INFLECTION (Lat. inficrio, a bending, from in fleet cre, to bend, from in, in + fleet cre, to bend). The changes undergone by Avon's to de note their varying relations to other words. This forms one of the main divisions of philology (9.v.), and is itself subdivided into conjugation hp.) and declension (q.v.). It is a distinguish ing mark of the indo - Germanic fq•v.) and the Semitic languages (q.v.), as compared with other language-groups. such as the so-called ag glutinative (q.v.), and the like. Broadly speak ing. the line between: intleetion and agglutination is drawn by the individual intelligibility of the components of a word. 1Vhile in many non-in flecting languages each of the several formative parts has an independent meaning and existence, as Turkish 10 love: serdirnwk, 'to cause to love.' serdiriback, 'to cause to he loved,' serdir i /mem ek, cause not to be loved,' and so on, the components of an inflecting word no longer have any independent nieaning, so that Latin ',pit means 'he drives.' lolt neither ant- nor -t has any signification when used separately. This distinction, however. is a somewhat arti ficial and evanescent one, and should be accepted ,all• as a for rough elassilication. To all intents and lingoe•', many id the so-called ag glutinative, in•orimrating tor pulysyntheticf, or c‘•ii analytic language, are a, truly inflectional as those whose right to t he term i. undisput ed. I he phrase 'infleetionaf may, nevertheless, be used to denote the Semitic and I mho-Germanic if its somewhat comentional and inexact applicability 'ay clearly understood. The intlec• lions of t he Semitic la m_mages are relatively simple, and will be treated in detail Under the tit le SKAI lc 1..%Nf,t Af,Es. In t he I iido-f ler manic family, on the other hand they are quite complex, although far surpassed by many of the agglutinative and incorporating tongue-. In general, the Vedic I S \ ,NR1T 1,1" tf;1:1 to t he hypot het Ma pre-Indo t;ernianie language-type. It has IUD main declension systems. pronominal (see Pao Not Ni and nominal (-ye Not•N I . The,. were probably independent originally, although by the of analogy (q.v.) two system, 1/i declension frequently beemno confused, of the noun being inflected pronominally te.g. Sanskrit :reek al, 'these,' but Sanskrit a WI Viet' Versa II of Nola,' /His, 'who':' but Latin qui, Sanskrit kr). The inllection of
the pre•Indmt main and pronoun was e‘ 'dent lv far richer even than the Vedic San skrit. for a comparison of the Indret:ermanie lan shoo a number of for single eases—as, for instance. the instrumental singu lar .1ve•ta rchrka. Epri/or. I Ill Clitirch Slavic 'with a wolf.' It is entirely possible, even though merely ;t hypothesis, that the four of formation of this case just cited. which would be in pre•Indo Germanic *ulgo, vjg,', • u(goblii, • upionti Thlgehhi, .11prtni), indicate an original (litter entiation of meaning; or, in other words. they were different cases. These eases, if t his is t rue, later a for which the historic Indo-Cermanie dialects furnish abun dant the Latin ablative, which unites the functions of the pre-lndo-t;crmanie locative, instrumental. and ablative, or the dative, which comprises the primitive da tive, locative, and instrumental. The infleetional are. in general. ultimately the same for any given ease throughout the vari ous Ileelen-ions. The apparent divergencies are usually due, except where arc in flected pronominally or pronouns nominally. to the laionetie laws of sound-combination. (See PlIoNETICS.) The conjugation of the verb. like wise. was originally far more complex than it is now. The tense system, although the future was originally lacking, was rich, especially in aorists. The Vedic Sanskrit had three main varieties. the simple, reduplieating, and s- aorists. of which the first bad two and the third had four. 'Here again it is quite possible that these seven aorists originally bad distinc tive meanings, although oven as early :1`.. the Veda they were, so far as now• known, mutually equiva lent. The moods were more numerous, the verb having the indicative. subjunctive, optative. im perative. and perhaps a niild imperative called the injunctive (in form the angmentleso, aorist, and later the aug,montless imperfect). As in tleetion was twofold. so conjugation had a double system, primary and secondary. The primary conjugational terminations were found in the present, perfect, and when a future was devel oped, in this new tense also; the secondary end ings were employed in the tenses which denote past. time.