Inflected Language

A inflected language is, in morphological Typologie, a Langue in which the lemmas (“words”) change form according to their grammatical report/ratio with the other lemmas. In these languages, all the words are not “invariable” (what is the case in a insulating Langue): some modify their form (sound and or visual). It is said them that they undergo the play of the inflection and that the whole of the forms different from the same bent word form its Paradigme . Each Forme of the same paradigm can transmit one or more types of grammatical features ( kind, number, syntactic Fonction, lexical Classe, time, mode, etc) being able to be opposed (singular against plural, masculine against neutral, first nobody of the singular against first person plural, etc). The forms of the same paradigm, however, do not change a total direction: only the grammatical features are opposed. The inflection Nom inale is often named variation while that of the Verbe is the Conjugaison .

There exist several possibilities of modifications of the Meaning (significant form, generally auditive) of a word according to his grammatical report/ratio with other words of the statement, i.e. several types of inflection.

One often distinguishes the inflected languages from the agglutinant Langues by means of internal criteria. In the facts, the term of inflected language often includes the agglutinant languages. It should in this case be considered that flexional means: “whose certain lemmas change form according to grammatical criteria”.

External inflection

This type of inflection consists in adding a Affixe (ending, affix of class) to meaning variable at base (radical, topic) generally invariable.

Radical and endings

The affixes flexional, known as generally Ending S , are added to a radical (or a topic when the radical is already modified). For example, in the word let us dance /d ãsõ/, one recognizes a radical in /d ãs/and an ending - ons /õ/; what makes it possible to distinguish the radical from the ending, it is that this same radical can be found in other words: to dance / dãs E, dance / dãs /, danced / dãs jõ/, etc Of the same for the ending: let us eat /m ãʒ õ /, launch /l ãs' õ /, quote /sit õ /, etc
The radical sometimes is not used naked in the language, i.e. without at least one of the grammatical morphemes not added: it is thus not inevitably autonomous (even, in the Langues bantoues of Africa, for example, the naked radical never meets). If it is often invariable, some phonetic evolutions can give forms in which the radical is modified in contact with the ending.
Example:

in Latin, in the adjectival form profit “good”, the ending - I expresses at the same time the kind (male), the number (plural) and the Cas (Nominatif);

in Castilian, in the verbal form habl-ó “it spoke”, the suffix - ó expresses at the same time the mode (indicative), the nobody (3rd), the number (singular), the time (past), and the Aspect (perfective);

in the Arab name رَجُلٌ raǧul-un , the ending - a indicates that the name is indefinite and with the Nominatif.

Affixes of class

Sometimes, the ending does not indicate only one grammatical report/ratio but also the membership of the radical to a whole of elements related to same a lexical Champ, known as “classifies” (thus the class of human, the class of the languages, the emotions, the colors, etc). In the languages bantoues, these morphemes are known as prefixes of classes .

Lastly, if the information transmitted by the ending can be often summarized with only one feature for explainable reasons by the Phonétique history): the addition of a '' E null and void '' at the end of the word in punt indicates only female flat . With the oral examination, the form could be singular or plural: punt and punts decides now with the identical one.

Inflection interns (or introflexion)

In other cases, the inflection does not function by addition or change of a morpheme but by sound change of the radical itself (for certain linguists, it is about the effect of a Affixe named “simulfixe”). Generally, it is the stamp of the vowels of the radical which varies; in Arabic, for example, internal plural follows this process: “delivers” in the singular says كِتَاب kitāb but كُتُب kutub in the plural (known as broken ). Sometimes, the distribution of the vowels compared to the consonants of the radical also changes: فَرَسُن farasun “horse”, أَفْرَاسُن afrāsun “horses”; one passes from a syllabic structure CVCVCVC to VCCVCVC. The full number of phonemes, however, did not change. This process is frequent in the Semitic Langues and provides, in addition to flexional Paradigme S (of which “broken plurals”), an important process of Dérivation.

