Deskriptiivisessä

Deskriptiivisessä is the Finnish inessive singular form of the adjective deskriptiivinen, meaning "descriptive" or "descriptivist." The inessive case (marked by the suffix -ssä or -ssä depending on vowel harmony) expresses location, state, or context and is commonly translated into English as "in" or "within." Thus deskriptiivisessä typically appears in phrases such as deskriptiivisessä tutkimuksessa ("in descriptive research") or deskriptiivisessä kielitieteessä ("in descriptive linguistics").

Morphologically, the form is created by adding the inessive ending to the base adjective: deskriptiivinen → deskriptiivisessä. It agrees with the noun it modifies in case and number; the corresponding plural inessive is deskriptiivisissä. The word is used in academic and formal registers to characterize approaches, methods, descriptions, or theoretical orientations that aim to describe phenomena without prescribing norms.

In usage, deskriptiivisessä contrasts with prescriptive terms (such as normatiivinen or preskriptiivinen) in fields like linguistics, philosophy of science, and research methodology. A close Finnish synonym is kuvailevassa when used attributively. Translations into other languages generally render it as "in (the) descriptive" or "within descriptive [context]," with the specific meaning determined by the noun it qualifies.