Ysnominaalisointipääte

Ysnominaalisointipääte is a term used in theoretical Finnish linguistics to describe a hypothetical class of derivational suffixes intended to nominalize verbs into nouns that denote the process or result of the action. It is not part of the standard Finnish grammars, and its status varies across texts; in many sources it is described as a typological label rather than an attested morpheme.

In a morpho-phonological account, a ysnominaalisointipääte would attach to a verb stem to form a countable noun, with Finnish phonology guiding its allomorphs and its interaction with vowel harmony and consonant gradation. The resulting nouns would behave like other Finnish nominals, taking case endings, plural markers, and possessor suffixes.

Semantically, the suffix would emphasize process-oriented meaning: naming an action as a process or its outcome, rather than a concrete object. Its productivity is typically described as limited in contemporary Finnish, making it mostly of interest in theoretical discussions, historical linguistics, or computational morphology experiments.

Relation to other nominalizers: ysnominaalisointipääte is often discussed alongside established suffixes such as -minen, -us, -tys, and -onta, as part of a broader typology of verbal-to-nominal derivations. Some grammars treat it as a hypothetical category or analytical label rather than an independently attested morpheme.

See also: Nominalization; Finnish morphology; Derivational suffixes; Word formation.