Characteristics of the Greek language in AX Semantics

Fundamentals

In Greek, you need to know the gender of a noun to form (together with number and case) the accompanying adjectives, determiners, numerals, and pronouns correctly.

Greek has three genders for nouns: masculine, feminine and neuter. There are two numbers: singular and plural. Additionally, Greek has four cases for nouns.

grammatical namevaluesexamples
gendermasculineέναν ηλικιωμένος γιατρό
(an old doctor)
feminineμια ηλικιωμένη γυναίκα
(an old woman)
neuterένα ηλικιωμένο αυτοκίνητο
(an old car)
numbersingularένα παλιό αυτοκίνητο
(one old car)
pluralπέντε παλιά αυτοκίνητα
(five old cars)
cases (noun)nominativeο σκύλος
(the dog)
genitiveτο κουδούνι του σκύλου
(the dog's bell)
accusativeΒλέπω τον σκύλο.
(I see the dog.)
vocativeΑυτό ήταν καλό, σκύλε.
(This was good, dog.)
adjectives (noun)before nounκόκκινο μήλο
(red apple)
verb tensespresent (non-past)αγοράζει
(he buys)
pastαγόραζε
(he bought)

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

preposition + determiner + numeral + adjective + noun

See for example:

για    αυτά   τρία   δημοφιλή  βιβλία
about  these  three  popular   books[pl]
PREP   DET    NUM    ADJ       NOUN
"about these three popular books"

Lexicon

Nouns

Greek nouns are inflected for number and case. Nouns should be added to the lexicon with their grammatical gender if they do not inflect regularly. If the lexicon entry is missing, the NLG platform tries to find the most probable gender based on heuristics.

Lexicon entries for nouns may also be necessary for inflecting determiners, adjectives and pronouns correctly. They are omitted, if a lexicon entry is required, but missing.

The NLG platform automatically switches accents when inflecting words that have more than two syllables and the antepenult is accented. If the last syllable of the inflected form has one of the long diphthongs, -ου, -ων or -ου, the accent fluctuates between the antepenult and the penult syllable. Take άνθρωπος (human) for example:

άνθρωπος [singular, nom]-> ανθρώπους [plural, acc]

Examples

The basic lexicon entry for άνθρωπος (man) contains:

  • gender: masculine
  • inflection table for case and number:
SingularPlural
Nominativeάνθρωποςάνθρωποι
Genitiveανθρώπουανθρώπων
Accusativeάνθρωποανθρώπους
Vocativeάνθρωπεάνθρωποι

Note

If you need lexicon entries for countries, write to the support about that and you will get them for Greek with automatic handling of prepositions.

Adjectives

In the lexicon, the inflection table encodes gender, case, and number. For adjective position, the default is "before noun".

Verbs

Greek verbs inflect for person, number and tense The most common verbs are encoded in our software. If a verb inflects incorrectly, you should add it to the lexicon. The NLG platform will tackle the verb stress when inflection happens, for example:

κηιώ [1st, singular, present]-> κηιάμε [1st, plural, present]
(I locate -> We locate)

Container settings

Numerals

The noun will automatically agree with the numeral number when a numeral variable is used. Four types of numerals are possible on the AX NLG platform: cardinal, cardinal as digit, ordinal, and ordinal as digit.

cardinalordinal
textεννέα ημέρες
(nine days)
η ένατη ημέρα
(the ninth day)
digit9 days
(9 days)
η 9η ημέρα
(the 9th day)

For Greek, both cardinal and ordinal numerals are written out until 20 on the platform, otherwise (above 20) the output is in digit form. Take cardinal numerals for example:

είκοσι αυτοκίνητα
(twenty cars)
vs.
21 αυτοκίνητα
(21 cars)

Determiners

The AX NLG platform supports the following determiners for Greek: definite, indefinite, demonstrative, and possessive. Note that possessives determiners stand after the noun, and other determiners proceed the noun:

η τσάντα (the bag)
η τσάντα του (his bag)

Furthermore, ν is added to the determiners τη and το, if they are followed by a vowels or plosive consonants. See the following example:

στον Άγιο Μαρτίνο [σε+τη+ν]
(in Saint Martin)

Prepositions

Greek prepositions normally require accusative: e.g. από (from), για (for), etc.

σκύλοι (dogs[nominative])
για σκύλους (for dogs[accusative])

Furthermore, the prepositions σε can be combined with a definite article to form a contraction such as στην (σε + την) or στη (σε + τη) . See the following example:

στην Ολλανδία [σε+την]
(in the Netherland)