---
title: "Word Formation in Natural Language Processing Systems"
authors:
  - "Roy J. Byrd"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1983/170"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1983/0170.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1983
pages: "704-705"
track: "Natural Language"
keywords:
---

# Word Formation in Natural Language Processing Systems

Roy J. Byrd

*Proceedings of the Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 704-705.

## Abstract

Systems which process natural language require a reliable source of information about words. Not only must their lexical subsystems handle a large number of known words; they must also cope with coinages. The morphological principles underlying the notion "possible word" are under active study by linguists, and are articulated in the theory of word formation . This paper presents a technique for building lexical subsystems which embody these prin-ciples by emulating the behavior of word formation rules. These subsystems combine totally idiosyncratic lexical information, stored in a dictionary, with systematic information derived from word struc-ture. Applications for lexical subsystems built along the lines described here will be discussed.