põhisõne

Põhisõne is a term used in the linguistics of the Estonian language to refer to the main or essential word in a sentence. In Estonian grammar, the main word is typically the word that conveys the most important meaning in the sentence, and is often the word that is stressed or emphasized.

In Estonian, the main word is important because it determines the grammatical case of the sentence. The main word is the word that is in the nominative case, which is the case of the subject of the sentence. The other words in the sentence are in different grammatical cases, depending on their relationship to the main word.

The concept of põhisõne is closely related to the notion of the "topic" word in a sentence. The topic word is the word that the sentence is about, and it is often the main word. The topic word can be a noun, a pronoun, or a verb, and it can be in any grammatical case.

In Estonian, the main word can change depending on the context of the sentence. For example, in the sentence "Minu ema on tõeline supermudel" ("My mom is a true supermodel"), "mina" ("I") is not the main word, but "ema" ("mom") is. This is because the sentence is not primarily about the speaker, but about the speaker's mom.

Overall, the concept of põhisõne is an important one in Estonian linguistics, as it helps to understand how the language uses grammatical case to express meaning.

The use of põhisõne is not limited to Estonian, as other languages with complex grammatical case systems, such as Hungarian and Finnish, also rely on a similar concept to convey meaning.