pääsanan

Pääsana is a Finnish linguistic term meaning the base form of a word that dictionaries and word lists use as the entry key. The possessive or genitive form of this noun is pääsanan, which appears in phrases such as pääsanan taivutus or pääsanan identifiointi. The term derives from suomalaisesta sanastosta: pää meaning head and sana meaning word, together describing the “headword” or main entry form.

In lexicography and language learning, pääsana refers to the form of a word that is used to look it up and to organize its inflected forms. For nouns, the pääsana is typically the nominative singular; for verbs, the infinitive often serves as the headform in Finnish dictionaries; for adjectives, the base or positive form is commonly used. The pääsana acts as the anchor from which all other morphological variants are derived and catalogued.

Usage and examples illustrate its function. The headword pääsana "kissa" yields inflected forms such as "kissan" (genitive) and "kissaa" (partitive). Another common noun, "pöytä," has forms like "pöydän" (genitive) and "pöytää" (partitive). For verbs, the pääsana (infinitive) "juosta" serves as the reference form, with other forms like "juoksen," "juoksi," and "juoksuun" generated through conjugation.

Historically and in modern dictionaries, the concept of pääsana underpins indexing, pronunciation guides, grammatical information, and cross-references. It is central to Finnish lexicography and to learners seeking a stable form around which inflection and usage are organized.

See also: lemma, headword, perusmuoto, sanasto.