What is a declension?

Question

Plz dont give me the meaning off of dictionary.com...tried that and didnt understand

Answer 1

In inflected languages, nouns are said to decline into different forms, or morphological cases, which indicate the nouns' function in a sentence. Morphological cases are one way of indicating grammatical case; other ways are listed below. Morphological cases are usually indicated by desinences (endings), but additionally, or alternatively, morphophonological modifications of the nominal stem may occur (see Nonconcatenative morphology, Apophony, Umlaut).

Declension is seen in many Indo-European languages, including Latin, Russian, German, Albanian, and Sanskrit; in Dravidian languages like Tamil; in most Uralic languages, such as Finnish and Hungarian; in Swahili; in Turkic languages like Turkish and Kazakh, and in many others. Old English had an extensive case system. In modern English grammar, the same information is now mostly conveyed with word order and prepositions, though a few remnants of the older declined form of English still exist (as in he vs. him; see Declension in English).

An example of a Latin noun declension is given below, using the singular forms of the word homō (man), which belongs to Latin's third declension.

homō "[the] man" [as a subject] (e.g. homō ibi stat the man is standing there)
hominis "of [the] man" (e.g. nōmen hominis est Claudius the man's name is Claudius)
hominī "to [the] man" [as an indirect object] (e.g. hominī donum dedī I gave a present to the man)
hominem "[the] man" [as a direct object] (e.g. hominem vidi I saw the man)
homine "[the] man" [in various uses not covered by the above] (e.g. sum altior homine I am taller than the man).
Languages with rich nominal inflection typically have a number of identifiable declension classes, or groups of nouns that share a similar pattern of declension. Latin, for example, is traditionally said to have 5 declension classes (see the article on Latin declension).

Though English pronouns can have subject and object forms (he/him, she/her), nouns show only a singular/plural and a possessive/non-possessive distinction (e.g., chair, chairs, chair's, chairs'). Note that chair does not change form between "the chair is here" (subject) and "I saw the chair" (direct object). The n-declension is restricted to words like ox-oxen, brother-brethren, and child-children, though in Medieval English the s-declension and the n-declension were in stronger competition.

Answer 2

The list of different forms of a noun. In English we only have the singular and plural forms:
"apple
Apples"
But in inflected languages, like Latin, the noun takes on a different form if it is the subject, the object, or if it is possessive, or if it is the cause of something, or if you are addressing the object. The different uses of the noun are indicated by different endings, both in plural and singular forms. So you can have a declension of a noun with up to 12 forms (6 singular and 6 plural).

Answer 3

yes start with a, ae is next because e is after a in the alphabet (considering only vowels), they you have ae again, because it was the second item in the list. then you have am because m is the 13th letter of the alphabet and 1+3 = 4, the 4th thingy. Finally you have long a. because this is an awefully long way to go about memorizing the first declension, feminine singular endings. You get the idea.

Answer 4

--- the inflection of nouns and pronouns and adjectives in Indo-European languages

--- deterioration: process of changing to an inferior state

--- descent: a downward slope or bend

--- In linguistics, declension is a feature of inflected languages: generally, the alteration of a noun to indicate its grammatical role

Answer 5

It's a form of a noun, pronoun or adjective, by which it's grammatical case, number and gender are identified. another meaning is declining or deterioration. Which explanation do u want ?

Answer 6

A descending slope