Sætningsmæssige

Sætningsmæssige is an adjective used in Danish linguistics to describe properties related to sentence structure or syntactic organization within a clause or sentence. It concerns how words and phrases are arranged to form meaningful units, rather than the meanings of the individual words or the context in which they are used. The term is common in grammar descriptions and language teaching when the focus is on syntax.

The word is built from sætnings, meaning sentence, and mæssig, a suffix that forms adjectives indicating a relation to or characteristic of something. In practice, sætningsmæssige is used to qualify nouns such as struktur, forhold, or funktioner, for example sætningsmæssige forhold (syntactic relations) or sætningsmæssige fejl (syntactic errors). It is frequently encountered in discussions of Danish syntax and in cross-linguistic descriptions of sentence structure.

In usage, sætningsmæssige concerns include word order, the roles of sentence elements (such as subjekt, udsagnsled, direkte objekt), and how main and subordinate clauses connect. It helps distinguish purely semantic considerations from structural ones, focusing on how a sentence is built rather than what it means. For instance, a sætningsmæssig analyse would examine whether a given sentence follows the typical Danish subject–verb–object order and how adverbial phrases and subordinate clauses are positioned within the line.

Related terms include sætningsled (sentence part), hovedsætning (main clause), and bisætning (subordinate clause). The concept is central to descriptive grammar and language education when teaching syntax and sentence construction.