A word form codes the grammatical properties that a lexeme bears when used in a certain construction. It may be categorized as a whole according to the morphological parameters coded by its word class, as shown in the right-hand column of the table. Alternatively, the word form may be parsed into minimum meaningful units, called morphs, and each of these may be paired with its meaning or function, as shown in the left-hand column.
| interlinear morphological gloss | categorization of a word form | |
|---|---|---|
| Latin example | leg-unt | legunt |
| analysis | read-3.PL | 3rd pers. pl. pres.ind. act. of legere |
| approach | analytic | holistic |
| model | item in arrangement | word and paradigm |
Both approaches are well-established in morphological theory under the names given in the last table line. They apply with different ease and appropriateness to different types of morphological structure:
- The ‘item-in-arrangement’ model works well with analytic and agglutinative morphological structure and brings out its specificity.
- The ‘word-and-paradigm’ model works well with fusional and suppletive morphological structure and brings out its specificity.
Morphological glossing tries to apply an 'item in arrangement' approach to the extent feasible. It meets its limits with such morphological structure where the 'word and paradigm' approach is more appropriate.