by Katie Suess

The English language possesses a rich set of endings that enable us to turn nouns into adjectives, adjectives into nouns, adjectives into adverbs, etc.   Take for example the noun anger.  If you add the ending –y, it becomes angry, an adjective.  If you then add the ending –ly, it becomes angrily, an adverb.

Simply knowing which of these endings cause which transformation is not enough, however.  For example, knowing that tribal is an adjective formed from the noun tribe tells you only  a fraction of the story.  One must also know that  –al means ‘characteristic of’ and thus tribal will mean ‘characteristic of a tribe’.

A lot of different word endings are used in English, and each particular one seems to have a default meaning, but there are some examples that do not fit in so easily.  For instance, an  –ly ending on a noun creates an adjective that usually means ‘like that noun’.  This definition accounts for examples such as manly (like a man), cowardly (like a coward), and friendly (like a friend). This does not work across the board though, as lovely does not mean ‘like love’, but rather ‘pleasing’.  Similarly, the –ic word ending in horrific gives a meaning of ‘causing this verb’, whereas terrific has come to mean ‘great’ or ‘awesome’ rather than ‘causing terror.’

These exceptions are part of what makes English such a complex language. Good artificial intelligence can not only to process the default meanings of the endings but can also recognize the exceptions and handle them.