flexional
Definition
- Adjective:
- Pertaining to inflection: "flexional" describes something that relates to the process of inflection, which involves changes in the form of a word (such as its endings) to express grammatical relationships like tense, case, number, or gender.
Usage Examples
- (The system of word changes in Latin involves many verb suffixes.)
- (Languages that use many word-form changes often have complicated patterns for nouns.)
Advanced Usage
"Flexional language": a language that primarily uses inflection to indicate grammatical relationships (e.g., Latin, Russian, Sanskrit).
- Sanskrit is a highly flexional language, with many verb and noun forms. (Sanskrit uses many word changes to show grammar.)
"Flexional ending": a suffix or other change added to a word to mark grammatical function.
- The flexional ending "-ed" marks past tense in English verbs. (The suffix "-ed" indicates past time.)
Variants and Related Words
Inflectional (adj): a synonym for "flexional", more commonly used in modern linguistics.
- Inflectional morphology studies how words change form. (This field examines word-form changes.)
Inflexion (n): the process or result of changing a word's form.
- The inflexion of the verb "walk" gives "walked" for past tense. (The change produces the past form.)
Synonyms
- Inflectional: relating to the modification of words to express grammatical categories.
- Morphological: pertaining to the structure and form of words (broader term).
Related Idioms