The concept of "synthetic" in linguistics refers to the way a language combines different morphemes to form more complex words or phrases. Synthetic parts of speech are those that undergo morphological changes to convey additional meaning, such as tense, case, or aspect. These alterations occur through inflections, which are affixed to a root word. In languages with a high degree of synthetism, such modifications play a key role in expressing grammatical relationships within a sentence.

In contrast to analytic languages, which rely on word order and auxiliary words, synthetic languages use internal modifications to express grammatical information. The following aspects are often modified synthetically:

  • Verb conjugations - Changes to verbs to indicate tense, aspect, mood, or person.
  • Noun declensions - Alterations in the form of nouns to indicate case or number.
  • Adjective agreement - Modifications of adjectives to agree with the gender, number, or case of the noun they describe.

Below is a table showing examples of synthetic word forms in various parts of speech:

Part of Speech Example Modification
Verb talk → talked Past tense suffix
Noun child → children Plural form
Adjective big → bigger Comparative form

"Synthetic languages rely on internal modifications within words rather than external function words or fixed word order."