Description
Book SynopsisFinnish: A Comprehensive Grammar presents a fresh, accessible and thorough description of the language, concentrating on the real patterns of use in modern Finnish.
The book moves from the sound system through morphology and word classes to a detailed analysis of sentence structures and semantic features.
Key features include:
- particular focus on examples from spoken Finnish reflecting current usage
- grammatical phenomena classified as common or rare
- appendices identifying stems and sequences of endings
- English-Finnish contrasts highlighted throughout.
Finnish: A Comprehensive Grammar is an essential reference for the intermediate and advanced learner and user of Finnish.
Table of ContentsContents
Preface
Notational conventions and abbreviations
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 The relation of Finnish to other languages
1.2 Finnish and Finland, past and present
1.3 The basic characteristics of Finnish
1.4 What are the special difficulties?
Chapter 2 Pronunciation and sound structure
2.1 Letters and sounds
2.2 Vowels and consonants
2.3 Short and long sounds
2.4 Diphthongs
2.5 Syllables
2.6 Rhythm, word stress patterns and intonation patterns
2.6.1 Rhythm
2.6.2 Word stress patterns
2.6.3 Intonation patterns and accentuation
2.7 Vowel harmony
2.8 Major dialectal differences in pronunciation
Chapter 3 Word structure
3.1 Nominals and their inflectional endings
3.2 Finite verb forms and their endings
3.3 Non-finite verb forms and their endings
Chapter 4 Two important sound alternations
4.1 Consonant gradation of p, t, k
4.1.1 The types of consonant gradation
4.1.2 The rules of consonant gradation
4.1.3 Applying the basic rule to nominals
4.1.4 Applying the rules to verbs
4.1.5 Additional comments
4.1.6 The most common words with consonant gradation
4.2 Vowel changes before i endings
Chapter 5 The declension of nominals
5.1 Nominals inflected on the basic form
5.1.1 Tunti nominals with short final -i
5.1.2 Talo nominals with short final -u, -o, -y, -ö
5.1.3 Kala nominals with short final -a
5.1.4 Isä nominals with short final -ä
5.1.5 Nominals with final diphthong or long vowel
5.2 Nominals with short final -i or -e and separate inflectional stem
5.2.1 Kivi nominals, inflectional stem in -e, partitive -A
5.2.2 Kieli nominals, inflectional stem in -e, partitive -tA
5.2.3 Vesi nominals, inflectional stem in -te, partitive -tA
5.2.4 Perhe nominals with short final -e
5.3 Nominals with a final consonant and separate inflectional stem
5.3.1 Ihminen nominals
5.3.2 Ajat>us nouns
5.3.3 Taivas nominal
5.3.4 Hyv>yys nominals
5.3.5 Ava>in nominals
5.3.6 Työ>tön nominals
5.3.7 Askel nominals
5.3.8 Lyhyt nominals
5.3.9 Adaptation of new borrowed nouns
5.4 Singular and plural
Chapter 6 The conjugation of verbs
6.1 Infinitive endings
6.2 Inflectional stems
6.2.1 Anta-a verbs
6.2.2 Saa-da verbs
6.2.3 Tul-la and nous-ta verbs
6.2.4 Huomat-a verbs
6.2.5 Tarvit-a verbs
6.2.6 Lämm>et-ä verbs
6.3 Personal endings and agreement of person
Chapter 7 Interplay between Finnish morphology and syntax
7.1 Parts of speech
7.2 Phrases
7.3 Syntactic functions of phrases in clauses
7.4 Cases and adpositional phrases are markers of syntactic functions
7.5 Syntactic functions, phrases and clauses elaborated
Chapter 8 Phrases
8.1 Phrase types
8.2 The noun phrase
8.2.1 Structure
8.2.2 Agreement within the noun phrase
8.2.3 Functions of the noun phrase
8.2.4 Complexity of the noun phrase
8.3 The adjective phrase
8.4 The numeral phrase
8.5 Adpositional phrases
8.6 The adverb phrase
8.7 The infinitive phrase
8.8 The participle phrase
Chapter 9 Simple clauses
9.1 Clause types
9.2 Clauses with basic order subject + verb
9.3 Clauses with basic order verb + subject
9.4 Free adverbials, questions, negation, word order variations
9.5 Clauses without subject
9.6 Negative clauses
9.7 Questions and answers
