luokittelumuoto

Luokittelumuoto (literally "classification form") is a linguistic term used in Finnish scholarship to refer to the morphological or syntactic form that marks the classification of a referent within a noun phrase. It is especially relevant in languages that employ noun classifiers or class markers, where a classifier or class-marking element appears with nouns, numerals, or determiners.

Form and position: The luokittelumuoto may be realized as an affix on the noun, as a separate word or clitic in the noun phrase, or as a suffix on a numeral. Its location and appearance vary by language. In some systems it cooccurs with numerals, in others it is determined by the noun’s inherent class or by discourse context.

Function: The core function is to encode information about the class of the referent—such as type, shape, material, or animacy—and thereby distinguish between otherwise similar nouns. This helps determine agreement, counting, and reference in the sentence, and can affect the choice of numeral form or determiner.

Typology and usage: Some languages require a luokittelumuoto for certain noun categories, others use it only in restricted contexts or with specific numerals. The form is different from grammatical gender or inherent noun class markers in that it is more closely tied to a particular classification scheme used by the language rather than to fixed noun properties alone.

Examples: A hypothetical language might use a classifier for flat objects (three CL-plates) or for long objects (two CL-rods). In descriptive grammars, luokittelumuoto is noted when a language marks the referent’s class in a way that affects numeral syntax and agreement.

See also: classifier, numeral classifier, grammatical gender, noun class, typology.