Definition

1. Noun:
   • A grammatical ending: An "inflectional suffix" is a type of suffix (a morpheme added to the end of a word) that changes the grammatical function or form of a word without altering its core meaning or part of speech. It expresses features like tense, number, case, or degree.

Usage

• An inflectional suffix is attached to the base form of a word (the root or stem).
• It is used to create different grammatical forms of the same word.
• It typically does not create a new word with a new dictionary entry, but rather a different form of the existing word.

Examples

• Noun:
  • The suffix -s in "cats" is an inflectional suffix indicating plural number.
  • The suffix -'s in "dog's" is an inflectional suffix indicating possessive case.
• Verb:
  • The suffix -ed in "walked" is an inflectional suffix indicating past tense.
  • The suffix -ing in "walking" is an inflectional suffix indicating present participle or gerund.
• Adjective/Adverb:
  • The suffix -er in "faster" is an inflectional suffix indicating comparative degree.
  • The suffix -est in "fastest" is an inflectional suffix indicating superlative degree.

Advanced Usage

• Contrast with Derivational Suffix: Unlike a derivational suffix (which changes the word's meaning or part of speech, e.g., in "happiness" turns the adjective "happy" into a noun), an inflectional suffix only provides grammatical information.
• Productivity: Inflectional suffixes are usually highly productive, meaning they can be added to almost all members of a word class (e.g., most English verbs can take for the past tense).

Variants and Related Words

• Inflection (n): The process or result of adding an inflectional suffix; the change in the form of a word.
• Suffix (n): A general term for any morpheme added to the end of a word.
• Inflectional Morphology (n): The branch of grammar that studies how words are inflected.

Synonyms

• Grammatical ending
• Inflectional ending
• Inflectional morpheme

Key Concepts (Related Terms)

• Morpheme: The smallest grammatical unit of language (e.g., "cat" is one morpheme, "cat-s" is two morphemes).
• Stem/Root: The base form of a word to which affixes are attached.
• Paradigm: The complete set of inflected forms of a word (e.g., walk, walks, walked, walking).

Noun

1. an inflection that is added at the end of a root word