Characteristics of the Georgian language in AX Semantics

Fundamentals

In Georgian, you need to know the case and number of a noun to form the respective pronouns correctly.

Georgian does not have gender for nouns. There are two numbers: singular and plural. Additionally, Georgian has seven cases.

grammatical name	values	examples
number	singular	ძველი სახლი [ʒveli saxli] (an old house)
	plural	ძველი სახლები [ʒveli saxlebi] (old houses)
case	nominative	ძაღლი [ʒaɣli] (a/the dog)
	ergative	ძაღლმა მეტყვას მამას. [ʒaɣlma metqvas mamas] (The dog bit my father.)
	dative	მე ვაჩვენებ ბურთს ძაღლს. [me vachveneb burts ʒaɣls] (I give the ball to the dog.)
	genitive	ძაღლის ფერი [ʒaɣlis peri] (the dog's color)
	instrumental	ბრმა ძაღლითა ერთად დადის. [brma ʒaɣlita ertad dadis] (The blind man walks with a dog.)
	adverbial	ის მეტყვას ძაღლად. [is metqvas ʒaɣlad] (He calls me a dog.)
	vocative	ეს კარგი იყო, ძაღლო. [es ḳargi iq̇o, ʒaɣlo] (This was good, dog.)
adjectives (noun)	before noun	წითელი ვაშლი [c̣iteli vašli] (red apple)
verb tenses	present	ის წერს [is c̣ers] (he writes)
	past	ის დაწერა [is dac̣era] (he wrote)

The standard order of a noun phrase in Georgian is the following:

determiner + numeral + adjective + noun + preposition

See for example:

ამ      სამი  პოპულარული  მომღერლის  შესახებ
[am     sami  popularuli  momgherlis shesakheb]
(these  three popular     singers    about)
DET     NUM   ADJ         NOUN       PREP
"about these three popular singers"

Lexicon

Nouns

Georgian nouns inflect for number and case. Nouns should be added to the lexicon if they do not inflect regularly.

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 სახლი [saxli] (house) contains:

• inflection table for number and case:

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	სახლი [saxli]	სახლები [saxlebi]
Ergative	სახლმა [saxlma]	სახლებმა [saxlebma]
Dative	სახლს [saxls]	სახლებს [saxlebs]
Genitive	სახლის [saxlis]	სახლების [saxlebis]
Instrumental	სახლით [saxlit]	სახლებით [saxlebit]
Adverbial	სახლად [saxlad]	სახლებად [saxlebad]
Vocative	სახლო [saxlo]	სახლებო [saxlebo]

Adjectives

In Georgian, the default position for an adjective is "before noun";.

Verbs

Georgian verbs inflect for tense, number, and person. In Georgian, "screeve" is an alternative term to distinguish between different time frames and moods of verbs, which is aligned with tense, number, and person on the AX NLG platform. The most common verbs are encoded in our software. If a verb inflects incorrectly, you should add it to the lexicon.

Georgian is a polypersonal language, meaning that the inflection of verbs can indicate information about the subject and object of the sentence. In the first example below, the subject marker "ვ"[v] is added to the verb root (i.e., წერ) to indicate the subject. In the second example, the object marker "მ"[m] is added to the verb root (i.e., ყავს) to indicate the direct object of the verb.

Subject marker:
დაწერს(dacer = to write) -> ვ + წერ (v + der = I write)

Object marker:
ჰყავს (hq̇avs = to have) -> მ + ყავს (m + avs = "ich habe = mir gehört" [I have=belongs to me])

The AX NLG platform only supports subject agreement for Georgian verbs.

Container settings

Determiner

The AX NLG platform supports the following determiners for Georgian: demonstrative (proximal), and possessives.

Preposition/Postposition

Georgian rather uses postpositions than prepositions. Therefore, if prepositions are used in a noun or pronoun container they are automatically put at the end of the phrase. Prepositions function as postpositions despite being called prepositions in the container, since they are analogous to prepositions in English (both are adpositions).

In Georgian, postpositions may be in the form of either a postfix attached to the noun, or a separate word that follows it, for example:

სახლში (sakhlshi) [noun postposition] -> "in the house"
სახლის წინ (sakhlis tsin) [noun postposition] -> "in front of the house"

Note that the AX NLG platform only supports prepositions as separate words in Georgian.

Pronoun

The AX NLG platform supports the following pronouns for Georgian: personal, demonstratives (proximal + medial), and possessive.

Numerals

Four types of numerals are possible on the AX NLG platform: cardinal, cardinal as digit, ordinal, and ordinal as digit. Take დღე [dɣe] (day) for example:

	cardinal	ordinal
text	ცხრა დღე [cxra dɣe] (nine days)	მეცხრე დღე [mecxre dɣe] (the ninth day)
digit	9 დღე [9 dɣe] (9 days)	9. დღე [9. dɣe] (the 9th day)

Note that the noun will not be pluralized when it's preceded by numerals. Thus, დღე [dɣe] (day) stays in the singular form in the above table.

For Georgian, both cardinal and ordinal numerals are written out until 12 on the platform, otherwise (above 12) the output is in digit form. Take cardinal numerals for example (written out vs. digit):

თორმეტი მანქანა
[tormet’i mankana]
(twelve cars)
vs.
13 karozzi
[13 mankana]
(13 cars)