osoittaman

Osoittaman is a term that appears in Finnish grammar as the genitive singular form of the present active participle osoittama, which itself comes from the verb osoittaa, meaning to indicate or to point out. The form fits into discussions of participle-based adjectives and noun phrases, rather than functioning as an independent dictionary entry.

Morphology and usage: The participle osoittama acts as an attributive adjective describing a noun. When it is inflected for the genitive singular, it takes the form osoittaman. For example, in a compound noun phrase, a construction like osoittaman merkki would translate roughly as “a sign that indicates.” This illustrates how Finnish participles can carry grammatical case information in complex noun phrases. In everyday speech, speakers typically use simpler verb or noun expressions, so such inflected participial forms are more common in written Finnish, linguistic descriptions, or formal style.

Context in linguistic literature: The term osoittaman is primarily encountered in grammar explanations and typological discussions about Finnish morphology. It is used to demonstrate the mechanism by which a present active participle can be inflected and used attributively within a noun phrase, rather than to convey a separate lexical meaning. As such, its value is mostly pedagogical, illustrating how participles behave in genitive contexts.

See also: Finnish grammar, participles, adjectives, osoittaa.