Periphrastisilla

Periphrastisilla is a Finnish-language term used in linguistics to describe periphrastic constructions. It is the adessive plural form of the adjective periphrastillinen, meaning “periphrastic.” In Finnish grammar, adjectives agree with the noun in number and case, so periphrastisilla denotes periphrastic expressions that accompany plural nouns in the adessive case. The term itself is derived from the broader concept of periphrasis in language.

Definition and scope: A periphrastic construction expresses grammatical meaning with a phrase of multiple words rather than a single inflected word. This can involve auxiliary verbs, circumlocutions, or descriptive phrases that convey tense, aspect, mood, voice, modality, or other grammatical categories. Periphrastic forms are common across languages and are a key topic in typological and descriptive linguistics.

Examples and usage: In English, examples of periphrastic meanings include the future tense expressed by will or going to, and the perfect tense formed with have + past participle (has eaten, have gone). In Romance languages, near-future constructions such as aller + infinitive (French) or ir + a + infinitive (Spanish) illustrate periphrastic tenses. In Finnish-language studies, periphrastisilla ilmauksilla is used to compare how different languages encode similar meanings through multi-word expressions rather than single words.

See also: periphrasis; periphrastic construction.