Yleiskäsitteeksi

Yleiskäsitteeksi is the translative form of the Finnish noun yleiskäsite, meaning a general concept or general term. The translative case marks a shift into or designation as something, so yleiskäsitteeksi literally means “into a general concept” or “as a general concept.” The term is used in academic and analytic writing to indicate that a phenomenon, term, or idea is being defined, interpreted, or framed as a general concept rather than as a specific instance.

In practice, yleiskäsitteeksi is employed when researchers or theorists want to describe how a topic is conceptualized at a broad level. It often appears in definitions, methodological discussions, and theoretical overviews where the aim is to establish a common framework or to generalize observations. For example: Tutkimuksessa ilmiö käsitetään yleiskäsitteeksi, joka kattaa sekä taloudelliset että sosiaaliset vaikutukset. This indicates that the phenomenon is being treated as a general concept encompassing multiple dimensions.

Etymologically, yleiskäsitteeksi combines yleiskäsite (“general concept”) with the translative suffix -ksi, signaling a designation or transformation into that concept. While common in scholarly Finnish, the form is specialized and less likely to appear in everyday speech. Its use signals a move toward abstraction, definition, or conceptual organization within a discourse. In English, it is typically rendered as “as a general concept.”