Adjektiivianalyyttinen

Adjektiivianalyyttinen is a term used in linguistic analysis to describe an approach that studies adjectives (adjektiivit) through analytic, non-inflectional means. The label highlights attention to how meaning and grammatical function are expressed with separate words, particles, and periphrastic constructions rather than through extensive morphological marking on the adjective itself. The concept is often employed in cross-linguistic typology and in studies of languages with predominantly analytic syntax.

Core ideas of adjektiivianalyyttinen include examining how adjectives participate in gradability, comparison, and predication when inflection is limited or absent. Analysts look at degree modifiers (such as very or more), periphrastic forms for comparison, and the syntactic environments in which adjectives appear, including attributive and predicative positions. The framework contrasts with more morphology-heavy analyses that emphasize adjective agreement, gender or case inflection, or internal derivation of adjective forms.

Methodologically, adjektiivianalyyttinen relies on corpus data, typological comparisons, and functional analyses of how adjectival meaning is constructed in context. It often involves disentangling semantic properties (such as quality, size, or intensity) from syntactic behavior and exploring how language users rely on separate words or particles to convey degree, comparison, or emphasis.

Applications of this approach appear in language documentation, natural language processing, and translation studies, where analytic adjective systems pose specific challenges for annotation and modeling. See also: adjective phrase, analytic language, synthetic language, degree word, periphrasis.