formans

See also: förmans, förmäns, förmåns, and Formans

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Formans, from Latin elementum fōrmāns (“forming element”), with fōrmāns being the present participle of fōrmō (“to shape; to form; to fashion”). Doublet of formant.

Noun

formans (plural formantia)

1. (linguistic morphology) Synonym of formative (“language unit, typically a morph, that has a morphological function”).
   • 1968, Karl H. Menges, The Turkic Languages and Peoples‎^[1], page 157:

     These facts then clearly evidence such elements as enclitical particles which exercise certain morphological and/or syntactical functions, but which have not yet developed into actual suffixes obliged to conform to sound-harmony and the general accentuation pattern. Some elements of this type are the formantia of the cas. compar. in -däg, and the cas. aequat. (prosecut., mensurat., terminat.) in -ča/-čä in the nominal category, and the formans of the negative aspect in -ma-/-mä- in the verbal category.

   • 2006, Kim McCone, The Origins and Development of the Insular Celtic Verbal Complex‎^[2], page 136:

     In Cowgill’s […] convincing opinion the basic formans of this PIE mediopassive was an -o(-) originally added to endings identical with those of the perfect (minus -e where applicable; […]), which only had a single set of endings undifferentiated as to active/middle in PIE.

   • 2011, Joachim Grzega, “Compounding from an Onomasiological Perspective” (chapter 11), in The Oxford Handbook of Compounding‎^[3], page 221:

     After the selection of an onomasiological base and an onomasiological mark on the semantic level of the word-formation process, the speaker selects a word-formation base and a formans from an inventory of productive word-formation categories, classes, and subtypes on the formal level.

Translations

language unit — see formative

French

Etymology

Borrowed from German Formans. Doublet of formant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔʁ.mɑ̃/

Noun

formans m (plural formans)

1. (linguistic morphology) Synonym of formant (“formative; language unit, typically a morph, that has a morphological function”)

Latin

Etymology

Present participle of fōrmō.

Participle

fōrmāns (genitive fōrmantis); third-declension one-termination participle

1. shaping, forming, fashioning

Declension

Third-declension participle.

Number	Singular			Plural
Case / Gender	Masc./Fem.	Neuter		Masc./Fem.	Neuter
Nominative	fōrmāns			fōrmantēs	fōrmantia
Genitive	fōrmantis			fōrmantium
Dative	fōrmantī			fōrmantibus
Accusative	fōrmantem	fōrmāns		fōrmantēs fōrmantīs	fōrmantia
Ablative	fōrmante fōrmantī1			fōrmantibus
Vocative	fōrmāns			fōrmantēs	fōrmantia

¹When used purely as an adjective.