Definition of Flexion (Linguistics)

Words can be altered through morphemes. In the field of linguistics This phenomenon is known as bending. In other words, words have a series of possible alterations and for this to be carried out, the union of inflectional morphemes to a base is necessary.

Inflectional morphemes are normally mandatory and form a closed model, since there are no infinite inflectional morphemes. On synthesis, bending is one of the processes that allow you to create a new word.

Four Simple Bending Examples

1) The word "white" has a base, specifically blanc. From there, a flexion of gender and number. Thus, with an "a" and an "s" the word white is formed.

2) In the word "teacher" we have a lexeme or base (teacher), plus a gender inflectional morpheme male.

3) Verb forms also have the same process. Thus, the form “cantaría” is composed of the lexeme canta plus the inflectional morpheme ría.

4) The verb forms "bring, bring and suit" have the same lexeme, but each one of them has a specific inflectional morpheme.

Flexion should not be confused with shunt

To form words there are two different processes, inflection and derivation. In the first case a new word is not created, while in the second a new term is produced. In this way, in the derivation a base or lexeme is joined with a derivative morpheme.

From the adjective white, an abstract quality can be created by adding a derivative noun (ura) and thus forming the term whiteness.

The two ways of forming words are due to the fact that there are two types of morphemes: inflections and derivatives

In the former, grammatical information is added and they can be nominal inflectional morphemes or verbal inflectional morphemes. Instead, derivative morphemes bring a change in meaning and this turns an adjective into a noun (for example, white and white) or a prefix is ​​entered (for example, the prefix pre and the word say form the term predict).

The study of flexion and shunt is part of the morphology, an aspect of linguistics, which is the discipline that studies the structure of the language. In short, morphology focuses on the structure and training of words and linguistics studies the structure of a language.

Photos: Fotolia - a3701027 / Adrian Niederhauser