infixn
a letter or sound or group of letters or sounds which are added within a
word, and which change the meaning or function of the word.
see also affix
INFLn
a category in generative grammar which includes finite auxiliaries
(which are inflected for tense and agreement) and the infinitival particle
to.
inflecting languagen
also fusional languagen
a language in which the form of a word changes to show a change in mean-
ing or grammatical function. Often there is no clear distinction between the
basic part of the word and the part which shows a grammatical function
such as number or tense.
For example:
mice (=mouse +plural)
came(=come +past tense)
Greek and Latin are inflecting languages, although there is no clear-cut
distinction between inflecting languages, agglutinating languages, and
isolating languages.
Sometimes inflecting languages and agglutinating languages are called
synthetic languages.
see also inflection
inflection/inflexionninflectv
(in morphology) the process of adding an affix to a word or changing it in
some other way according to the rules of the grammar of a language.
For example, in English, verbs are inflected for 3rd-person singular: I work,
he/she worksand for past tense: I worked. Most nouns may be inflected for
plural: horse – horses, flower – flowers, man – men.
see also derivation, conjugation^2
informal assessmentn
procedures used for systematic observation and collection of data about
students’ performance under normal classroom conditions rather than
through the use of standardized tests or other controlled methods of
appraisal.
see formal assessment
informal assessment