The Basic Word Formation of Finnish
The Finnish Noun Phrases (NP) consist of a noun or inflectional stem and suffixes. The NPs in Finnish can basically made by simply adding the suffixes or the case markers to the noun stems, but sometimes phonological changes can occur in doing that.
The process of plural formation in Finnish, for example, is as follows (Karlsson 12),
auto - t ëcarsí
car ñ plural marker
Some expressions for which Prepositional Phrases (PP) are used in English, can be expressed by the case markings in Finnish. The following is how to make ëinnessiveí case in Finnish, which corresponds to English PP, ëin + NP.í
auto ñ i ñ ssa ëin the cars (innessive)í
car ñ plural marker ñ innessive marker
One thing that should be noted here is the different plural markers are used for the nominative or the basic form and other cases such as innessive. The plural marker for the nominative is ët,í and the marker for other cases is ëIí in Finnish.
The possessor markers, which correspond to English possessive pronouns, are also attached to the noun stems as suffixes.
auto - i - ssa ñ si ëin your carsí
car - plural marker ñ innessive marker ñ 2s. possessive
In summary, the Finnish NPs consist as follows,
NP N (PLURAL MARKER) (CASE MARKER) (POSSESSOR)
(The Finnish NPs are constituted by a noun, and optional plural marker, case marker, and possessor in this sequence.)
The Comitative, Instrument, and Manner in Finnish
The instrument and manner are expressed through the ëadessive case,í made by adding the suffix, ë-llaí to the noun stems as a suffix (Karlsson 105), and the instrument is expressed by the independent case from those above, ëcomitave case,í which is made by adding the suffix, ë-ineí to the noun stems (Karlsson 114).
Manner and Instrument are usually expressed by the ëadessiveí case in Finnish although adverbs are also used for the expressions of manners. Besides instrument and manner, the adessive case is used for location, ëon top ofí or ënearí in the corresponding English phrases. The adessive case is made by adding the suffix ë-llaí to the noun stems (Karlsson 105).
Tein leiva-n konee-lla.
make.1s.imperfect bread-accusative machine-adessive ëI made the bread with the machine (Sulkala 224).í
Ajattelen sinu-a rakkaude-lla.
think.1s 2s-partitive. Love-adessive. ëI think of you with love. (Sulkala 231)í
Although it is possible to express manners by the adessive case, adverbs, formed by adding an adverb-forming suffix, ëstií to the adjectives, are more frequently used to express manners than the adessive case is (Sulkala 231). In Finnish, the partitive case expresses the "indefinite, non-limited quantity (Karlsson 72)," and used as an objects of the verbs expressing the emotions (Karlsson 80).
The comitative case, expressing accompaniment, is distinguished from the two cases above, given an independent case marking suffix, ëine.í There is no distinction between the singular and the plural comitatives because the plural marker used for the comitative case, ëií is fossilized by the comitative marker, which begins with ëi (Karlsson 114).í The possessive suffix always attached to the noun in making the comitative case in Finnish (Sulkala 224).
Han tuli koir-i-ne-en
3s.nominative 3s.imperfect dog-plural marker-comitative-3s.possessive. ëShe/He came with the dog (Sulkala 225).í
Croft gives an example of the usage of the English preposition, ëwithí used for comitative, instrument, and instrument, and states that "the subsumption of these and certain other usage under the same adposition or case marker is actually quite common (Croft 9). Croftís observation hold true partially with Finnish, instrument and manner, however, it does not with the case of the comitative, which is independent of manner and instrument in Finnish.
One thing that has to be mentioned here is, however, that the same case, the ëabessive case,í is used for the English prepositional phrase with ëwithout.í The abessive case, whose ending is ëtta,í has the basic meaning of the English preposition, ëwithout (Karlsson 113),í and used for negative manner, ëwithout an instrument,í and ëwithout anyone or anything (Sulkala 224-225, 231). It is hard to tell if Croftís suggestion holds true with Finnish, but it is possible to conclude that his suggestion is partially, but not entirely, holds true with manner and instrument, or the negative manner, instrument, and comitative in Finnish.
Works Cited
Croft. "Typology and Universals." (9)
Karlsson, Fred. "Finnish Grammar." Werner Soderstorm Osakeyhtio, Helsinki, 1982.
Sulkala, Helena. "Finnish, Descriptive Grammars." Routledge, London and New York, 1992.
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Revised January 28, 1999