Lõppliige

Lõppliige is a term that appears infrequently in Estonian linguistics and does not have a widely standardized definition in mainstream usage. The word is formed from lõpp, meaning end, and liige, meaning member, suggesting a sense of a final element or concluding part within a structure. In discussions of word formation, lõppliige is sometimes used to denote the terminal morpheme or the last affix in a sequence of derivational or compounding steps.

Because the term is not consistently defined across sources, its interpretation varies. Some authors describe lõppliige as the final suffix or ending morpheme that closes a word-formation process, while others use it more loosely to refer to the last element in any sequence of morphological change. In theoretical morphology, it may be employed as a pedagogical label to illustrate how a word is terminated by a specific morpheme, as opposed to earlier, more modifying elements.

In practical use, the concept can appear in linguistic analysis, language teaching, and computational parsing, where identifying a terminal element can help delineate word boundaries or model end markers in finite-state analyses. However, given its obscurity, it is important to verify the intended meaning from a given source.

See also: Estonian linguistics; morphology; compounding; end-of-sequence marker. References to the term should be traced to a specific author or publication to clarify its precise sense.