What is an inflectional category?

Definition

An inflectional category is a class of affixes that share a common grammatical feature.

Also known as:

grammatical category

Examples
	Case Number Gender Tense Aspect

Nonexamples
	The term “inflectional category” needs to be distinguished from these closely related terms:
	Words containing different affixes from the same inflectional category form an inflectional paradigm. Stems with a particular pattern of inflection form an inflectional class.

Concept module: inflectional category
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): I
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004