General characteristics of the grammatical structure of language. Analytical and synthetic languages
Analytical Languages
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Isolating Languages:
Minimal use of morphemes (affixes or changes to word forms) to convey grammatical information.
Word order is essential for conveying meaning.
No Inflection: Grammatical information is typically expressed through separate words.
Examples: Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese.
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Fusional Languages:
Use inflectional affixes that can carry multiple grammatical meanings within a single word.
Word forms can be highly fused and complex.
Inflectional Affixes: Grammatical information is expressed through inflectional affixes within single words.
Grammatical Gender: Some fusional languages feature grammatical gender, where nouns are assigned gender categories.
Case Marking: Case markings are used to indicate grammatical relationships.
Examples: Latin, Spanish.
Synthetic Languages:
Agglutinative Languages:
Use simple affixes where each affix represents a single grammatical meaning.
Words are often created by stringing together multiple affixes.
Simple Affixes: Grammatical information is expressed through a string of simple affixes.
Word Compounding: Complex words are formed by stringing together affixes.
Examples: Japanese, Turkish, Swahili.
Polysynthetic Languages:
Highly synthetic languages where entire sentences or phrases can be incorporated into a single word.
Complex word compounding and incorporation of multiple morphemes.
Complex Word Formation: Entire phrases or clauses are incorporated into single words.
Incorporation: Incorporation of entire phrases into single words.
Examples: Inuktitut, Mohawk, Greenlandic.