Sotsiaalteaduslikus

Sotsiaalteaduslikus is Estonian in a scholarly context meaning “in a social-scientific sense” or “within the field of social science.” It is a form of the adjective sotsiaalteaduslik that is used with postpositions to indicate the domain, context, or perspective being referred to. The base noun sotsiaalteadus means “social science,” formed from sotsiaal (social) and teadus (science). The adjective suffix -lik turns the noun into a descriptor, and the resulting form is declined like other Estonian adjectives to fit the grammatical case and number of the noun it modifies.

In usage, sotsiaalteaduslikus commonly appears in phrases such as sotsiaalteaduslikus mõttes (in a social-scientific sense), sotsiaalteaduslikus kontekstis (in a social-scientific context), or sotsiaalteaduslikus uurimuses (in a social-scientific study). It is a standard qualifier in academic writing across the social sciences, including sociology, anthropology, political science, psychology, and economics, where researchers distinguish analyses grounded in social-scientific theory and methods from those grounded in other disciplinary perspectives.

As a language feature, sotsiaalteaduslikus illustrates how Estonian forms adjectives to express disciplinary or methodological alignment. It does not denote a separate discipline but rather a descriptive relation to the domain of social sciences. Related terms include sotsiaalteaduslik lähenemine (social-scientific approach) and sotsiaalteaduslikust vaatenurgast (from a social-scientific point of view).