Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

A-Z 413finite verb form [Lat. finitus ‘bounded’] (alsotensed form)Conjugated verb form marked according to tense, voice, person, number, and mood:She eats vs the non-finite forms (to) eat ( infinitive) and eaten ( participle).finitiveeffective, egressive 2 , resultativeFinnishFinno-Ugric language (Fin. Suomi) with approx. 5 million speakers; official language ofFinland. Literary documents since the sixteenth century.Characteristics: relatively small consonant and large vowel inventory, includingdistinctive length. Complex morphology with numerous morphophonological changes.Comprehensive case system (fifteen cases), including the noticeably heavy use of thepartitive case (partial objects, negation, incomplete actions, etc.); nine locative caseswhich are systematically related (inside: outside: general; rest : motion towards: motionaway). Subject-verb agreement. Four infinitive forms which denote various degrees ofsubordination. Word order SVO.ReferencesAtkinson, J. 1977. A Finnish grammar. Helsinki.Fromm, H. 1982. Finnische Grammatik. Heidelberg.Hakulinen, L. 1957. Handbuch der finnischen Sprache. Wiesbaden.Karlsson, F. 1983. Finnish grammar. Juva.Sulkala, H. and M.Karalainen. 1992. Finnish. London.Finno-UgricFinno-UgricLargest branch of the Uralic language family, divided into (a) the Ugric languages (withHungarian, approx. 14 million speakers, and the Ob-Ugric languages Khanty (Ostyak)