Definition

1. Noun:
   • The part of grammar that deals with the inflections of words: "Accidence" refers specifically to the study or system of how words change their form (inflect) to express grammatical categories such as case, gender, number, tense, mood, or person. It is a traditional term for morphology as it applies to grammatical inflections.

Usage

• "Accidence" is a specialized, somewhat dated term used in the study of grammar and linguistics. It is less common in modern linguistics, where the broader term "morphology" is typically preferred. It is primarily used in academic or historical contexts when discussing the grammatical structure of languages, particularly those with rich inflectional systems like Latin, Greek, or Old English.

Examples

• Noun:
  • The first chapter of the Latin textbook covers accidence, including noun declensions and verb conjugations.
  • In traditional grammar, accidence is distinguished from syntax, which deals with sentence structure.
  • The accidence of Old English is more complex than that of Modern English.

Advanced Usage

• "The accidence of a language": This phrase refers to the complete set of inflectional rules and patterns for a given language.
  • A scholar dedicated her career to describing the accidence of ancient Greek.

Variants and Related Words

• Inflection (n): The process or result of changing a word's form to express a grammatical function.
  • The inflection of the verb indicates past tense.
• Morphology (n): The study of the form and structure of words, including inflections (accidence) and word formation. This is the modern, more comprehensive term.
  • Modern linguistics uses the term morphology instead of accidence.

Synonyms

• Inflectional morphology: (Technical) The specific branch of morphology dealing with inflections.
• Word form changes: (Descriptive) A simple way to describe the concept.

Related Phrases

• Rules of accidence: The grammatical rules governing how words inflect.
  • Students must memorize the rules of accidence for the language's nouns.

Noun

1. the part of grammar that deals with the inflections of words