【芬兰语语法】§92 GENERAL

 There are two ways of forming new words from existing words and stems:

derivation and compounding. In derivation, new words (word stems) are

made by adding derivative endings or suffixes to the root or to another stem.

To the adjective kaunis : kaunii- ‘beautiful’, for instance, we can add the

ending -ta to form the derived verb stem kaunis/ta- ‘beautify’ (first infinitive

kaunis/ta/a). In the same way we can take the verb stem aja- ‘drive’, and add

the ending -o to form the derived noun aj/o ‘drive, chase, hunt’, or the ending

-ele- to form the verb stem aj/ele- ‘drive around’ (first infinitive aj/el/la).

Derivative suffixes occur immediately after the root but before the

inflectional endings, i.e. before number and case endings in nominals, before

passive, tense, mood and personal endings in finite verb forms, and before the

infinitive and participle endings in non-finite verb forms. (See the diagrams

in Chapter 3.)

Derived nominals and verbs inflect just like non-derived ones. Derived

words are subject to the same sound alternations as other words, in particular

consonant gradation (§15) and the vowel changes (§16).

Adding derivative suffixes may cause sound alternations in the root: e.g.

kaunii- : kaune/us and aja- : aj/ele-. In what follows these alternations will

be evident from the examples, and separate rules will not be given. There

may also be alternations in the derivative suffixes themselves when further

suffixes are added.

It is characteristic of Finnish that a given word form may contain many

derivative suffixes, one after the other. Below are some examples. The (non-

derived) root is given on the left, the derived word in the middle, and the

‘basic’ or full forms of the derivative suffixes on the right.

232 Finnish: An Essential Grammar

Stem Derived word Derivative suffixes

(basic forms)

aja- aj/ele/minen driving about ele-minen

asee- asee/llis/ta- arm (verb) llinen-ta

asee- asee/llis/ta/minen arming (noun) llinen-ta-minen

aja- aj/ele/hti- drift ele-hti

aja- aj/ele/hti/va drifting (adj.) ele-hti-va

lika- lika/is/uus dirtiness inen-uus

koti- kodi/ttom/uus homelessness ton(ttoma)-uus

kuole- kuole/ma/ttom/uus immortality ma-ton(ttoma)-uus

etsi- etsi/skel/y search (noun) skele-y

haukkaa- hauka/hd/us yelp (noun) hta-us

haukkaa- hauka/ht/el/u yelping (noun) hta-ele-u

asu- asu/nno/ttom/uus without a house nto-ton(ttoma)-uus

tuo- tuo/tta/ma/ttom/uus unproductiveness tta-ma-ton(ttoma)-uus

Not all derivative suffixes are equally productive. Some are extremely

productive, which means they can be added to practically all roots that belong

to a given type. Examples are the suffixes -ja ~ -jä ‘agent’, -minen ‘verbal

noun’ and -ma/ton ~ -mä/tön ‘not’, cf. aja/ja ‘driver’, aja/minen ‘driving’,

aja/ma/ton ‘undriven’; tuli/ja ‘comer’, tule/minen ‘coming’, tule/ma/ton

‘not coming, not come’; meni/jä ‘goer’, mene/minen ‘going’, mene/mä/tön

‘not going, not gone’, etc.

Other suffixes occur primarily or exclusively with certain roots, and are

thus more or less unproductive.