Todellisuudetnimitys

Todellisuudetnimitys is a term used in Finnish-language scholarship to refer to the act or process of naming and classifying what counts as a reality within a given discourse. The compound derives from todellisuus, meaning reality, and nimitys, meaning designation or naming. It is a descriptive label rather than a fixed theory, and its exact usage can vary between authors.

The concept is employed to analyze how speakers and institutions delineate multiple coexisting realities, such as physical reality, social reality, virtual reality, and economic reality, and how these designations influence perception, authority, and action. Todellisuudetnimitys overlaps with, but is not identical to, the broader idea of the social construction of reality.

In practice, todellisuudetnimitys appears in discourse analysis, philosophy of language, and media studies, where researchers examine how language and categorization confer legitimacy on some realities while marginalizing others. It can be used to scrutinize naming practices in politics, science communication, or digital culture—for instance, how a media outlet designates a protest as a “safety issue” or as a “threat,” thereby shaping public perception of what is real.

Because the term is not widely standardized, its meaning varies by author. Clear definitions and contextual grounding are essential when using todellisuudetnimitys in scholarly writing, and it is often useful to relate it to established concepts such as the social construction of reality, ontology, and discourse theory.

See also: social construction of reality, ontology, discourse theory, philosophy of language, media studies.