Inflektiivset

Inflektiivset is a term used in linguistics to describe a specific type of word formation or grammatical process. It refers to the way a word changes its form to indicate grammatical features such as tense, number, gender, or case. This process is often contrasted with other methods of word modification, such as derivation, where affixes are added to change the word's meaning or part of speech. Inflectional changes typically do not alter the core meaning of a word but rather its function within a sentence.

For example, in English, the verb "walk" can be inflected to "walks" (third-person singular present), "walked" (past tense), and "walking" (present participle). These are all variations of the same base word, conveying different grammatical information. Similarly, nouns can be inflected for number, like "cat" to "cats." Many languages, particularly Indo-European languages, heavily utilize inflection. The study of these changes falls under the broader umbrella of morphology, the analysis of word structure. Understanding inflection is crucial for comprehending the syntax and grammar of many languages.