määrittelemällä

Määrittelemällä is the gerund form of the Finnish verb määritellä, meaning to define or to specify. The gerund is a non-finite verb form that expresses the means or method by which an action is performed. It is formed by adding the suffix -malla (or -mällä) to the verb stem, yielding forms such as määrittelemällä. In usage, määrittelemällä is typically used to indicate by defining or through defining, and it often functions adverbially to describe the manner of an action.

Grammatical notes: The gerund denotes method or instrument and can introduce a circumstance under which the main clause occurs. It is not a finite tense form and does not carry explicit person or time information. The object of the gerund can appear in various cases, often in the genitive or partitive, depending on the sentence structure and the noun it relates to.

Common usage: Määrittelemällä is frequent in formal, academic, and technical writing where authors describe analytical or methodological steps. It allows concise uttryck of approach, such as “Määrittelemällä termin tarkasti vältämme epäselvyyksiä” (By defining the term precisely, we avoid ambiguities), or “Tutkimusmenetelmä perustuu määrittelemällä kriteerit etukäteen” (The research method is based on defining criteria in advance).

Relation to other forms: Määrittelemällä contrasts with the noun form määritteleminen (the act of defining) and with other non-finite forms such as the -minen nominalization. While the gerund emphasizes the means, other constructions may foreground the result or the action as a whole. Overall, määrittelemällä is a standard tool for expressing method in Finnish prose.