elatiivmoodustava

Elatiivmoodustava is a linguistic term used in some Finnish-language grammars to refer to the process or component that forms the elative case from a base word. The elative case marks origin or source, commonly translated as “from” or “out of” in English. The term itself is a compound of elatiivi (elative) and moodustava (forming/constituting), indicating a derivational or inflectional mechanism rather than a mood or tense.

In practical use, elatiivmoodustava can describe either a specific morpheme (such as the elative suffix) or the general morphological rule that yields an elative form from a noun stem. In Finnish, the standard elative suffix is typically -sta or -stä, as in talosta “from the house” or kaupungista “from the city.” Phonological changes may accompany the formation (gradation, vowel harmony, or stem alteration) depending on the noun.

It is important to distinguish elatiivmoodustava from the elative case itself. The elative is the grammatical case marking function; elatiivmoodustava refers to the process or mechanism that creates that form in a given word. As such, it is a descriptive label found in some grammars to discuss morphology, not a separate grammatical category or mood like those found in finite verb systems.

Usage and terminology can vary by author and language tradition. Some grammars may use different phrasing to express the same idea, or reserve a related term for the actual suffix and its allomorphs.