Flektierung

Flektierung, in linguistics often rendered as Flexion, is the process by which words change form to express grammatical information. It covers the modification of a word to indicate categories such as case, number, gender, person, tense, mood, and voice. Flektierung is distinguished from derivation, which creates new words; flektierte forms belong to a single lexical item and form a paradigm of related forms.

Flektierung can occur through several mechanisms. Affixation adds endings or, in some languages, prefixes that carry grammatical meaning. Internal stem changes, such as vowel alternations (ablaut) or consonant alternations, also contribute to inflection. Some languages rely on analytic means, using auxiliary words to convey information, but most inflection involves a combination of endings, internal changes, and, occasionally, irregular forms. For example, German nouns change endings to show case and number (der Mann, des Mannes, dem Mann, die Männer), adjectives agree with the noun, and verbs mark person and tense (ich gehe, du gehst, er ging, wir gehen).

The scope and complexity of flektierung vary by language. Highly inflected languages (such as Latin, Russian, or German) display extensive paradigms with multiple endings and irregular forms. Analytic languages (such as English or Mandarin) use fewer inflectional forms or rely more on word order and auxiliary words. The term Flektierung derives from Latin flexus, “bent,” and has been used in grammar since the 19th century; in contemporary linguistics, Flexion or Morphology are common alternatives.

See also: Flexion, Deklination, Konjugation, Morphologie, Allomorphie, Paradigmen.