mahutussõnastuses

Mahutussõnastus refers to the grammatical concept in Estonian that describes how a noun can be used to denote a container or a capacity for something. This phenomenon is often marked by specific case endings or prepositions that indicate the relationship between the container and its contents. For instance, a noun can be in the partitive case to show that it contains a part of a substance, or it can be used with postpositions like 'sees' (inside) or 'täis' (full of) to explicitly denote containment.

This grammatical construction is crucial for conveying precise meaning, distinguishing between the container itself and what it holds. For example, the difference between 'kasti' (genitive of 'kast' - box) and 'kastis' (inessive case of 'kast' - in the box) is significant in this context. The former might refer to something belonging to the box, while the latter indicates something being located inside the box. Understanding mahutussõnastus allows for a more nuanced expression of spatial relationships and quantities in Estonian. It is a key feature of the language's case system and its ability to express complex ideas with grammatical precision.