Nomenformerna

Nomenformerna is a term used in linguistic discussions to refer to the complete set of inflectional forms that a noun can take in a language. The concept focuses on the morphosyntactic variants that nouns exhibit, such as number, definiteness, and, in languages with richer morphology, gender and case.

The exact inventory of nomenformerna depends on the language. In highly inflected languages, nouns participate in several parallel forms or declension paradigms, producing multiple singular and plural variants across definite and, where applicable, gendered or case-marked forms. In less inflected or analytic languages, the noun’s nominal morphology may be limited to a few forms or be expressed largely through function words and word order rather than affixes.

In practical linguistics, nomenformerna are used to compare how different languages handle noun inflection, to classify nouns into declension or gender groups, and to model agreement with determiners, adjectives, and verbs. For example, in a language with definite suffixation, the primary nomenformer set might include the indefinite singular, definite singular, indefinite plural, and definite plural forms. In languages with cases, additional forms for nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive would be included in the nomenformer set.

In Swedish-language grammar, the concept helps describe how noun forms shift with definiteness and number, such as bok (indefinite singular), boken (definite singular), böcker (indefinite plural), and böckerna (definite plural). Across languages, nomenformerna provide a framework for analyzing noun morphology and its interaction with other parts of speech.

See also: noun, declension, morphology, inflection, agreement.