kernwerkwoordsvorm

Kernwerkwoordsvorm is a term used in linguistics to describe the core or canonical form of a verb. This form serves as the basic representation from which other verb forms are derived and is typically the form used in dictionaries and lexical entries. In many languages, the kernwerkwoordsvorm corresponds to the infinitive or the dictionary form of the verb, acting as the lemma that maps to all inflected forms.

In Dutch grammar, the infinitive often functions as the kernwerkwoordsvorm. For example, lopen (to walk) and zien (to see) are cited in their infinitive forms as the core representations of these verbs. The kernwerkwoordsvorm is non-finite; it does not convey tense, person, or number, and it provides the semantic content of the verb. Other conjugated forms—such as present, past, or participles—are derived from this core form through morphological processes.

The concept is central in lexicography and natural language processing. Lexical databases, dictionaries, and morphological analyzers typically index verbs by their kernwerkwoordsvorm (the lemma) and then generate or recognize inflected forms through rules or irregular paradigms. This helps in tasks like lemmatization, parsing, and syntactic analysis, where a consistent base form is needed to relate different surface forms to a single lexical entry.

Variations exist across languages. Some use a stem or another non-infinitival form as the core representation, and irregular or suppletive verbs may have multiple lemma forms in practice. Nevertheless, the kernwerkwoordsvorm remains a foundational concept for identifying and organizing verb meaning across linguistic analyses. Examples in Dutch include kernwerkwoordsvormen zoals lopen and zien.