A word, a word form and paradigmatic relations in Japanese

The idea of the paradigmatic word forms (as opposed to the lexical word units) does not seem to be mentioned very often in the native and foreign descriptions of Japanese grammar. This statement is especially true in the traditional and contemporary approach to the nominal elements of Japanese. In the presentation, the reasons for systematic approach to the paradigmatic relations of Japanese are going to be listed. Then, the basic criteria of the morphology-based approach to the paradigmatic relations will  be defined. Finally, the proposed paradigmatic model of the Japanese nominal forms and its possible applications are going to be presented.