concatenative

Concatenative, in linguistics, describes a class of word formation in which words are built by stringing together discrete morphemes in a linear sequence. Each morpheme contributes a distinct meaning or grammatical function, and morphological boundaries tend to align with the surface form. This contrasts with non-concatenative or templatic morphology, where morphemes interleave within a root or pattern. Concatenative systems include affixation (prefixes, suffixes, infixes, circumfixes), clitics, and compounding, and are often analyzed as agglutinative or, less strictly, fusional depending on how transparently morphemes map to forms.

In typology, languages such as Turkish, Finnish, and Hungarian are commonly cited as concatenative, featuring long chains of affixes attached to base stems. English also exhibits concatenative inflection and derivation, though it contains irregularities and stem changes. Some languages blend concatenative and non-concatenative processes, while others are predominantly one type. By contrast, non-concatenative morphologies arrange morphemes through templatic patterns or interdigitation of root consonants and vocalic templates.

In speech technology, concatenative synthesis refers to assembling speech from stored audio units—phonemes, diphones, syllables, or words. The method can produce natural-sounding output when units are well matched and prosody is properly controlled. Challenges include boundary artifacts at unit joins and the need for large inventories of units. Advances involve refined unit selection, time-scale modification, and post-processing with neural techniques to improve fluidity and naturalness.