Editing Uninflected word

{{short description|Term in linguistic morphology}}
{{Ref improve|date=December 2009}}

In [[morphology (linguistics)|linguistic morphology]], an '''uninflected word''' is a [[word]] that has no morphological [[marker (linguistics)|marker]]s ([[inflection]]) such as [[affix]]es, [[ablaut]], [[consonant gradation]], etc., indicating [[declension]] or [[grammatical conjugation|conjugation]]. If a word has an uninflected form, this is usually the form used as the [[Lemma (morphology)|lemma]] for the word.<ref>[http://www.glasglow.com/e2/un/Uninflected_word.html Glasgow.com]</ref>

In [[English language|English]] and many other [[language]]s, uninflected words include [[preposition]]s, [[interjection]]s, and [[Grammatical conjunction|conjunction]]s, often called '''invariable words'''. These cannot be inflected under any circumstances (unless they are used as different parts of speech, as in "ifs and buts").

Only words that cannot be inflected at all are called "invariable". In the strict sense of the term "uninflected", only invariable words are uninflected, but in broader linguistic usage, these terms are extended to be inflectable words that appear in their basic form. For example, English [[noun]]s are said to be uninflected in the [[Grammatical number|singular]], while they show inflection in the [[plural]] (represented by the affix ''-s/-es''). The term "uninflected" can also refer to uninflectability with respect to one or more, but not all, morphological features; for example, one can say that [[Japanese language|Japanese]] verbs are uninflected for person and number, but they do inflect for tense, politeness, and several moods and aspects.

In the strict sense, among English nouns only [[mass noun]]s (such as ''sand'', ''information'', or ''equipment'') are truly uninflected, since they have only one form that does not change; [[count noun]]s are always inflected for number, even if the singular inflection is shown by an "invisible" affix (the [[null morpheme]]). In the same way, English verbs are inflected for person and tense even if the morphology showing those categories is realized as null morphemes. In contrast, other [[analytic language]]s like [[Chinese language|Mandarin Chinese]] have true uninflected nouns and verbs, where the notions of number and tense are completely absent. 

In many [[inflected language]]s, such as [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Russian language|Russian]], some nouns and adjectives of foreign origin are left uninflected in contexts where native words would be inflected; for instance, the name ''Abraam'' in Greek (from [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]), the Modern Greek word μπλε ''ble'' (from [[French language|French]] ''bleu''), the [[Italian language|Italian]] word ''computer'', and the [[Russian language|Russian]] words {{Lang|ru|кенгуру}}, {{lang|ru-Latn|kenguru}} (kangaroo) and {{Lang|ru|пальто}}, {{lang|ru-Latn|pal'to}} (coat, from French ''[[overcoat|paletot]]'').

In [[German language|German]], all [[modal particle]]s are uninflected.<ref>[http://www.germanstudies.org.uk/NHG_Grammar/nhggr_modalparticle.htm Germanstudies.org.uk]</ref>

==See also==
* [[Grammatical particle]]
* [[Lemma (morphology)]]
* [[Null morpheme]]

===References===
<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uninflected Word}}
[[Category:Linguistic morphology]]