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 name | values | examples |
|---|---|---|
| gender | masculine | έναν ηλικιωμένος γιατρό (an old doctor) |
| feminine | μια ηλικιωμένη γυναίκα (an old woman) | |
| neuter | ένα ηλικιωμένο αυτοκίνητο (an old car) | |
| number | singular | ένα παλιό αυτοκίνητο (one old car) |
| plural | πέντε παλιά αυτοκίνητα (five old cars) | |
| cases (noun) | nominative | ο σκύλος (the dog) |
| genitive | το κουδούνι του σκύλου (the dog's bell) | |
| accusative | Βλέπω τον σκύλο. (I see the dog.) | |
| vocative | Αυτό ήταν καλό, σκύλε. (This was good, dog.) | |
| adjectives (noun) | before noun | κόκκινο μήλο (red apple) |
| verb tenses | present (non-past) | αγοράζει (he buys) |
| past | αγόραζε (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:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | άνθρωπος | άνθρωποι |
| Genitive | ανθρώπου | ανθρώπων |
| Accusative | άνθρωπο | ανθρώπους |
| Vocative | άνθρωπε | άνθρωποι |
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.
| cardinal | ordinal | |
|---|---|---|
| text | εννέα ημέρες (nine days) | η ένατη ημέρα (the ninth day) |
| digit | 9 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)