Characteristics of the Luxembourgish language in AX Semantics
Fundamentals
In Luxembourgish, you need to know the gender of a noun to form (together with number and case) the accompanying adjectives, determiners, numerals, and pronouns correctly.
Luxembourgish has three **** genders for nouns: masculine, feminine, and neuter. There are two **** numbers: singular and plural. Additionally, Luxembourgish has three cases: nominative, accusative, and dative.
| grammatical name | values | examples |
|---|---|---|
| gender | masculine | schéinen Auto (beautiful car) |
| feminine | schéin Fra (beautiful lady) | |
| neuter | schéint Haus (beautiful house) | |
| case | nominative | hond (dog) |
| dative | Ech ginn de Ball dem Hond. (I give the ball to the dog.) | |
| accusative | Ech gesinn den Hond. (I see the dog.) | |
| number | singular | Hond (dog) |
| plural | Hënn (dogs) | |
| adjectives (noun) | before noun | roude Apel (red apple) |
| verb tenses | present | hie geet (he goes) |
| past (preterite) | hie goung (he went) |
The standard order of a noun phrase in Luxembourgish is the following: preposition+ determiner + numeral + adjective + noun. See for example:
iwwer dës dräi nei Bicher
about these three new books
PREP DET NUM ADJ NOUN
"about these three new books"
Lexicon
Nouns
Luxembourgish nouns need number and case in the lexicon. Although Luxembourgish nouns only inflect for number, the case information is required for the corresponding determiners and pronouns.
Nouns should be added to the lexicon if they are not regular. Lexicon entries for nouns may also be necessary for inflecting adjectives, determiners, and pronouns correctly. They are omitted, if a lexicon entry is required, but missing.
Examples
The basic lexicon entry for Kand (child) contains:
- gender: neuter
- inflection table for case and number:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Kand | Kanner |
| Dative | Kand | Kanner |
| Accusative | Kand | Kanner |
Adjectives
In Luxembourgish, adjectives inflect for number, case, gender, and definiteness. The default position for an adjective is "before noun".
Verbs
Luxembourgish 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 Luxembourgish: indefinite, definite, demonstrative (proximal), quantifier (every), personal 2nd plural, and possessives.
Prepositions and determiners: contractions
If users configure prepositions and determiners in the container, prepositions are automatically joined with determiners for the following prepositions: an, aus, bei, mat, op, un, vun, virun, ënner, hanner, no, and zu. For example, the preposition bei and the article deem (singular dative masculine) are contracted to beim, but beiand där (singular dative feminine) stay separate as bei där.
Pronoun
The AX NLG platform supports the following pronouns for Luxembourgish: demonstrative (proximal), indefinite, personal, relative and possessive.
Numerals
Four types of numerals are possible on the AX NLG platform: cardinal, cardinal as digit, ordinal, and ordinal as digit. Take Dag (day) for example:
| cardinal | ordinal | |
|---|---|---|
| text | néng Deeg (nine days) | den néngten Dag (the ninth day) |
| digit | 9 Deeg (9 days) | den 9. Dag (the 9th day) |
For Luxembourgish, both cardinal and ordinal numerals are written out until 100 on the platform, otherwise (above 100) the output is in digit form. Take cardinal numerals for example:
honnert Hënn
(one hundred dogs)
vs.
101 Hënn
(101 dogs)
Determiner switch
Determiners can be switched according to lexical information.If you set the determiner switch for a specific noun in the lexicon, it will automatically switch to another determiner when you add the determiner you intend to switch in the container. The container setting for Duitsland in the first example is: preposition="an", determiner is unset (blank), and case="nominative".
an Däitschland <no determiner>
(in Germany)
In the second example, the container settings stay the same for Philippinen. However, the determiner automatically switches from none to definite, because the determiner switch is configured in the lexicon. As the result, the definite determiner de is added to Philippinen.
an de Philippinen <switch to definite determiner>
(in the Philippines)
note
If the lexicon entry of a country includes a switch from none to definite, there is still a way to use the country without the article (e.g. just "Philippines"). The determiner will always remain none by setting determiner=none in the container. Only an unset determiner (blank) triggers the switch from none to another determiner.
Preposition switch
On the AX NLG platform, the settings for the container Däitschland (Germany) are: preposition="an" and case="nom".
an Däitschland
(in Germany)
For the below sentence with a different place (i.e. Sylt), the platform settings are the same as above (preposition="an", case="nom"), but the lexical information changes the preposition and shows a switch from an to op:
op Sylt
(on Sylt)