formative element

American  

noun

Grammar.

1. a morpheme that serves as an affix, not as a base, or root, in word formation.

2. any noninflectional morpheme, whether base or affix.

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Etymology

Origin of formative element

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

Rousseau's "Sensibility."—Rousseau was one of those philosophers whose character is the formative element which gives shape to their doctrines.

From Religion and Science From Galileo to Bergson by Hardwick, John Charlton

Humanism again comes forward as an important literary formative element.

From John Lyly by Wilson, John Dover

If we compare the different groups of the animal kingdom, however, we find that the animals, too, bear this polarity as a formative element.

From Man or Matter by Lehrs, Ernst

The formative element is used with a great many different words to define or qualify them; that is, to indicate mode, tense, number, person, gender, etc., of verbs, nouns, and other parts of speech.

From On the Evolution of Language First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 1-16 by Powell, John Wesley

Here, as in many other cases, the formative element, vicus, is exchanged for Ceaster, and we get something like Lon-ceaster or finally Lancaster.

From Science in Arcady by Allen, Grant