Struktuursete

Struktuursete is a term used in Estonian linguistics to denote the structural characteristics of language. It refers to properties that reflect how linguistic units are organized and related, rather than what they signify or how they are used in discourse. The concept is employed to describe the architecture of language at multiple levels, including syntax, morphology, phonology, and prosody, focusing on the arrangement and interaction of units such as words, phrases, and clauses.

In practice, struktuursete encompasses features like phrase structure, constituency, hierarchical organization, and dependency relations. It also covers patterns of word order, inflectional schemas, and the ways in which prosodic boundaries align with syntactic units. By emphasizing structure over content, the concept supports comparisons across languages and dialects, enabling linguists to identify universal tendencies and language-specific arrangements.

Struktuursete is often used in descriptive descriptions of languages, typological research, and computational applications such as parsing and sentence analysis. It provides a framework for distinguishing between structural properties and lexical or semantic elements, helping researchers isolate how sentences are built rather than what they express. The term appears in Estonian-language literature on linguistics and language description, where it serves as a shorthand for discussions of the architectural properties that govern linguistic combinations and their organization. See also structuralism, syntactic theory, and typology.