To comply with use strict on lexical scope, I reckon I need to start off with a variable declaration, which *doesn't* include an assignment: my $word;
No, you only need the my in there. Whether you assign something or not doesn't matter any. May I suggest though, that in your case it would be more readable to do it this way: 
my $word =
    $part eq 'n' ? new Noun(@blah) :
    $part eq 'v' ? new Verb(@blah) :
                   new Adjective(@blah);

print $word->get_english();

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Update: DOH! Ack. I don't know where I left my brain while I was posting the initial version of this. japhy++

Makeshifts last the longest.

In reply to Re: Good practice: Variable declaration by Aristotle
in thread Good practice: Variable declaration by Basilides

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