The Indo-European Langues old (and sometimes modern) frequently use this process, indicated for the blow under the name of vocalic Alternance. This vocalic alternation (which relates to also suffixes of derivation and which is useful, as in the Semitic languages, of process dérivationnel) explains number of irregularities in the modern languages. Thus, the irregular verbs English hide old vocalic alternations: it is the case for to sing , “to sing”, whose Prétérit is blood and the last participle sung . In Greek old or Sanskrit, the process is even more visible. For example, if the Greek verb “to leave” is λείπ - ω leíp - O (the radical is in fat), its Aoriste made ἔ- λιπ ον E lip one and its Parfait λέ- λοιπ - α breadth loip - has (with redoubling). The Indo-European radical is *likʷ- , which singing exercise thus according to the morphological Thème desired:

degree full (with a vowel) stamp E at the present: *leykʷ- ;
degree zero (without vowel) with the aorist: *likʷ- ;
full degree stamps O with the perfect one: *loykʷ .

Moreover, in modern Indo-European languages like the French (seldom), the English or the German , of the phonetic evolutions could lead certain words to adopt a type close to internal plural: English man makes in the plural men (by Métaphonie), French horse becomes horses (to oppose to; the phonetic Modification is here old a Vocalisation followed by a Monophtongaison). In German, many substantives undergo an inflection (or Umlaut ) varying the stamp of a vowel in addition to the addition of an ending: Buch , “book” made Bücher , “books”, in the plural. It is, historically, the same process which makes pass English foot , “foot”, with feet , “feet” (like man / men , woman / women , foam / mice , etc, terms which draw up a closed list and little of elements). These introflexionnelles alternations are more recent than vocalic alternation and always secondaries because resulting from posterior evolutions (in English and German, it is a metaphony, in French a vocalization then a monophtongaison).

If in fact generally the Voyelle S (quality, quantity or placement) vary in the inflection interns, in a language like the Basque, the internal inflection can be consonant: one palatalizes certain consonants to obtain a hypocoristic derived term; as follows: sagu “mouse” but xagu “small mouse”, tanta “drop”/ ttantta “small drops”.

Other modifications, of nature Suprasegmental E, can intervene, like variations in the stressing, the tonème, the vocalic Quantité, etc:

Castillan canto “I sing”/ cantó “it sang”;
Latin venit “it comes”/ vēnit : “it came”;
Chinese 好 hǎo “to be good”/好 hào “to find good”.

Suppletism

It arrives in the inflected languages that such or such awaited form does not exist, in which case one often substitutes to him another form drawn from another radical. One names this process suppletism .

For example, in Latin, the indefinite pronoun nihil “nothing”, has Génitif: one compensates the genitive of a periphrasis to him, that is to say nullius rei “no thing”. In Greek, the verb τρέχ-ω /trekh O “I run” uses the radical τρεχ- /trekh/ only with the topic of present. With the other topics (future, aorist and perfect), one replaces it by the radical δραμ- /dram/, as in the aorist ἔ-δραμ-ον /e-dram-on/ “I ran”. Lastly, in French, the various forms which take the irregular verbs are sometimes due to old suppletisms: the fact that the first nobody of the singular of to go is (I) go and that of the future (I) will go , is explained if it is known that the forms in ale are built on the radical vulgar Latin alare (traditional ambulare ), that those in goes come from vadere while those in ir come from the verb anger . It is exactly the same principle for the English Be , amndt , is and was . In the case of the suppletism, the inflection thus does not consist only any more of one modification of meaning but of its replacement by another.

To distinguish an inflected language from an agglutinant language

It is necessary to distinguish, sometimes difficult task, an inflected language of a agglutinant Langue. In the agglutinant languages, the morphemes are added to a radical which can exist with the naked form. These morphemes associate also the ones with the others and bring generally one grammatical feature each one. These are rather Affixe S that endings: whereas those are invariants and always discernible radical, the endings tend to be much more numerous and of forms varied for the same grammatical index; it is sometimes not possible to distinguish the limits between the radical and the ending; finally, the same form can receive only one ending at the same time. This is why the inflected languages can have many paradigms - to even be rich in irregularities - for the same nature of words, while the agglutinant languages rather offer a universal play of always identical affixes whatever the mot.

