INFLECTION
[21] Latin is an inflected language.
Inflection is a change made in the form of a word to show its grammatical relations.
[a]
Inflectional changes sometimes take place in the body of a word, or at the beginning, but oftener in its termination:
vx, a voice; vcis, of a voice; voc, I call; vocat, he calls; vocet, let him call; vocvit, he has called; tangit, he touches; tetigit, he touched.
[b]
Terminations of inflection had originally independent meanings which are now obscured. They correspond nearly to the use of prepositions, auxiliaries, and personal pronouns in English.
Thus, in vocat, the termination is equivalent to he or she; in vcis, to the preposition of; and in vocet the change of vowel signifies a change of mood.
[c]
Inflectional changes in the body of a verb usually denote relations of tense or mood, and often correspond to the use of auxiliary verbs in English:
frangit, he breaks or is breaking; frgit, he broke or has broken; mordet, he bites; momordit, he bit.
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[22] The inflection of Nouns, Adjectives, Pronouns, and Participles to denote gender, number, and case is called Declension, and these parts of speech are said to be declined.
The inflection of Verbs to denote voice, mood, tense, number, and person is called Conjugation, and the verb is said to be conjugated.
NOTE.Adjectives are often said to have inflections of comparison. These are, however, properly stem-formations made by derivation (p. 55, footnote). [p. 13]
[23] Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections are not inflected and are called Particles.
NOTE.The term Particle is sometimes limited to such words as num, -ne, an (interrogative), nn, n (negative), s (conditional), etc., which are used simply to indicate the form or construction of a sentence.
Root, Stem, and Base
The body of a word, to which the terminations are attached, is called the Stem.
The Stem contains the idea of the word without relations; but, except in the first part of a compound (as, arti-fex, artificer), it cannot ordinarily be used without some termination to express them.
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Thus the stem vc- denotes voice; with -s added it becomes vx, a voice or the voice, as the subject or agent of an action; with -is it becomes vcis, and signifies of a voice.
NOTE.The stem is in many forms so united with the termination that a comparison with other forms is necessary to determine it.
A Root is the simplest form attainable by analysis of a word into its component parts.
Such a form contains the main idea of the word in a very general sense, and is common also to other words either in the same language or in kindred languages.
18
Thus the root of the stem vc- is voc, which does not mean to call, or I call, or calling, but merely expresses vaguely the idea of calling, and cannot be used as a part of speech without terminations. With - it becomes voc-, the stem of vocre (to call); with v- it is the stem of vocvit (he called); with to- it becomes the stem of voctus (called); with tin- it becomes the stem of voctinis (of a calling). With its vowel lengthened it becomes the stem of vx, vc-is (a voice: that by which we call). This stem vc-, with -lis added, means belonging to a voice; with -la, a little voice.
NOTE.In inflected languages, words are built up from Roots, which at a very early time were used alone to express ideas, as is now done in Chinese. Roots are modified into Stems, which, by inflection, become fully formed words. The process by which roots are modified, in the various forms of derivatives and compounds, is called Stem-building. The whole of this process is originally one of composition, by which significant endings are added one after another to forms capable of pronunciation and conveying a meaning.
Roots had long ceased to be recognized as such before the Latin existed as a separate language. Consequently the forms which we assume as Latin roots never really existed in Latin, but are the representatives of forms used carlier. [p. 14]
The Stem may be the same as the root: as in duc-is, of a leader, fer-t, he bears; but it is more frequently formed from the root
1. By changing or lengthening its vowel: as in scob-s, sawdust (SCAB, shave); rg-is, of a king (REG, direct); vc-is, of a voice (VOC, call).
2. By the addition of a simple suffix (originally another root): as in fug-, stem of fuga, flight (FUG + -); regi-s, you rule (REG + stem-ending e/o-); sini-t, he allows (SI + ne/o-).
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3. By two or more of these methods: as in dci-t, he leads (DUC + stemending e/o-).
4. By derivation and composition, following the laws of development peculiar to the language. (See 227 ff.)
The Base is that part of a word which is unchanged in inflection: as, serv- in servus; mns- in mnsa; gn- in gnis.
The Base and the Stem are often identical, as in many consonant stems of nouns (as, rg- in rg-is). If, however, the stem ends in a vowel, the latter does not appear in the base, but is variously combined with the inflectional termination. Thus the stem of servus is servo-; that of mnsa, mns-; that of gnis, gni-.
Inflectional terminations are variously modified by combination with the final vowel or consonant of the Stem, and thus the various forms of Declension and Conjugation (see 36, 164) developed.
