Inflection
???
Modern English has lost many (but by no
means all) of the influections that characterized its earlier
incarnations, Old English and Middle English.
It's not a question of whether or not a language is
inflected; every natural language involves some changes in its
basic word forms. It's a question of degree. In English,
a regular verb can take only a handful of forms: walk,
walks, walked, have walked, had
walked, walking. A regular verb in ancient Greek can
sport well over five hundred different forms. And it's not just
verbs: nouns, adjectives, and pronouns are often inflected.
Most English nouns are inflected only to show number (cat,
cats); in other languages, inflections can show gender
(French etudiant, etudiante), grammatical relation,
and other things.
Most English adjectives aren't inflected at all, but they are in
many other languages.
English pronouns are still (comparatively) heavily inflected:
I, me, my, mine; you,
you, your, yours; he, him,
his; she, her, her, hers; and
so on.
From the Guide to Literary Terms by Jack Lynch.
Please send comments to jlynch@andromeda.rutgers.edu.
Note: This guide is still in the early stages of development. Bear with me.