Thus, in Turkish, language very agglutinant, the word ev , “house”, can be supplemented, inter alia many possibilities, by the following suffixes, which are excluded only if indicated information is incompatible (a word cannot be at the same time singular and plural) and is placed, if necessary, in a precise order:

- ler {plural};
- im {possessive case of the 1st person of the singular};
- of {Rental};

allow to build:

ev-ler “houses”, ev-im “my house”, ev-with “in the house”;
ev-ler-im “my houses”, ev-ler-with “in the houses”, ev-im-with “in my house”;
ev-ler-im-with “in my houses”;

but not *ev-im-ler-de , *ev-de-ler , etc the naked radical, ev , remains autonomous.

If one compares with the Latin , highly flexional language, and always in the nominal field, the facts are quite different:

the grammatical morphemes are not inevitably identical of one word to the other: personal the Cæsar (radical naked) made its Genitive in Cæsar-is but for no-claims bonus (the naked radical not being autonomous: *bon does not exist), the genitive is profit (another ending for same a Cas). Plural with the same case is not built by the addition of another affix but by the use of another ending which indicates “genitive” and “plural”: here Cæsar-um and good-orum . An inflected language does not bind the affixes the ones following the others: this explains as the diversity of the forms as take the endings indicating of the same grammatical features;
one can also note cases where the radical and the ending are not identifiable any more: in the Personal civitas , “city”, the radical is civitat- , the ending - S (knowing that /ts/ gives here /s/ by Simplification). The radical is found with other cases: civitat-is with the genitive.

Various degrees of the flexional types

Lastly, it should be noted that the inflected languages are it with various degrees.

Firstly, in an internal way, the inflected languages can make the words of the same nature more or less variable. French, in his nominal inflection, for example, indicates by the flexional play only the differences of kind and, seldom (if it is not with the writing) of number: whereas the two forms horse and horses are distinguished well, in fact the pink case of / pink decides both. The verbal inflection, as for it, confuses under same meaning several forms: (I) eat , (you) eat (it) eats , (they) eat and eats (imperative) decide all in the same way, that is to say (of course, it was not the case in older states of the language, as in Former French. The phonetic evolution, here the Disappearance of the final consonants, explains these homophonies. The Orthographe remains often blocked on an old state). Only the grammatical context and the C-W communication make it possible to raise ambiguity. Sometimes even, the words remain invariable, which the C-W communication can hide. A wise adjective as decides in the singular, plural, masculine and female. In French, all the words of same a lexical Classe fléchissable are not inflected inevitably, at least orally.

Secondly, the languages, compared the ones with the others, offer very different flexional possibilities: in general, more one alive inflected language is written for a long time, more it simplified its various inflections during time. Thus, the old Greek , the Latin or the Sanskrit are strongly bent, have many different paradigms and many cases, while the modern Greek , the Former French and the Hindi (languages resulting from the first) are limited of number of Forme S and more regular. The French current, going down from former French, is limited even more: it does not have, if it is not in certain pronominal forms, more real nominal inflection and limit its modifications with the kind and the number. The verb, although still bent, offers many ambiguous forms however, as one saw.

Lastly, one should not lose sight of the fact that there does not exist so to speak any language which is entirely of only one standard: French is above all analytical but preserves traces of the Latin flexional type from which it comes. The more flexional one language is, plus its syntax is flexible: the word order, in Latin, Greek or Sanskrit, has, so to speak, only one value Stylistique; that one writes Petrum Paulus verberat , Paulus Petrum verberat or verberat Paulus Petrum , etc, the statement keeps an identical total direction: “Paul strikes Pierre”.

Open list of inflected languages

All the Indo-European Langues are flexional, to differing degree (the English, for example, is very slightly bent compared to the Icelandic, the French is much more with the writing that with the oral examination, a great number of Désinence S being dumb). All the old languages of this family are it (Latin Sanskrit, , Albanian, Greek old, hittite, etc).

Out of this family, the Semitic Langues are they also flexional to differing degree (the Arab literal bending itself more than the dialectal , for example).

Form, Paradigm, inflection
Latino sine flexione

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