Bronvorm

Bronvorm, literally “source form,” is the canonical form of a word used as the entry form in dictionaries and linguistic analysis. It is the base from which inflected or derived forms are produced. In Dutch linguistics, the bronvorm is typically the lemma or citation form. For verbs, the bronvorm is usually the infinitive, for example lopen, zien, schrijven. From the bronvorm, inflected forms are derived: infinitive lopen yields present forms loop and loopt, past tense liep, and past participle gelopen. For nouns, the bronvorm is generally the base headword in its singular form, such as boek, huis, stoel; plural forms boeken and huizen are inflected variants. For adjectives, the bronvorm is commonly the base dictionary form used to describe inflectional variants by degree or number, where applicable.

In practice, bronvorms are used in dictionaries, language learning, and natural language processing to normalize word forms through lemmatization. They provide a stable reference point for indexing and searching, facilitating linguistic analysis and information retrieval. The exact choice of bronvorm can vary across dictionaries or linguistic traditions, particularly for words with irregular forms or multiple senses, but the general principle remains: a single, stable form that represents the word’s core meaning and from which other forms are derived.