Grammatiktyper

Grammatiktyper is a term used in linguistic typology to classify languages according to how they encode grammatical relations in their morphology and syntax. The concept describes broad patterns of morphology, such as the amount of bound morphemes, the transparency of affixes, and how syntax interacts with word formation. The classification is descriptive rather than prescriptive and aims to compare structural features across languages.

Isolating (analytic) languages have little affixation; most grammatical relationships are expressed through word order and separate function words. Examples include Mandarin Chinese and Vietnamese. Agglutinative languages form words by stringing together a sequence of affixes, each with a single grammatical meaning; morpheme boundaries are clear. Examples include Turkish and Swahili. Fusional (inflectional) languages use affixes that may express several grammatical categories at once; morphology is often less segmentable. Polysynthetic languages construct very long words that may incorporate many morphemes and arguments into one word. Examples include Inuktitut and Greenlandic. Finnish is often cited as an agglutinative language.

Some languages show mixed features and do not fit neatly into a single type; typologists describe them as having a predominant type with secondary processes, or as being transitional between families. The typology framework is used to describe, compare, and reconstruct linguistic patterns across the world, but it is a tool rather than a rigid taxonomy. It informs fieldwork, descriptive work, and cross-language research, helping scholars understand how languages balance morphology and syntax.