substantiiviyhtälö

Substantiiviyhtälö is a Finnish term that translates to "noun equation" or "substantive equation" in English. It is a concept primarily used in theoretical linguistics, particularly in the study of word formation and morphology. The core idea behind a substantiiviyhtälö is to describe the process by which a noun is derived from another word, typically another noun or an adjective, through the addition of specific derivational suffixes.

This concept helps linguists analyze and categorize the relationships between different word forms. For example, in Finnish, the noun 'ystävä' (friend) can be seen as derived from an older, perhaps less common, root through a process that could be described as a substantiiviyhtälö. Similarly, adjectives can be nominalized using specific suffixes, creating new nouns. The equation represents this transformation abstractly, focusing on the morphemic changes involved.

The term highlights that the resulting word is still a noun, maintaining its core semantic category, but with a new, derived meaning. It is a way of formalizing the understanding of how a lexicon grows and how words are related through systematic processes of word creation. Understanding substantiiviyhtälö aids in explaining the productivity of certain derivational patterns within a language.