Further examples of Inflection

 Inflection is a process of word formation in
which items are added to the base form of a
word to express grammatical meanings.
 In short: inflections are grammatically
conditioned (McCarthy,2002), or expresses
grammatical categories like tense, person,
number, gender and case.

 Inflection does not change either the
meaning or the word class (category)
 Derivation changes the meaning and/or the
word class.
 Inflection: V + af V
 Derivation: V + af N

1. The pianist performs in the local café every month.
2. The pianist performed in the local café last night.
3. The performance was extraordinary.

*performs, performed & performance
- the same root (perform)
inflection
*performs, performed – the same word class (verb)
*performance – belongs to different class (noun)
- derivation

*performs – the suffix –s is added to the root because
of being grammatically conditioned by third-person
singular subject the pianist.
*performed – the suffix –ed is added to the root to
express past tense

*Derivation is the process of “constructing new words
by adding affixes to existing words”. (Trask,2007)
*Derivation changes the word class and/or meaning of
the root.

 Affixation
Do Undo
Like Dislike change
Make Remake the
Dress Undress meaning
Happy Unhappy

 Category change (word class)
Dark (Adj) Darkness (N)
Special (Adj) Specialize (V)
Absolute (Adj) Absolutely (Adv)
Recreation (N) Recreational (Adj)
Glory (N) Glorify (V)
Drink (V) Drinkable (Adj)
Compose (V) Composer (N)

1.) NUMBER – is the morphological category that
expresses contrasts involving countable
quantities. The simplest number contrast
consists of a two-way distinction between
singular (one) or plural (more than one).
English (book – books)
Even this basic distinction is NOT found in all languages.

 In Nancowry (spoken in India’s Nicobar
Islands), number is not marked on nouns at all.
Example:
sák nót ?in tsi?əj
spear pig the we
can refer to one or more pigs
‘ We speared the pig(s).’

 In Inuktitut (spoken in Northern Canada), there
is a three-way number contrast involving
singular, dual (two and only two) and plural
(more than two).
Example:
iglu - ‘a house’
igluk - ‘two houses’
iglut - ‘three or more
houses’

SINGULAR PLURAL
book books
pillow pillows
box boxes
child children
knife knives

2.) NOUN CLASS – a particular category of
nouns.
a. Animate Class – human or animal referents
b. Inanimate Class – doesn’t have human or
animal referents (objects)
c. Grammatical Gender – composed of two or three
classes, whose nouns that have human male and female
referent tend to be in separate classes. (Feminine,
Masculine, Neuter)
d. Human Class – has human referents.

*The Bantu language SiSwati, makes use of prefixes to
distinguish among more than a dozen noun classes.
Prefix Description of class Example
um(u)- persons um-fana ‘boy’
li- body parts, fruits li-dvolo ‘knee’
s(i)- instruments si-tja ‘plate’
in- animals in-ja ‘dog’
bu- abstract properties bu-bi ‘evil’
pha- locations pha-ndle ‘outside’

*In modern French, the gender contrast also make
up a type of noun classification system.
*gender – used by linguistics to mean ‘kind’ rather
than
‘sex’.
*There is a partial correlation between the French
gender classes and the sex of the objects to
which noun can refer.
frére ‘brother’ – masculine
soeur ‘sister’ – feminine

*Most inanimate nouns are classified more or less
arbitrarily.
lune ‘moon’– feminine
monde ‘world’– masculine
• Nouns referring to animate entities seem to be
classified arbitrarily.
victime ‘victim’ – feminine regardless of whether the
person referred to is male or female.

