essään

Essään is a Finnish linguistic form that appears primarily as part of the fixed expression itsessään, meaning “in itself” or “in its own right.” The expression is used to foreground the inherent properties of a subject, independent of external factors or context. In everyday language, itsessään is common in analyses, evaluations, and rhetorical arguments where the focus is on what something is on its own, rather than what it does or how it is used.

Morphologically, essään is tied to the pronoun itse (self) and the possessive/locative elements that form itsessään. In practice, speakers treat itsessään as a single unit with the meaning described above; essään itself is not typically used as a standalone lexical item outside of this compound. Because of this, discussions of essään usually occur within linguistic or critical explanations of itsessään.

Usage and nuance: essään emphasizes intrinsic qualities and is often contrasted with statements that emphasize context, external circumstances, or outcomes. It is common in philosophical writing, literary criticism, and analytical prose, where a point is considered with regard to its own essence rather than broader conditions.

Examples:

- Ongelma itsessään on pieni, vaikka sen vaikutus on suurempi.

- Tekijänoikeudet itsessään ovat monimutkainen kysymys.

See also: itsessään, itse, itsensä.