deskriptiivisiä

Deskriptiivisiä is the plural partitive form of the Finnish adjective deskriptivinen, meaning descriptive. The word is used to describe things that present characteristics or data without making evaluative or prescriptive judgments. In Finnish, deskriptivinen describes methods, analyses, and statements that aim to describe phenomena as they are observed, rather than how they should be.

The term is common in academic disciplines such as deskriptivinen lingvistiikka (descriptive linguistics) and deskriptivinen tilastotiede (descriptive statistics). In deskriptivinen tutkimus, researchers report observations and patterns found in data or language without prescribing rules or causal explanations. It contrasts with normatiivinen (prescriptive) approaches.

Derivation: deskriptio is the noun "description," and deskriptivinen is the adjective derived from it. The form deskriptiivisiä is used when modifying plural nouns in the partitive case, for example deskriptiivisiä ominaisuuksia (descriptive features) or deskriptiivisiä tuloksia (descriptive results). The spelling follows Finnish phonology and orthography, with "k" instead of the English "c."