Attributet

Attributet is the definite form of the noun attribut in several Scandinavian languages, including Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian. Attribut denotes an attribute or property that describes a noun, and the definite form attributet is used when the attribute is specific or already known in the discourse. The term originates from Latin attributum and the French attribut, and it has direct cognates in English as attribute.

In grammar, an attribute is a word or phrase that modifies a noun by ascribing a property to it. Attributive modifiers—often adjectives or attributive nouns—typically appear within a noun phrase before the noun in these languages and agree with the noun in number, gender, and definiteness. When the noun phrase is definite, the attributive element commonly assumes a definite form, which is reflected in the morphology of the word, resulting in forms such as attributet.

The concept is distinguished from predicative attributes, which appear after a linking verb (for example, in the sentence “the car is red,” the property red is a predicative attribute). In contrast, attributive attributes modify the noun directly within the noun phrase.

In technology and data contexts, the English term attribute has a closely related sense: a property or characteristic of an entity in databases, knowledge representations, and ontologies. In languages that use attributet as the definite form of attribut, the same idea appears in the way a specific attribute is referenced within a defined noun phrase.

See also: attribute, attributive, definite article, noun phrase.