The English verb can appear in an absolute maximum of eight distinct forms:
root be form1 am form2 are form3 is form4 was form5 were form6 been form7 being
Regular English verbs only appear in four distinct forms, all of them predictable from the root:
root stamp form1 stamp form2 stamp form3 stamps form4 stamped form5 stamped form6 stamped form7 stamping
Macro mor_regV:
<mor form1 stem> = <mor root>
<mor form1 suffix> = E
<mor form2 stem> = <mor root>
<mor form2 suffix> = E
<mor form3 stem> = <mor root>
<mor form3 suffix> = s
<mor form4 stem> = <mor root>
<mor form4 suffix> = ed
<mor form5 stem> = <mor root>
<mor form5 suffix> = ed
<mor form6 stem> = <mor root>
<mor form6 suffix> = ed
<mor form7 stem> = <mor root>
<mor form7 suffix> = ing.
( We still have to implement that form 7 of "love" is "loving" and not "loveing")
Lexeme love:
<mor root> = love
mor_regV
syn_tV
<sem> = love2a.
The line encoding the root is redundant because the root is identical to the lexical entry:
Lexeme xxx
yyy
...
zzz.
can be abbreviated to:
Lexeme xxx
<mor root> = xxx
yyy
...
zzz.
This leads to:
Lexeme love:
mor_regV
syn_tV
<sem>=love2a.
This lexical entry contains information about all distinct morphological forms of the verb "love", the syntactic items it combines with or subcategorizes for, as well as semantic information.
Written out in full detail:
Lexeme love:
<mor root> = love
<mor form1 stem> = love
<mor form1 suffix> = E
<mor form2 stem> = love
<mor form2 suffix> = E
<mor form3 stem> = love
<mor form3 suffix> = s
<mor form4 stem> = love
<mor form4 suffix> = ed
<mor form5 stem> = love
<mor form5 suffix> = ed
<mor form6 stem> = love
<mor form6 suffix> = ed
<mor form7 stem> = love
<mor form7 suffix> = ing
<syn cat> = V
<syn arg0 cat> = NP
<syn arg0 case> = nom
<syn arg1 cat> = NP
<syn arg1 case> = acc
<sem> = love2a.
Encoding of information about irregular verbs of the class mor_presV, for example
eat,give
-> regular present tense and present participle
-> wholly idiosyncratic past tense forms
-> past participles with "-en" suffixes
Macro mor_presV
<mor form1 stem> = <mor root>
<mor form1 suffix> = E
<mor form2 stem> = <mor root>
<mor form2 suffix> = E
<mor form3 stem> = <mor root>
<mor form3 suffix> = s
<mor form4 stem> = <mor form5 stem>
<mor form4 suffix> = E
<mor form5 suffix> = E
<mor form6 stem> = <mor root>
<mor form6 suffix> = en
<mor form7 stem> = <mor root>
<mor form7 suffix> = ing.
Now our lexicon looks like this:
Lexeme die:
mor_regV
syn_iV
<sem> = die1a.
Lexeme elapse:
mor_regV
syn_iV
<sem> = elapse1a.
Lexeme eat:
mor_presV
<mor form4 stem> = ate
syn_iV
<sem> = eat1a.
Lexeme eat:
mor_presV
<mor form4 stem> = ate
syn_tV
<sem> = eat2a.
Lexeme give:
mor_presV
<mor form4 stem> = gave
syn_tV
<sem> = give2a.Lexeme give:
mor_presV
<mor form4 stem> = gave
syn_dtV
<sem> = give3a.
Lexeme give:
mor_presV
<mor form4 stem> = gave
syn_datV
<sem> = give3b.
Lexeme hand:
mor_regV
syn_dtV
<sem> = hand3a.
Lexeme hand:
mor_regV
syn_datV
<sem> = hand3b.
Lexeme love:
mor_regV
syn_tV
<sem> = love2a.