inflection of nouns, adjectives and pronouns.
Inflectional Paradigms and Inflectional Rules
In the UNLarium framework, inflection is indicated by a set of transformations carried over the lemma. This set of transformations can be represented by:
- inflectional paradigms, in case of regular or quasi-regular behaviour (i.e., a set of transformations that is followed by several different words)
- inflectional rules, in case of irregular behaviour (i.e., a set of transformation that is followed by very few words).
For instance, 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 frequency. 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.
