An XML database for modern standard Arabic (MSA) verbs generated from triliteral roots

Abstract

In this paper, we present an exhaustive database for Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) verbs generated from trilateral roots. This database is initially represented as a root-pattern matrix listing rows of all recognized roots and columns of all verb patterns in MSA. The intersection of each row and column contains an index indicating the compatibility of the aforementioned root-pattern pair. This index refers also to a list of morpho-syntactic characteristics of the generated verb. We later converted the database into the more flexible XML format. The aim for our approach is twofold: with the objective of building an exhaustive list, we opted for automatic generation of all possible trilateral roots in the Arabic alphabet and subsequent filtering of roots not recognized in the literature; secondly, converting the database into XML creates a highly versatile resource for easy integration in Arabic NLP applications.