Deklinacyjna

Deklinacyjna is the feminine form of the Polish adjective deklinacyjny, used to describe anything related to declension. In linguistics, declension (deklinacja) is the system by which certain parts of speech change form to express grammatical categories such as case, number, and gender. The term deklinacyjna is therefore a descriptor applied to patterns, endings, paradigms, or classes involved in inflection. For example, in discussing nouns and adjectives, one speaks of endings (końcówki deklinacyjne) or of a declension paradigm to refer to the full set of forms for a given word.

In Polish grammar nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and numerals follow declension patterns that distinguish gender and number and that align with seven grammatical cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative. The concept of a forma deklinacyjna or forma deklinacyjna denotes a specific inflected form, such as domu (genitive singular) or domem (instrumental singular) for the noun dom. The phrase deklinacyjna odmiana is used in teaching and dictionaries to summarize how a word declines.

Deklinacyjna can also appear in descriptions of a word class’s morphological behaviour, for instance to label a given declension pattern as deklinacyjna within a larger grammar description. See also: Deklinacja, Odmiana, Przypadek.