Characteristics of the Armenian language in AX Semantics
Fundamentals
In Armenian, you need to know the case and number of a noun in order to form the correct determiner and pronoun.
Armenian has no gender for nouns. There are two numbers: singular and plural. Armenian has five cases for nouns, while pronouns have genitive and accusative cases additionally.
| grammatical name | values | examples |
|---|---|---|
| case | nominative | հեռախոս [herrakhos] (a phone) |
| dative | Ավարտեց հեռախոսի հետ խոսելը։ [Avartets’ herrakhosi het khosely.] (He finished talking to the phone.) | |
| ablative | հեռախոսից [herrakhosits’] (from a phone) | |
| instrumental | հեռախոսով [herrakhosov] (by phone) | |
| locative | հեռախոսում [herrakhosum] (on the phone) | |
| number | singular | հեռախոս [herrakhos] (a phone) |
| plural | հեռախոսներ [herrakhosner] (phones) | |
| adjectives (noun) | before noun | կարմիր խնձոր [karmir khndzor] (red apple) |
| verb tenses | present | նա սիրում է [na sirum e] (he loves) |
| past (aorist) | նա սիրեց [na sirets’] (he loved) | |
| past imperfective | նա սիրում էր [na sirum er] (he used to loved) | |
| future | նա սիրելու է [na sirelu e] (he will love) |
The standard order of a noun phrase in Armenian is the following:
determiner + numeral + adjective + noun + preposition
See for example:
այս երեք նոր գրքերի մասին
[ays yerek’ nor grk’eri masin]
these three new books about
DET NUM ADJ NOUN PREP
"about these three new books"
Lexicon
Nouns
Armenian nouns inflect for number, case, and definiteness. Nouns should be added to the lexicon if they are not regular. Lexicon entries for nouns may also be necessary for inflecting determiners and pronouns correctly. They are omitted, if a lexicon entry is required, but missing.
Examples
The basic lexicon entry for հեռախոս herrakhos contains:
- inflection table for case and number:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | հեռախոս [herrakhos] | հեռախոսներ [herrakhosner] |
| Dative | հեռախոսի [herrakhosi] | հեռախոսների [herrakhosneri] |
| Ablative | հեռախոսից [herrakhosits’] | հեռախոսներից [herrakhosnerits’] |
| Instrumental | հեռախոսով [herrakhosov] | հեռախոսներով [herrakhosnerov] |
| Locative | հեռախոսում [herrakhosov] | հեռախոսներում [herrakhosnerum] |
Adjectives
In Armenian, the default position for an adjective is "before noun". Armenian adjectives don't inflect.
Verbs
Armenian verbs inflect for person, number, and tense. The most common verbs are encoded in our software. If a verb inflects the wrong way, you should add it to the lexicon.
Container settings
Determiner
The AX NLG platform supports the following determiners for Armenian: definite, demonstrative (proximal), and possessives. The definite article in Armenian is mostly expressed by a suffix on the noun. For example:
գիրք [girk’] (book)
vs.
գիրքը [girk’y] (the book)
Pronoun
The AX NLG platform supports the following pronouns for Armenian: personal and demonstrative (proximal).
Numerals
Four types of numerals are possible on the AX NLG platform: cardinal, cardinal as digit, ordinal, and ordinal as digit. Take օր [or] (day) for example:
| cardinal | ordinal | |
|---|---|---|
| text | ինը օր [iny or] (nine days) | իններորդ օրը [innerord ory] (the ninth day) |
| digit | 9 օր [iny or] (9 days) | 9. օրը [innerord ory] (the 9th day) |
For Armenian, both cardinal and ordinal numerals are written out until 10, otherwise (above 10) the output is in digit form. Take cardinal numerals for example:
տասը շներ
[tasy shun]
(ten dogs)
vs.
11 շներ
[11 shner]
(11 dogs)
Adpositions
Armenian uses both pre- and postpositions. On the AX NLG platform, only postposition can be directly set in Armenian containers, but preposition can be put before the container as plain text.