Re: polysynthetic languages

Isidora Zamora scripsit:

> Now that I know what polysynthetic is...could someone explain to me the
> difference between agglutinative and fusional.  (Agglutinative I almost
> know what it is, but fusional I've never heard before.
You probably think of it as "inflecting".  In agglutinative languages like
Turkish, the various semantic components are clearly identifiable, whereas
in fusional languages like Latin, the verb ending -o: can't be unpacked
into pieces that mean "first person", "singular", "indicative mood", "active
voice", "present tense", "imperfect aspect".

Latin's fusional nature extends beyond inflection to derivation in some (not
all) cases, as in Quine's hypothetical Latin verb *nolitessituriesco 'I am
not beginning to want to flutter hard'.

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