Kvalitatiiviselle

Kvalitatiiviselle is the allative singular form of the Finnish adjective kvalitatiivinen, meaning "qualitative." In Finnish grammar, the allative case is marked by the suffix -lle and is used to indicate direction toward or for a target, such as a domain or context. When kvalitatiivinen modifies a noun in the allative, the adjective takes the same case form: kvalitatiiviselle tutkimukselle, kvalitatiiviselle analyysille, and so on. The most common usage is in phrases that mean "for qualitative research" or "for qualitative analysis."

The term is a Finnish loanword derived from the English word qualitative (and related Swedish forms), and it is standard in academic and scientific Finnish to describe characteristics, methods, and data that pertain to qualitative inquiry. It is typically contrasted with kvantitatiivinen, meaning "quantitative," in discussions of research design and analysis.

Examples of usage include: "Kvalitatiiviselle tutkimukselle suunniteltu otantamenetelmä" (a sampling method designed for qualitative research) and "Kvalitatiiviselle analyysille soveltuva aineisto" (data suitable for qualitative analysis). The form kvalitatiiviselle can occur in other allative phrases across disciplines, always reflecting the noun it modifies.

In Finnish terminology, the phrase kvalitatiiviselle is widely used with nouns such as tutkimukselle, analyysille, suunnittelulle, or menetelmälle to indicate the domain or purpose, while the base form kvalitatiivinen describes the quality or nature of the subject. Overall, kvalitatiivinen and its inflected form kvalitatiiviselle play a central role in Finnish terminology for describing non-numeric, descriptive data and methods in the social sciences, humanities, and related fields.