Substantivformer

Substantivformer refers to the inflected forms of nouns in a language. These forms express grammatical information about the noun and its role in the sentence. The set of forms a noun can take is called its paradigm, and the base form found in dictionaries is often called the lemma. Substantivformer arise from the morpho-syntactic system of a language and are generated by inflection rules, sometimes in combination with determiners or adjectives.

The main grammatical categories encoded in substantivformer typically include number (singular, plural, and in some languages dual), definiteness (definite vs. indefinite), case (expressing syntactic function such as subject, object, or possession), gender (grammatical classes that affect agreement), and, in certain languages, animacy or countability. In languages with rich noun declensions, nouns belong to declension classes that determine the endings they take in each form. In languages with little noun inflection, grammar is conveyed mainly through surrounding words rather than noun endings.

There are different strategies for marking definiteness and number. Some languages mark definiteness directly on the noun with suffixes or internal changes, while others use separate definite or indefinite determiners. Case systems vary widely: languages like German or Russian attach case markers to nouns (or to accompanying articles and adjectives) to signal grammatical function. The gender system also influences agreement with adjectives and determiners.

Substantivformer are central to morphology and syntax, influencing how nouns relate to verbs, adjectives, and articles. They are a key focus in linguistic analysis, language learning, lexicography, and natural language processing.