【芬兰语语法】§84 THE AGENT CONSTRUCTION

 The agent construction is a way of contracting relative clauses, i.e. those

beginning with joka, mikä ‘who, which’; in most cases these clauses then

become premodifiers, with the verb functioning as an adjective and the

subject (the agent) appearing e.g. in the genitive.

Relative clause Agent construction

auto, jonka Kalle osti Kalle/n osta/ma auto

the car that Kalle bought the car bought by Kalle

208 Finnish: An Essential Grammar

auto, jonka (minä) ostin (minu/n) osta/ma/ni auto

the car that I bought the car bought by me

The following rule applies to the verb of the agent construction.

The verb of the agent construction

(a) usually indicates past time;

(b) is formed from the ending -ma ~ -mä, added to the inflectional stem

(§76.1);

(c) functions like a normal adjective, inflecting for number and all

cases (§31).

Point (a) of the rule means that the verb of the construction may

correspond to any of the tenses indicating past time (past tense, perfect,

pluperfect).

Kalle/n osta/ma auto (a) the car which Kalle bought

(b) the car which Kalle has bought

(c) the car which Kalle had bought

Point (b) means that the verb is formed in the same way as the stem of the

third infinitive (cf. §76.1).

Infinitive Third person Verb form in

singular -ma ~ -mä

anta/a give anta/a anta/ma

vetä/ä pull vetä/ä vetä/mä

kaivat/a long for kaipaa kaipaa/ma

määrät/ä order määrää määrää/mä

syö/dä eat syö syö/mä

valit/a choose valitse/e valitse/ma

mainit/a mention mainitse/e mainitse/ma

Point (c) means that the forms in -ma ~ -mä behave in the sentence like

adjectives and are subject to the rules of concor(§31).

sininen auto the blue car

Kallen osta/ma auto the car Kalle bought

sinise/n auto/n of the blue car

Kallen osta/ma/n auto/n of the car Kalle bought

sinise/ssä auto/ssa in the blue car

Kallen osta/ma/ssa auto/ssa in the car Kalle bought

Participles 209

sinise/t auto/t the blue cars

Kallen osta/ma/t auto/t the cars Kalle bought

sinis/i/llä auto/i/lla with the blue cars

Kallen osta/m/i/lla auto/i/lla with the cars Kalle bought

The agent in this construction corresponds to the subject of the relative clause

(i.e. Kalle in the examples above), and is expressed according to the same

rules that apply to the subject in the temporal construction (§83).

The agent is expressed:

(a) by a possessive suffix alone, if it is the same as the corresponding

constituent in the main clause (generally the subject);

(b) by an independent word in the genitive, if it is different from the

corresponding constituent in the main clause;

(c) by the genitive forms of personal pronouns (minun, etc.), always

followed by a possessive suffix (unstressed first and second

personal pronouns may be omitted).

Tuula/n hankki/ma vene maksoi 1 000 mk.

The boat Tuula got cost 1,000 marks.

(Minun) hankki/ma/ni vene maksoi 1 000 mk.

The boat I got cost 1,000 marks.

Tuula istuu hankki/ma/ssa/an veneessä.

Tuula is sitting in the boat she got.

Istun hankki/ma/ssa/ni veneessä.

I am sitting in the boat I got.

Miksi ette aja hankki/ma/lla/nne veneellä?

Why don’t you go (‘drive’) in the boat you got?

Hankki/ma/mme veneet eivät maksaneet paljon.

The boats we got didn’t cost much.

Poik/i/en hankki/ma/t veneet ovat mukavia.

The boats the boys got are nice.

Hän ajaa Tuula/n hankki/ma/lla veneellä.

He is going in the boat Tuula got.

Particular attention should be paid to expressions such as the following,

wher the agent construction does not correspond directly to a relative

clause.

210 Finnish: An Essential Grammar

Ehdotus on Virtase/n esittä/mä.

The proposal was put forward by Virtanen.

Tämä runo on Saarikoske/n kirjoitta/ma.

This poem was written by Saarikoski.

Nämä runot ovat Saarikoske/n kirjoitta/ma/t ~ kirjoitta/m/i/a.

These poems were written by Saarikoski.

Kene/n kirjoitta/m/i/a nämä runot ovat?

By whom were these poems written?