clitic
Unstressed grammatical particle
A clitic is a word that can't stand alone phonetically and attaches to an adjacent word.
English contractions contain clitics: in I'll and won't, the endings are clitics bound to their hosts.
Pronouns in give 'em hell and I saw 'er behave similarly.
Clitics fall between independent words and affixes—grammatically separate but phonetically dependent.
Smallest meaningful language unit
- syntaxRules for arranging words
- morphologyStudy of structural forms
- boundSecured or destined
- freeWithout payment or restriction
inflection · agreement · tense · aspect · definiteness · pronoun · determiner · negation
Word-part modifier
- suffixWord-ending addition
- prefixRoot-modifying front element
- particleMinute piece of matter
- hostOne receiving guests
leaning · adjacency · liaison · elision · unstressed · auxiliary
morpheme
Smallest meaningful language unit
- syntaxRules for arranging words
- morphologyStudy of structural forms
- boundSecured or destined
free · inflection · agreement · tense · aspect · definiteness · pronoun · determiner · negation · auxiliary
affix
Word-part modifier
host · leaning · adjacency · liaison · elision · unstressed · auxiliary
Romance
Latin-descended language group
Spanish · French · Portuguese · Bulgarian · Serbian · Polish · Celtic · Tagalog · Sanskrit · reflexive
apostrophe
Mark showing ownership
don't · you're · they're · we're · I'm · you'll · they'll · we'll · it's · that's