Väärtuslikuna

Väärtuslikuna is an Estonian linguistic term used to describe a specific evaluative form derived from the adjective väärtuslik (valuable). The form is primarily discussed in linguistic and literary contexts and is not common in everyday speech. In scholarly discussions, väärtuslikuna is treated as a predicative or adverbial variant that marks the stance of valuation—the notion that something is regarded as valuable by a speaker or discourse community rather than asserting intrinsic value.

Etymology and morphology: The term is formed by adding the suffix -una to väärtuslik. In Estonian grammar, suffixes of this kind are used to signal manner, role, or evaluative perspective. Väärtuslikuna remains relatively rare and is typically encountered in stylistic, theoretical, or discourse-analytic texts rather than in colloquial prose.

Usage and interpretation: The concept is used to illustrate how language encodes evaluative perspective. It can appear in analyses of valuation discourse, philosophy of value, or literature to indicate that an object, situation, or claim is being presented as valuable by the narrator or speaker. It contrasts with sentences that state actual value as a property, by foregrounding the evaluative stance.

Relationship to standard forms: The base adjective väärtuslik expresses value as a property; väärtuslikuna shifts focus toward the act of valuation and the speaker's point of view. The term remains mostly of interest to linguists, philosophers, and readers studying Estonian valuation language.

See also: väärtuslik, Estonian grammar, translative case, evaluative language.