What is a Inflection - Glossary of Linguistic Terms |

Inflection is variation in the form of a word, typically by means of an affix, that expresses a grammatical contrast which is obligatory for the stem's word ... Skiptomaincontent GlossaryofLinguisticTerms Inflection Definition: Inflectionisvariationintheformofaword,typicallybymeansofan affix,thatexpressesagrammaticalcontrastwhichisobligatoryforthe stem’s wordclassinsomegivengrammaticalcontext. Discussion: Incontrastto derivation,inflection: doesnotresultinachangeofwordclass usuallyproducesapredictable,nonidiosyncraticchangeofmeaning Examples: (English) InthefollowingEnglishsentence, come isinflectedfor person and number bythesuffix -s: ​Themailman comes aboutnoon. (Spanish) InthefollowingSpanishnounphrase, las and rojas areinflectedforagreementwith manzanas in grammaticalgender by -a andinnumberby -s: ​lasmanzanasrojas ‘theredapples’ SeeAlso: InflectionalAffixAffix(Linguistics)StemDerivationAgreementGroundingEpistemicModalityParadigmPersonDeixisNumberSource:  Crystal1985157 Payne,T.1997a26,233,234 Quirk,Greenbaum,Leech,andSvartvik19851548 Mish1991620 Richards,Platt,andWeber1985139 HartmannandStork1972112 Bybee19852,99 ThispageisanextractfromtheLinguaLinksLibrary.Version5.0publishedonCD-ROMbySILInternational,2003. LinguaLinksOrderingInformation GlossaryHierarchyMorphosyntacticOperation Inflection