Passivepartisiippilaji

Passivepartisiippilaji is a linguistic term that denotes the class of passive participles within a language or an analytic framework. A passive participle is a non-finite verb form derived from a verb to express a resultative state caused by an action performed on the subject or affecting it. In many grammars, this class is distinguished from active participles by its focus on the recipient of the action and on the resulting state rather than on the doer.

The morphology of passive participles varies across languages. In languages with rich participle systems, passive participles are often formed by attaching specific suffixes to the verb stem and may agree with the noun they modify in features such as number or definiteness. In Finnish, for example, past passive participles are formed with suffixes that yield adjectives describing a state resulting from an action, such as kirjoitettu (written) or tehty (done). These forms can function attributively as in kirjoitettu kirja (the written book) or predicatively in periphrastic constructions like Kirja on kirjoitettu (The book has been written).

In cross-linguistic perspective, passive participles appear in many languages as a means to encode passive meaning or resultant states without requiring a full finite clause. Some languages use explicit auxiliary verbs to form passives, while others rely on participial adjectives or compound forms. The study of passivepartisiippilaji helps typologists compare how languages encode agency, affectedness, and state through non-finite verb forms, contributing to broader understandings of voice and predication.