Wednesday, June 21, 2006
If the singular of buses is bus, why isn't the singular of fuses, fus?
Because stemming isn't a natural process--it's the reversing of an inflection. And inflection rules are based on phonetics not orthography. It's the long u sound that says the base form of fuses is fuse. (And don't get me started on silent letters!)
How to get this done? With this, a weapon that should be in every ALG arsenal: The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary.
Now that we're informed, answer me this: How come the base form of binding isn't binde? After all, the base of tithing is tithe.
# posted by Jim @ 7:57 AM 
