A computational grammar and lexicon for Maltese

where the data structure does not in any way match between one source and the next. Given
a fixed list of sources, it is not difficult to design a relational schema which accommodates the
data from each; in the worst case this typically results in a large table with lots of null fields.
But this solution will be problematic if one wants to include data from new resources that may
become available in the future.
In order to maximise adaptability to future resources, this collection of resources must be
flexible enough to support heterogeneous data as it is. This will not only avoid the problem
of having to design an inefficient schema which is the union of the structure of all the current
resources, but more importantly will ensure that future data can be easily added to the collection
without having to conform to any specific schema. More information about how this is
achieved can be found below in section 3.2.1.
3.1.3 Full-forms
Traditional dictionaries are organised by head word or lemma, where different word forms for
that lemma are specified merely as suffixes. Take the following entry from the Serracino-Inglott
(2003, p. 218) dictionary as an example:
ħtieġa n.f.s., pl. -t, -ijiet ...
The entry gives the singular form ħtieġa (‘need’) as a head word, together with the suffixes
which give the plural forms. These affixes however cannot be blindly appended to the head
word; the correct plural forms in this case are in fact ħtiġiet and ħtiġijiet. So even though the
dictionary gives us some information about the other word forms for this lemma, it takes some
further knowledge of the language in order to apply the rules correctly.
This is where the importance of having a full-form lexicon becomes apparent; even in cases
where inflection is affix-based, other morpho-phonological rules can come into play. In cases
where inflection is non-concatenative — which is often the case in Maltese — storing all inflected
forms is essential if the lexicon is to be used for any kind of lookup or lemmatisation.
Storing all forms versus generating them
Two options exist when it comes to building a full-form lexicon:
1. All word forms are stored as individual entries in a database, all linked to the parent head
word.
2. Only the headword itself is stored, and inflected word forms are produced in real-time
by some automaton.
The former option is generally more demanding in terms of space requirements, yet the
latter option depends on the morphological predictability of the language in question. In the
case of Maltese, the prevalence of unpredictable broken plurals for nouns and adjectives is a
clear indication that some way of storing full forms is needed, even if other plurals may be
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