LATIN MORPHOLOGY
 
Morphology is the study of WORD structure. Words are either Simple (mittere) or Compound (trans-mittere). Every WORD has a STEM and ROOT.
 
A ROOT is the primitive element in any word. It is that part which the word has in common with all other kindred words (semantically), e.g transmittere, remittere, committere.
 
A Compound WORD (transmittere) has as many ROOTS (trans, mittere) as it has composing parts, but has only one STEM (transmitt). In simple words, stems and roots are often the same.
 
A STEM is that part of a word which is virtually contained in every change of form, though the character is often liable to be hidden through the operation of the laws which determine letter change.
 
(Every true element in a word following the root is called a SUFFIX. Suffix which converts a Stem into a Word, is called an ENDING. A syllable placed before a word to modify its meaning is called a PREFIX.)
 
One may simplify Latin words as consisting of two parts:
(1) a STEM that holds the semantic (dictionary) meaning of the word (which might contain several ROOTS);
(2) a series of ENDINGS that change depending on the word's grammatical meaning in a sentence.
 
Every Word has meaning (semantic) and form (morphology). Form helps to determine meaning.
 
 
LATIN INFLECTION (change of form)
 
The difference between "John ate a chicken" and "A chicken ate John" shows that the positioning of words in English is essential. But word-order is not so significant in Latin which marks grammatical relationships through the ENDINGS in inflections. There are two kinds of inflections in Latin: declensions and conjugations.
 
DECLENSIONS determine:
- gender (masculine, feminine, neuter),
- number (singular, plural),
- case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, vocative)
 
* The Noun is inflectional in number and case, but inherent in gender. It gives a name, e.g. vir (man), puella (girl), donum (gift). There are five declensions.
 
* The Adjective (positive, comparative and superlative) is inflectional in number, case and gender. It adds a quality to the noun, e.g. bonus, bona, bonum (good). There are two groups: the group of 1st and 2nd declension adjectives, the group of 3rd declension adjectives.
Nouns, numerals, adverbs can be derived from adjectives.
 
* The Pronoun is inflectional in number, case and gender, except the 1st and 2nd personal pronouns where gender is inherent. The declension of pronouns doesn't follow exactly noun declensions. It points out without describing, e.g. hic (this), ille (that), ego (I),
   
CONJUGATIONS determine:
- voice (active, passive, deponent),
- mood (indicative, subjunctive, imperative, infinitive)
- tense (present stem, perfect stem)
- aspect (imcomplete, complete),
- person (1st, 2nd, 3rd),
- number (singular, plural)
 
* The Verb is mostly inflectional in voice, mood, tense, aspect, person and number. It expresses a complete thought, either assertion (amat - he loves), wish (amet - may he love) or command (ama - Do love!).
- There are four conjugations.
Adjectives and nouns can be derived from verbs.
 
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Particles - not inflectional
 
* preposition shows local relation.
* adverb shows circumstances.
* conjunction shows connection.
* mutilated forms of the noun and pronoun carrying a negative or interrogative function.