9.7.1 Questions with -kO (‘yes-no’ questions)
9.7.2 Question-word questions (‘wh-’ questions)
9.8 Minimal examples of simple clause types
Chapter 10 Complex sentences
10.1 Types of complex sentences
10.2 Complex sentences with subordinate clauses
10.3 Complex sentences with infinitive and participle phrases
10.4 Nominalization
10.5 Repeated embedding of subordinate clauses, non-finite phrases and nominalizations
10.6 Structure of the predicate
Chapter 11 The nominative case
11.1 Nominative singular and plural
11.2 Use of the nominative
11.2.1 The nominative marking subjects, objects and predicate complements
11.2.2 Special uses of the nominative
Chapter 12 The partitive case
12.1 Formation of the partitive
12.1.1 Partitive singular
12.1.2 Partitive plural
12.2 Use of the partitive
12.2.1 Partitive subject
12.2.2 Partitive object
12.2.3 Partitive predicate complement
12.2.4 The partitive in expressions of quantity
12.2.5 The partitive with adpositions
12.2.6 Special uses of the partitive
Chapter 13 The genitive case and total objects
13.1 Formation of the genitive
13.1.1 Genitive singular
13.1.2 Genitive plural
13.2 Use of the genitive
13.3 The total object
13.3.1 Total object and partitive object
13.3.2 Total object endings
13.4 Quantity adverbials taking object cases
Chapter 14 Possessive endings
14.1 Possessive endings in nouns
14.2 Possessive endings in other parts of speech
14.3 Ways of expressing ownership (possession)
Chapter 15 The six local cases
15.1 Inessive
15.2 Elative
15.3 Illative
15.4 Adessive
15.5 Ablative
15.6 Allative
15.7 Directional verbs
15.8 Place names
Chapter 16 Other cases
16.1 Essive
16.2 Translative
16.3 Abessive
16.4 Comitative
16.5 Instructive
Chapter 17 Numbers and numerals
17.1 Cardinal numbers
17.1.1 Inflection of cardinal numbers
17.1.2 Use of cardinal numbers
17.2 Ordinal numbers
17.3 Fractions
Chapter 18 Pronouns
18.1 Personal pronouns
18.2 Demonstrative pronouns
18.3 Interrogative pronouns
18.4 Indefinite pronouns
18.5 Relative pronouns
Chapter 19 Tenses
19.1 Present tense
19.2 Past tense
19.3 Perfect tense
19.4 Pluperfect tense
19.5 Negative forms
19.6 Expressing future time
Chapter 20 Moods and modality
20.1 Indicative
20.2 Conditional
20.3 Imperative
20.4 Potential
20.5 Other means for expressing modality
Chapter 21 Passive constructions
21.1 General
21.2 Passive present
21.3 Passive past
21.4 Passive perfect and pluperfect
21.5 Passive moods
Chapter 22 Infinitive-based constructions
22.1 General
22.2 A infinitive
22.2.1 Basic form of the A infinitive
22.2.2 A infinitive translative
22.3 E infinitive
22.3.1 E infinitive inessive
22.3.2 E infinitive instructive
22.4 MA infinitive
22.4.1 Formation
22.4.2 MA infinitive inessive
22.4.3 MA infinitive elative
22.4.4 MA infinitive illative
22.4.5 MA infinitive adessive, abessive and instructive
22.5 MINEN infinitive
Chapter 23 Participle-based constructions
23.1 General
23.2 VA participle active
23.3 VA participle passive
23.4 The NUT/TTU participles
23.5 The participial construction
23.6 The temporal construction
23.7 The agent construction
23.8 Verb unions with participles or infinitives
Chapter 24 Comparison of adjectives
24.1 Comparative
24.2 Superlative
Chapter 25 Other word classes and clitics
25.1 Adverbs
25.2 Prepositions
25.3 Postpositions
25.4 Conjunctions
25.5 Discourse particles
25.6 Clitics
Chapter 26 Word formation
26.1 General
26.2 Derivation
26.2.1 Deriving nominals from nominals
26.2.2 Deriving nominals from verbs
26.2.3 Deriving verbs from verbs
26.2.4 Deriving verbs from nominals
26.2.5 Rare derivational endings
26.2.6 Multiple derivation
26.3 Compounding
Chapter 27 The colloquial spoken language
27.1 General
27.2 Omission and assimilation of sounds
27.3 Differences of form
Appendix 1 Detecting word structure
Appendix 2 Definitions of key concepts
Appendix 3 Material for studying Finnish as a foreign language
