Characteristics of the Uzbek language in AX Semantics
Fundamentals
In Uzbek, you need to know the case and number of a noun to form the accompanying determiners and pronouns correctly. Uzbek has six cases: nominative, genitive, dative, (definite) accusative, locative, and ablative. Additionally, Uzbek has two numbers: singular, and plural. There is no gender in Uzbek.
| grammatical name | values | examples |
|---|---|---|
| number | singular | qush (bird) |
| plural | qushlar (birds) | |
| case | nominative | qush (the bird) |
| genitive | qushning rangi (the color of the bird) | |
| dative | qushga non bering (give bread to the bird) | |
| (definite) accusative | qushni ko'ring (see the bird) | |
| locative | qushda (in the bird) | |
| ablative | qushdan (from the bird) | |
| adjectives (noun) | before noun | qizil uy (red house) |
| verb tenses | present | U ketadi. (he goes) |
| past | U ketdi. (He went.) |
The standard order of a noun phrase in Uzbek is the following: determiner + numeral + adjective + noun + preposition. See for example:
bu uchta yangi kitob haqida
these three new books about
DET NUM ADJ NOUN PREP
"about these three new books"
Lexicon
Nouns
Nouns are inflected for case and number. Nouns should be added to the lexicon if they are not regular.
Lexicon entries for nouns may also be necessary for inflecting some determiners, and pronouns correctly. They are omitted, if a lexicon entry is required, but missing.
Examples
The basic lexicon entry for qush (bird) contains:
- lexicon table for case and number:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | qush | qushlar |
| genitive | qushning | qushlarning |
| dative | qushga | qushlarga |
| (definite) accusative | qushni | qushlarni |
| locative | qushda | qushlarda |
| ablative | qushdan | qushlardan |
Adjectives
In Uzbek, adjectives do not inflect. The default position for an adjective is "before noun".
Verbs
Uzbek verbs only inflect for number, tense, and person. The polite form for the 2nd person (siz/sizlar) is also supported 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.
Container settings
Determiner
The AX NLG platform supports the following determiners for Uzbek: indefinite, demonstratives (proximal) and possessives. Possessives will be expressed as a possessive suffix to the noun, for example:
kitob
(book)
vs.
kitobim
(my book)
Pronoun
The AX NLG platform supports the following pronouns for Uzbek: proximal demonstrative, personal, and possessive 3rd.
Numerals
Four types of numerals are possible on the AX NLG platform: cardinal, cardinal as digit, ordinal, and ordinal as digit. Take kun (day) for example:
| cardinal | ordinal | |
|---|---|---|
| text | to'qqiz kun (nine days) | to'qqizinchi kun (the ninth day) |
| digit | 9 kun (9 days) | 9-kun (the 9th day) |
As the above example shows, when preceded by a number or other quantity word, the noun stays in the singular.
For Uzbek, 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:
yuz it
(one hundred dogs)
vs.
101 it
(101 dogs)
Postpositions
Uzbek uses postpositions rather 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).