Viittaavia

Viittaavia is a term used in Finnish linguistics to describe a class of referential expressions whose primary function is to point to or indicate entities within discourse. The form derives from the verb viitata, meaning to refer, and the -ava/-vä suffix that forms present participles or adjectives, yielding viittaava meaning indicating or referential. In scholarly analyses, viittaavia expressions are treated as devices of deixis and referential cohesion, helping readers identify antecedents without repeating them.

In practical use, viittaavia expressions include demonstratives and certain pronouns when they function to refer to something mentioned earlier in the text. They can appear as adjectives modifying nouns or as stand-alone referential elements, and their primary role is to guide the listener or reader to a specific referent within discourse. The exact grammatical form that encodes a viittaava function depends on number, case, and syntactic position within a sentence.

Examples help illustrate the concept. Finnish: "Viittaavia ilmauksia käytetään osoittamaan aiempaa kontekstia, esimerkiksi sanat 'tämä', 'tuo' ja 'ne'." Translation: "Referential expressions are used to point to the preceding context, for example words like 'this', 'that', and 'those'." Another example: "Viittaavia ilmauksia voidaan käyttää myös koherenttisuuden ylläpitämiseksi." Translation: "Referential expressions can also be used to maintain coherence."

See also: deixis, demonstratives, referential cohesion.