Grammar

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Grammar is the set of logical and structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases and words in any given natural language. In the UNLarium framework, we distinguish three different types of rules according to the scope of their action:

  • Ph-rules (phonetic rules) apply over a form to provide alternations and sound changes (such as as assimilation and elision);
  • A-rules (affixation rules) apply over a form to generate its possible inflections by prefixation, infixation or suffixation; and
  • S-rules (syntactic rules) apply over a form to project or modify its syntactic structure by specification, complementation or adjunction.

Examples:

Type Rule Description Example
Ph-rule "a",>>VOW:="a">"an"; In case of "a" and before a blank space and a vowel, replace "a" by "an" a adjective > an adjective
A-rule PLR:=0>"s"; In case of plural (PLR), add "s" to the end of the word table > tables, boy > boys
S-rule MTW:=VA("into account"); In order to form the multiword expression, add "into account" as an adjunct to the verb (VA). take > take into account
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