Characteristics of the Macedonian language in AX Semantics
Fundamentals
In Macedonian, you need to know the gender, case, and number of a noun to form the accompanying adjectives, determiners, pronouns, and numerals correctly.
Macedonian has three genders for nouns: masculine, feminine, and neuter. There are two numbers: singular and plural. Additionally, Macedonian has two cases for nouns.
| grammatical name | values | examples |
|---|---|---|
| gender | masculine | нов текст (new text) |
| feminine | нова книга (new book) | |
| neuter | ново списание (new magazine) | |
| number | singular | голема куќа (big house) |
| plural | големи куќи (big houses) | |
| case | nominative | мачка (cat) |
| vocative | Еј, мачко! (Hey, cat!) | |
| adjectives (noun) | before noun | црвено јаболко (red apple) |
| verb tenses | present | тој гледа (he sees) |
| past | тој гледаше (he saw) |
The standard order of a noun phrase in Macedonian is the following:
preposition + determiner + numeral + adjective + noun
See for example:
за овие три популарни книги
about these three popular books
PREP DET NUM ADJ NOUN
"about these three popular books"
Lexicon
Nouns
Macedonian nouns inflect for case, number, gender, 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, adjectives, numerals and pronouns correctly. They are omitted, if a lexicon entry is required, but missing.
Examples
The basic lexicon entry for текст (text) contains:
- gender: masculine
- inflection table for case and number:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | текст | текстови |
| Vocative | тексту | текстови |
Adjectives
In Macedonian, the default position for an adjective is "before noun". In the inflection table case, number, gender, and definiteness can be encoded.
If there are adjectives modifying the noun, only the first adjective is marked for definiteness (i.e., то in the below example), while the other adjectives and nouns are not marked. See the examples below:
кучето (the dog)
vs.
убаво куче (beautiful dog)
vs.
убавото куче (the beautiful dog)
vs.
старото и убаво куче(the old and beautiful dog)
Verbs
Macedonian 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 Macedonian: definite, demonstratives (distal + proximal + medial) and possessives.
The definite article in Macedonian is mostly expressed by a suffix on the noun. However, if adjectives or numerals exist in the phrase, the definite article is suffixed to the adjective or numeral instead of the noun. For example:
куче (dog)
vs.
кучето (the dog)
vs.
старото куче (the old dog)
vs.
првото куче (the first dog)
Pronoun
The AX NLG platform supports the following pronouns for Macedonian: personal, demonstratives (distal + proximal), and possessives.
Numerals
Four types of numerals are possible on the AX NLG platform: cardinal, cardinal as digit, ordinal, and ordinal as digit. Take ден (day) for example:
| cardinal | ordinal | |
|---|---|---|
| text | девет дена (nine days) | деветтиот ден (the ninth day) |
| digit | 9 дена (9 days) | 9. ден (the 9th day) |
For Macedonian, ordinal numerals are written out until 10, otherwise (above 10) the output is in digit form. Cardinal numerals are written out until 12, otherwise (above 12) the output is in digit form. Take cardinal numerals for example:
дванаесет кучиња
(twelve dogs)
vs.
13 кучиња
(13 dogs)
Preposition switch
On the AX NLG platform the settings for the container Германија (Germany) are: preposition="во" and case="nom".
во Германија
(in Germany)
For the below sentence where only the country (i.e. the Philippines) is different, the platform settings are the same as above (preposition="во" and case="nom"), but the lexical information changes the result:
на Филипините
(in the Philippines)
This example shows a preposition switch from во to на.
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 in the first example is the following: preposition="до", determiner is unset (blank) and case="nominative".
до Берлин
(to Berlin)
As for the second example, the container settings for Филипини (Philippines) are still: preposition="до", determiner is unset (blank), and case="nominative". However, the determiner switches from none to definite, because it is configured in the lexicon entry for Филипини.
до Филипините
(to 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.