*German words ending in the suffix –chen are neuter.
Mädchen ‘young girl’
*Noun class can be marked in a variety of ways. In some
languages, the determiner is inflected to indicate the class
of the noun.
French
la – feminine lo – masculine
la hija ‘the daughter’ el hijo ‘the son’
la mesa ‘the table’ el mercado ‘the market’

*In other languages, inflectional affixes rather than
determiners can be used to indicate the gender class
of the noun.
Russian – uses one set of suffixes for nouns in the
feminine, animate class and another set for nouns in
masculine, animate class.
Class Suffix Example
Masculine -Ǿ dom ‘house’
Feminine -a ulits-a ‘street’
Neuter -o tʃuvstv-o ‘sensation’

C. CASE – a category that encodes information
about an element’s grammatical role (subject,
direct object, and so on).
*In modern English, this information is expressed
largely through word order and the use of
prepositions.
Bette composed a song on the bus.
verb d.o prep.

*Nominal Paradigm or Declension for the
Turkish word ev – ‘house’
Case Form Type of element that it
marks
Nominative ev-Ǿ the subject
Accusative ev-I the direct object
Dative ev-e the recipient
Genitive ev-in the possessor
Loccative ev-de a place or location
Ablative ev-den direction away from
somewhere

a. Adam-Ǿ ev-I Ahmed-e gōster-di.
Man-Nom house-Ac Ahmed-Dat show-past.
‘The man showed the house to Ahmed.’
b. Ev-in rengi-Ǿ māvidir.
house-Gen color-Nom blue
‘The house’s color is blue.’
c. Adam-Ǿ ev-de kaldi.
man-Nom house-Loc stayed.
“The man stayed in the house”

d. Adam-Ǿ ev-den tʃikti.
man-Nom house-Abl went
‘The man went from the house.’

*Ergative case marking
(Ergative-absolute pattern)
- is found in a varied set of languages, including
Basque(in Spain), Tagalog (in the Philippines),
Georgian (in the Caucasus), Inuktitut (in Northern
Canada and Greenland), and Halkomelem (on
the west coast of Canada).
- far less common than the nominative-
accusative pattern.

D. PERSON AND NUMBER AGREEMENT
*Person – a category that typically distinguishes
among:
a. the first person (speaker)
b. second person (addressee)
c. third person (anyone else)
*In many languages, the verb is marked for both the
person and number (singular or plural) of the
subject.

*Agreement is found in Italian, which exhibits the
following contrasts in the present tense.
*Verbal paradigm or a conjugation
- a set of inflected forms associated with
a verb

E. TENSE – is the category that encodes the time
of an event with reference to the moment of
speaking.
*English makes a two-way contrast between
past ( marked by the inflectional suffix –ed in
regular verbs) and the nonpast (unmarked).

past now future
past (-ed) nonpast (unmarked)
(He worked hard.) (We know him. I leave
tomorrow.)

*In the Australian language, Dyirbal, there is a
two-way distinction between future and
nonfuture.
Examples:
a. future b. nonfuture
bani-ɲ bani-ɲu
‘will come’ ‘came, is coming’

 In Spanish and Lithuanian, inflectional endings
are used to express a three-way contrast
involving past, present and future.
Spanish Lithuanian
a. Juan habl-ó bien. a. Dirb-au.
‘John spoke well.’ ‘I worked.’
b. Juan habl-a bien. b. Dirb-u.
‘John speaks well.’ ‘I work.’
c. Juan habl-ar- bien. c.Dirb-siu.
‘John will speak well.’ ‘ I will work.’

*A still richer system of contrasts is found in the
Bantu language ChiBemba, which uses its
inflectional system to distinguish degrees of
pastness and futurity.

Tense in ChiBemba
PAST FUTURE
Remote past (before yesterday)
ba-àlí-bomb-ele
‘They worked.’
Remote future (after tomorrow)
Ba-ká-bomba
‘They’ll work.’
Removed past (yesterday)
ba-àlíí-bomba
‘They worked.’
Removed future (tomorrow)
Ba-kà-bomba
Near past (earlier today)
ba-àcí-bomba
‘They worked.’
Near future (later today)
Ba-léé-bomba
Immediate past (just happened)
ba-á-bomba
‘They worked.’
Immediate future (very soon)
Ba-áláá-bomba

Further examples of Inflection

Further examples of Inflection

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Further examples of Inflection