tekstissään

Tekstissään is a Finnish grammatical form that means “in his/her/its own text.” It combines the noun teksti with the inessive ending -ssä and the third-person possessive suffix -nsä/-sä, producing the meaning “in his own/ her own/ its own text.” The form is used when referring to content that exists within a text authored by the subject.

The word is formed by attaching the inessive marker -ssä to teksti and then adding the possessive suffix indicating ownership by the subject. The resulting single word signals both location (in the text) and ownership (belonging to the subject). It belongs to a broader pattern in Finnish where location and possession can be conveyed in a single inflected form.

Usage wise, tekstissään is used to reference statements, arguments, or content that appears within a particular text written by the subject. It is common in academic writing, literary criticism, and journalism when the writer wants to point to what the subject has written without repeating the subject’s name.

Examples include: Tekstissään hän toteaa, että tarina on fiktiota. — “In his own text, he states that the story is fiction.” Tekstissään kirjailija tarkastelee kielenkäyttöään. — “In his own text, the author examines his wording.” The construction can be avoided when the ownership or location is clear from context, using tekstissä or kirjoituksessaan as alternatives.

See also: tekstissä, kirjoituksessaan, kirjassaan.