Towards a general model of linguistic paradigms

Linguistic forms are inherently multi-dimensional. They exhibit a variety of phonological, orthographic, morphosyntactic, semantic and pragmatic properties. Accordingly, linguistic analysis involves multi-dimensional exploration, a process in which the same collection of forms are laid out in many ways until clear patterns emerge. Equally, language documentation usually contains tabulations of linguistic forms to illustrate systematic patterns and variations. In all such cases, multi-dimensional data is projected onto a two-dimensional table known as a linguistic paradigm, the most widespread format for linguistic data presentation. In this paper we survey a representative sample
of paradigms and develop a simple relational data model. We show how XML technologies can be used to store and render paradigms. The result is a flexible and extensible model for the storage, interchange and delivery of linguistic paradigms