agglutinative
An agglutinative language builds words by adding clear prefixes and suffixes.
- Adjective:
- Characterized by agglutination; tending to stick or clump together: Describes the property of substances or particles that unite or adhere, as if by glue.
- (Linguistics) Pertaining to a language structure where words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each with a single, distinct meaning: Describes a type of language where complex words are created by adding affixes (prefixes, suffixes, etc.) to a root, and each affix typically conveys one grammatical or semantic meaning.
General (Adhesive Sense):
- The agglutinative properties of the resin made it perfect for the bonding application.
- Under the microscope, we observed the agglutinative behavior of the blood cells.
Linguistics:
- Turkish is a classic example of an agglutinative language.
- In agglutinative languages, a single word can express what requires a whole sentence in English.
"Agglutinative morphology": The specific study or system of word formation in languages that use agglutination.
- The linguist's research focused on the agglutinative morphology of the Uralic language family.
"Highly agglutinative": Used to emphasize the extensive use of affixation in a language.
- Finnish is highly agglutinative, allowing for very long, compound-like words.
Agglutinate (verb): To cause to adhere, as with glue; to clump together. In linguistics, to form words by combining morphemes.
- The antibodies will agglutinate the foreign cells.
- The language allows speakers to agglutinate several suffixes to a verb stem.
Agglutination (noun): The process or result of agglutinating.
- The agglutination of red blood cells is a key test in blood typing.
- Word formation by agglutination is very systematic.
- Adhesive: Having the property of sticking to a surface.
- Clumping: Gathering into a cluster or mass.
- Synthetic (Linguistics, specific sense): A type of language that combines multiple morphemes into single words (agglutinative and fusional languages are sub-types of synthetic languages).
- Isolating (Linguistics): Pertaining to languages where words are typically single morphemes and grammatical relationships are shown by word order (e.g., Mandarin Chinese).
- Analytic (Linguistics): Similar to isolating; using separate words rather than inflections.
- Non-adhesive: Not tending to stick.
Agglutinative language: A language that primarily uses agglutination in its grammar (e.g., Japanese, Korean, Swahili, Hungarian).
- Learning an agglutinative language requires understanding its suffix chains.
Fusional language: A different type of synthetic language where affixes combine multiple pieces of grammatical information into a single, often inseparable, unit (e.g., Latin, Russian). This is often contrasted with agglutinative languages.
An agglutinative language builds words by adding clear prefixes and suffixes.
- united as if by glue
- forming derivative or compound words by putting together constituents each of which expresses a single definite meaning