Causatiiviseen

Causatiiviseen is a term used in Finnish linguistics to refer to the illative singular form of the adjective causatiivinen, meaning “causative.” In a broader sense, causation in language describes a grammatical relation in which the subject brings about another’s action or a change of state. The dominant way Finnish signals causation in verbs is through derivational morphology: a causative suffix attached to the verb stem creates a new verb whose meaning expresses causing someone else to do something or bringing about a change.

The most productive Finnish causative suffixes are -ttaa and -ttää (the form chosen depends on vowel harmony and other phonological factors). Examples commonly cited are syödä (to eat) becoming syöttää (to feed) and ostaa (to buy) turning into ostattaa (to have someone buy something). Causative verbs typically behave like ordinary Finnish verbs in conjugation and can take objects that indicate what is being caused to happen, or the indirect object that benefits or is affected by the action.

In use, the causative expresses agency shift: the subject causes an action to occur by someone else, rather than performing the action directly. Finnish can also convey causation through other means, such as periphrastic constructions, but the affixal causative is the most productive and widespread morphological mechanism.

The term causatiivinen appears in Finnish grammar discussions to describe this category, and causatiiviseen appears as an inflected form when discussing the construction in context—for example in phrases referring to the causative form or usage, such as “causatiiviseen muotoon.”