inflection/inflexion (n.)

(1) A term used in MORPHOLOGY to refer to one of the two main CATEGORIES or processes of WORD-FORMATION (inflectional morphology), the other being DERIVATION(AL). These terms also apply to the two types of AFFIX involved in word-formation. Inflectional affixes signal GRAMMATICAL relationships, such as plural, past TENSE and possession, and do not change the grammatical CLASS of the STEMS to which they are attached; that is, the words constitute a single PARADIGM, e.g. walk, walks, walked. A word is said to inflect for past tense, plural, etc. In traditional (prelinguistic) grammatical studies, the term ‘accidence’ was used in this sense, as was the term flexion.

(2) (INFL, I) A term used in GOVERNMENT-BINDING THEORY (at first symbolized as INFL, later as I) for an abstract CONSTITUENT which subsumes various grammatical properties – in particular, tense, PERSON and NUMBER (the latter two being separately grouped as AGREEMENT features, or AGR). In X-BAR theory, I is like the LEXICAL categories N, V, A and P in that it is a ZERO-level category with two PHRASAL PROJECTIONS, I′ and I″. I″, the maximal projection of I, is usually referred to as inflection phrase (IP). It is equivalent to S in earlier GB and certain other theories.

 

(3) In the phrase inflecting language (inflectional or inflected languages), the term characterizes a type of LANGUAGE established by COMPARATIVE LINGUISTICS using STRUCTURAL (as opposed to DIACHRONIC) criteria, and focusing on the characteristics of the WORD. In this kind of language, words display grammatical relationships morphologically: they typically contain more than one MORPHEME but, unlike AGGLUTINATIVE languages, there is no one-to-one correspondence between these morphemes and the linear SEQUENCE of MORPHS. In languages such as Latin, Greek and Arabic, the inflectional forms of words may represent several morphological OPPOSITIONS, e.g. in Latin amo (‘I love’), the form simultaneously represents tense, ACTIVE, first person singular, INDICATIVE. This ‘fusing’ of properties has led to such languages being called FUSIONAL, and has motivated the WORD-AND-PARADIGM MODEL of analysis. As always in such classifications, the categories are not clear-cut: different languages will display the characteristic of inflection to a greater or lesser degree.

الاكثر قراءة في Morphology

Words and lexemes, types and tokens

Kinds of morphemes

Types of compounds

Unpredictable or partially predictable allomorphy

Predictable allomorphy

The index of synthesis and the index of fusion

Derivational and inflectional morphemes

What do affixes mean?

Morphs and allomorphs

Free and bound morphemes

Kamhmu

Productivity versus creativity

Multiple processes

Problems in morphological description

Lexical and functional morphemes

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

ما الخدمات التي قدّمها موكب أشبال الطفّ لزائري عاشوراء؟

العتبة العباسية المقدسة تنظّم مسيرات عزائية لإحياء ذكرى عاشوراء في نينوى

قسم الشؤون الفكرية يحيي ذكرى استشهاد الإمام الحسين (عليه السلام) في القارة الإفريقية

قسمُ التربية والتعليم يقيم مجلسه العزائي السنوي بذكرى عاشوراء

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

تناول الجبن.. مفيد للجسم أم خطر يهدد صحتك؟

طبيبة أسنان تحذر.. لا تتجاهل هذه العلامة بعد التنظيف

يجب أن تأكل المزيد من الشمام هذا الصيف.. إليك السبب ؟

تأثير صحي كبير.. كم بيضة يجب أن تتناول يوميا؟

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

أداء خلايا البيروفسكايت الشمسية تحت الماء قد يزيد كفاءة تحويل الكهرباء

مسافة الأمان: أساس القيادة الآمنة وتجنب الحوادث

هل القيادة السريعة تعني استهلاك اكثر للوقود؟

لماذا يعتبر كوكب المريخ غير صالح للحياة؟

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Mirror in nominal morphology

Appendix 2: Hapax legomena from the Cobuild corpus

Appendix 1: 20th century neologisms from the OED

Morphological Productivity Structural Constraints in English Derivation Conclusion

Verbal derivation and the separation hypothesis

The separation hypothesis

Theoretical implications: Against the separation of form and meaning in morphology

Rival morphological processes 4: Where have all the rivals gone? Summary

Conversion vs. -ize, -ify and -ate

Rival morphological processes -ize vs. -ate

Rival morphological processes -ize vs. -ify

Rival morphological processes 4: Where have all the rivals gone?