Appendix:Finnish glossary

A glossary of terms used in the body of this dictionary for Finnish entries specifically. See Appendix:Glossary for a more general glossary.

Contents: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

abessive (case): A nominal case used for not possessing something, i.e. being 'without' something. The uses of the abessive are restricted to certain expressions. See abessive.
ablative (case): A nominal case used e.g. for motion from on top of or around something. See ablative.
accusative (case): A nominal case used for total objects (of telic verbs). See accusative.
adessive (case): A nominal case used e.g. for location 'on' or 'near' something. See adessive.
adverbial case: A case that only exists for a small group of nominals. Named so because they resemble cases in terms of meaning, despite the fact that nominals 'inflected' in adverbial cases are rather simply adverbs (which is also how they are treated).
agent participle: A special participle (nominal inflected form of a verb) which can be used to represent an agent of an action marked with a participle. See this appendix.
allative (case): A nominal case used e.g. for motion onto or towards something. See allative.
anticausative (verb aspect): See automative.
atelic: Atelic verbs in Finnish always take the partitive case for their objects. See Appendix:Finnic telic and atelic verbs for more information.
automative (verb aspect): A verb aspect that expresses an action that affects its subject. See automative.

B

C

causative (verb aspect): A verb aspect that expresses an action that is caused by the subject. See causative.
causative (case): An adverbial case that expresses manner of doing. See causative.
comitative (case): A nominal case used for doing something 'with' someone. Now mainly restricted to certain expressions. See comitative.
conditional (mood): A verb mood used for actions that depend on a condition. See conditional.
continuative (verb aspect): A verb aspect that expresses an action that lasts for an extended period of time (note that this differs somewhat from the common English definition of the continuative aspect, representing actions that are still ongoing). See continuative.
curative (verb aspect): A verb aspect that expresses an action in which the subject (agent) makes the object (patient) perform an action. See curative.

D

delative (case): An adverbial case that expresses moving away from nearby or alongside something. See delative.
descriptive: Used of sound-symbolic words; see Appendix:Finnish descriptive terms.
distributive (case): An adverbial case that expresses distribution or manner (especially in imitation). See distributive.

E

elative (case): A nominal case used e.g. from motion inside of something. See elative.
emotive (verb aspect): A verb aspect (subaspect of causative) that expresses an action that causes the patient to feel an emotion, often implying a source for the emotion, See factitive.
essive (case): A nominal case used for being in a certain state. See essive.
external locative case: Any of the following locative cases: allative, adessive and ablative.

F

factitive (verb aspect): A verb aspect that expresses an action where the subject (agent) makes the object (patient) adopt a certain end state or quality. See factitive.
fifth infinitive (MAISILLA infinitive): One of the Finnish infinitive types. Used in literary language to express that an action is or was almost done; see this appendix for more.
final gemination: A phonemic feature found at the end of certain words (or sometimes medially, although only before clitics); see this appendix for more.
first infinitive (A infinitive): One of the Finnish infinitive types, used with many auxiliary verbs and in its plain/lative form as the dictionary form for verbs; see this appendix for more.
fourth infinitive (MINEN infinitive): Used for certain uses of the regular -minen verbal noun; this appendix for more.
frequentative (verb aspect): A verb aspect that generally expresses a repetitive action, but may also represent leisurely and/or prolonged activity, or activity that is not done in a particularly determined attempt to reach a goal. See frequentative.

G

genitive (case): A nominal case used e.g. for ownership or meronymy. See genitive.
gradation: Consonant gradation.

H

I

illative (case): A nominal case used e.g. for motion into something. See illative.
imperative (mood): A verb mood used in commands, prohibitions and requests. See imperative.
indicative (mood): A verb mood used e.g. for statements of fact. See indicative.
inessive (case): A nominal case used e.g. for location, 'in' something. See inessive.
instructive (case): A nominal case used for a means or tool, now only mainly in certain expressions. See instructive.
internal locative case: Any of the following locative cases: illative, inessive and elative.

J

K

Kotus: An official abbreviation of Kotimaisten kielten keskus, or the Institute for the Languages of Finland. They (or more specifically their language planning division) are the official body responsible for Finnish language planning, and they also publish the Kielitoimiston sanakirja (Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish), the primary Finnish monolingual dictionary (alongside the historical Nykysuomen sanakirja), which is actively edited and available online.

L

lative (case): An adverbial case that expresses motion towards something. See lative.
locative (case): An adverbial case that expresses being in or at a static location. See locative.

M

momentane (verb aspect): A verb aspect that expresses a sudden, brief action. See momentane.
multiplicative (case): An adverbial case that expresses how many times something is done. See multiplicative.

N

nominative (case): A nominal case used e.g. for subjects in a sentence. See nominative.

O

oppositive (case): An adverbial case that expresses the location of two or more things facing against each other. See oppositive.

P

partitive (case): A nominal case used e.g. for objects of atelic verbs or partial objects. See partitive.
partitive verb: Used of verbs that are usually atelic, named so because their object is often in the partitive case.
passive (verb aspect): A verb aspect that expresses an action that is done upon the subject (patient). See passive.
potential (mood): A verb mood used for actions that are likely, but not sure, to happen. See potential.
prolative (case): An adverbial case that expresses motion through something or by something (as a medium). See prolative.
propinquative: See fifth infinitive.
proximative: See fifth infinitive.

Q

R

reflexive (verb aspect): A verb aspect that expresses an action done by the subject upon itself or themselves. See reflexive.

S

second infinitive (E infinitive): One of the Finnish infinitive types, used for actions that happen while or by doing something else; see this appendix for more.
semelfactive (verb aspect): A virtual verb aspect that expresses that an action occurs only once, is of an instantaneous nature and is not done in attempt to reach a goal. Semelfactive is not an independent verb aspect, but is rather one use of momentane verbs.
sensive (verb aspect): A verb aspect that expresses an action in which the subject feels an object to be a certain way. See sensive.
separative (case): An adverbial case that expresses moving away from a location. See separative.
situative (case): An adverbial case that expresses location next to something else, usually in a reciprocal fashion. See situative.
sublative (case): An adverbial case that expresses moving towards nearby or alongside something. See sublative.
superessive (case): An adverbial case that expresses presence at a static location, often nearby or alongside something else. See superessive.

T

telic: Telic verbs in Finnish take the accusative case for total objects. See Appendix:Finnic telic and atelic verbs for more information.
temporal (case): An adverbial case that expresses points of time for when something happens. See temporal.
temporal distributive (case): An adverbial case that generally expresses a repeating time reference for when something occurs, but are sometimes also used to express an origin or source for something. See temporal distributive.
terminative (case): An adverbial case that expresses movement up to a certain point. See terminative.
third infinitive (MA infinitive): One of the Finnish infinitive types, with many uses for actions relative to some other action; see this appendix for more.
translative (verb aspect): A verb aspect that expresses an action where the subject (patient) becomes something or adopts a quality of some kind. See translative.
translative (case): A nominal case used for entering a certain state. See translative.

U

V

W

X

Y

Z