--- title: "Finite-state Description of Semitic Morphology: A Case Study of Ancient Accadian — Kataja 1988" description: "The intersection defines the lexical form of each word. 4 references, cited by 5 papers here." authors: ["Laura Kataja", "Kimmo Koskenniemi"] year: 1988 venue: "Coling Budapest 1988 Volume 1: International Conference on Computational Linguistics" source: "https://aclanthology.org/C88-1064/" licence: "CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (ACL Anthology, before 2016)" licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/" summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/kataja-1988-finite-state-description-semitic-morphology/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/kataja-1988-finite-state-description-semitic-morphology/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [1988](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/1988/) / Finite-state Description of Semitic Morphology: A Case Study of Ancient Accadian # Finite-state Description of Semitic Morphology: A Case Study of Ancient Accadian **Authors:** Laura Kataja; Kimmo Koskenniemi · **Year:** 1988 · **Venue:** Coling Budapest 1988 Volume 1: International Conference on Computational Linguistics **Link:** [aclanthology.org/C88-1064](https://aclanthology.org/C88-1064/) · library `aclbulk-1988-kataja-finite-state-description-semitic-morphology` · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) — summary only [**5** citations in our library](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/kataja-1988-finite-state-description-semitic-morphology/cited-by/) of the 140,884 papers whose bibliographies we read · [Coling Budapest 1988 Volume 1: International Conference on Computational Linguistics](https://aclanthology.org/volumes/C88-1/) · [licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) - [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/C88-1064/) - [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/C88-1064.pdf) **Authors (2)** 1. Laura Kataja [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/3320253) 2. Kimmo Koskenniemi [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/2466657) Citations and author metrics: OpenAlex, ; authors with the same name are not always told apart. ## What it is about An early description of Akkadian word forms in Koskenniemi's two-level framework. Non-concatenative morphology, where the root consonants are interleaved with vowel patterns, is handled by intersecting two lexicons: one for roots, with the inflectional slots left open, and one for prefixes, inflectional elements and suffixes. The intersection defines the lexical form of each word. About thirty two-level rules, compiled with the TWOL compiler, cover vowel contraction, vowel elision next to laryngeals, assimilation of the t of verbal prefixes to dentals, and vowel shortening. Verbs and nouns are given fixed morphotactic slots (person prefix, root with inflection, gender and number, subjunctive, object suffix). The part read (abstract to section 3) gives no coverage figures. ## Ideas - I1. Two-lexicon intersection for Hebrew verbs: a root lexicon (three consonants, slots open) and a pattern lexicon (binyan vowels and affixes) whose intersection yields the stem. The root list is the missing piece, since the dictionary builder has no roots yet. ## For Mova - I2. Laryngeal alternations as two-level rules (the paper's elision and vowel-change rules around the laryngeals), tested on weak-root forms from the `tools/hbo` segmenter. - I3. A coverage measure: generate verb forms from roots with these rules, and count how many MACULA verb forms are reached, per binyan. The test set would live in `tools/macula`. I1 goes into [languages/hbo/06-verb.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/06-verb/). I2 goes into [languages/hbo/07-weak-verbs.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/07-weak-verbs/). I3 is a measure in `tools/macula`, run after a root list exists. Topics[Morphology](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/morphology/) · [Semitic languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/semitic-languages/) ## Cite Cite as Laura Kataja and Kimmo Koskenniemi. 1988. Finite-state Description of Semitic Morphology: A Case Study of Ancient Accadian. Coling Budapest 1988 Volume 1: International Conference on Computational Linguistics. The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. ```bibtex @inproceedings{kataja1988finite, title = {{Finite-state Description of Semitic Morphology: A Case Study of Ancient Accadian}}, author = {Laura Kataja and Kimmo Koskenniemi}, booktitle = {Coling Budapest 1988 Volume 1: International Conference on Computational Linguistics}, year = {1988}, url = {https://aclanthology.org/C88-1064/} } ``` - [← previous Lexicon and grammar in probabilistic tagging of written English](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/beale-1988-lexicon-grammar-probabilistic-tagging-written/) - [next → 'Relaxed' compositionality in machine translation](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/arnold-1988-relaxed-compositionality-machine-translation/) - [↑ back to papers of 1988](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/1988/) ## References 4 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet. 1. Karttunen, Lauri (1986) "D-PATR: A Development Environment for Unification-Based Grammars", Proceedings of COLING '86, Bonn. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Karttunen%2C+Lauri+%281986%29+%22D%2DPATR%3A+A+Development+Environment+for+Unification%2DBased+Grammars%22%2C+Proceedings+of+COLING+%2786%2C+Bonn%2E) 2. Karttunen, L., Koskenniemi, K., Kaplan, R. (1987) "A Compiler for Two-level Phonological Rules". In Tools for Morphological Analysis, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Report No. CSLL87-108. Kay, Martin, [an unpublished paper on Finite-State Aproach to Arabian Morphology at a Symposium on Finite-State Phonology at CSLI in July 1985.] [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Karttunen%2C+L%2E%2C+Koskenniemi%2C+K%2E%2C+Kaplan%2C+R%2E+%281987%29+%22A+Compiler+for+Two%2Dlevel+Phonological+Rules%22%2E+In+Tools+for+Morphological+Analysis%2C+Center+for+the+Study+of+Language+and+Information%2C+Report+No%2E+CSLL8) 3. Koskenniemi, Kirmno (1983) Two-Level Morphology: A General Computational Method for Word-Form Recognition and Production. University of Helsinki, Department of General Linguistics, Publicatiuons, No. 11. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Koskenniemi%2C+Kirmno+%281983%29+Two%2DLevel+Morphology%3A+A+General+Computational+Method+for+Word%2DForm+Recognition+and+Production%2E+University+of+Helsinki%2C+Department+of+General+Linguistics%2C+Publicatiuons%2C+No%2E+) 4. Koskenniemi, Kimmo (1986) "Compilation of Automata from Morphological Two-level rules", Papers from the Fifth Scandinavian Conference of Computational Linguistics. Helsinki, December 11-12, 1985. Department of General Linguistics, Publications, No. 15. )15 [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Koskenniemi%2C+Kimmo+%281986%29+%22Compilation+of+Automata+from+Morphological+Two%2Dlevel+rules%22%2C+Papers+from+the+Fifth+Scandinavian+Conference+of+Computational+Linguistics%2E+Helsinki%2C+December+11%2D12%2C+1985%2E+Depa)