A generic framework for Arabic to English machine ... - Acsu Buffalo

4.5. CHALLENGES OF ARABIC TO ENGLISH MT
Table 4.2: Derived words from a three-letter-root in Arabic
Arabic Example POS
kataba he wrote verb
kātaba he corresponded verb
kutiba it was written verb
ktiāb book noun
kutub books noun
kātib writer; (adj) writing noun
kutāb writers noun
maktab desk; office noun
makātib desks; offices noun
maktabah library noun
A root is defined in (Ryding 2007) as “a relatively invariable discontinuous bound mor-
pheme, represented by two to five phonemes, typically three consonants in a certain order,
which interlocks with a pattern to form a stem and which has lexical meaning.”
There are also two and four letter roots. They are discontinuous because the root letters
can be interspersed with other letters in a pattern. However, the order of the root letters
must be the same.
A pattern is defined in (Ryding 2007) as “a bound and in many cases discontinuous mor-
pheme consisting of one or more vowels and slots for root phonemes (radicals), which
either alone or in combination with one to three derivational affixes, interlocks with a
root to form a stem, and which generally has grammatical meaning.”
Patterns signify grammatical or language-internal information, distinguishing word types
and classes. These patterns can differentiate between nouns, verbs and adjectives, but
also give more detailed information about sublasses of these categories. There are fewer
patterns than roots.
Arabic has a large set of morphological features (Al-Sughaiyer and Al-Kharashi 2004).
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