Etäisyyssanan

Etäisyyssanan is a linguistic term used in Finnish to describe words that encode distance in reference, often functioning as deictics or demonstratives. The form etäisyyssanan is the genitive singular of etäisyyssana and is used when discussing the concept in scholarly or descriptive text (for example, “etäisyyssanan merkitys”).

In Finnish linguistics, etäisyyssanan typically covers words that indicate spatial or temporal distance relative to the speaker or addressee. This includes demonstratives such as lähimpään havaintoon viittaavat sanat and their variants, as well as adverbs and certain phrases that signal proximity or distance. Common examples in practice are proximal forms like tämä, tämältä, this kind of reference, and distal forms like tuo or tuolla, which point to objects or locations perceived as distant. Temporal distance is also expressed with deictic expressions such as tässä (this moment) versus tuolloin (at that time).

The concept is used in discourse analysis, syntax, and semantics to explain how speakers orient themselves to referents and how reference is maintained across clauses. Etäisyyssanamaisia visarien studeessa help to nuance cohesion, focus, and perspective in discourse. They interact with case marking, word order, and prosody to convey how near or far a referent is in space or time, or how it relates to the current discourse.

Related terms include deiktiset sanat (deictic words) and demonstratives, which together cover the broader category of distance-marking expressions within Finnish.