Luonnehdinnallinen

Luonnehdinnallinen is a Finnish linguistic term used to describe a descriptive or characterizing modifier within language. It denotes elements that attribute a quality to a referent rather than defining its essential identity. The word is formed from luonne, meaning character or nature, and the suffix -dinnellinen, which marks a descriptive or relational meaning.

In Finnish grammar and semantics, luonnehdinnallinen describes modifiers—such as adjectives, participles, or noun phrases—that express descriptive information about a noun, such as appearance, state, or subjective evaluation. These modifiers add information about the referent but do not necessarily identify it by its essential features. The term is primarily used in theoretical or descriptive analyses of attributive structure and is often contrasted with identifiers or classificatory modifiers.

The term appears in linguistic literature focused on Finnish syntax and semantics and is sometimes translated into English as “descriptive” or “characterizing” to convey the nuance of describing qualities rather than defining identity. While not as common in everyday Finnish usage, luonnehdinnallinen remains a standard category in scholarly discussions of how language encodes descriptive information.