tulkitseman

Tulkitseman is a Finnish grammatical form derived from the verb tulkita, meaning to interpret. It belongs to the class of agent nouns formed from participial stems with the suffix -man, and it signals a person or entity that performs the action of interpreting. The form is relatively rare in everyday speech and is most often found in formal, literary, or technical Finnish where precise attribution of interpretation is required.

In usage, tulkitseman functions as a nominalized or agentive element within noun phrases or dependent clauses. It provides a way to attribute the act of interpreting to a referent without repeating the verb. The form can be inflected like other Finnish nouns and participle-derived forms, taking different cases and numbers according to the sentence. Because it is more specialized, it tends to appear in contexts where authors want to emphasize the interpreter’s role or agency, such as academic discussions, legal language, or precise textual analysis.

Related terms in the same semantic field include tulkinta (interpretation) and tulkitsija (interpreter). In contrast to the present active participle tulkitseva, which describes an ongoing action, tulkitseman has a more noun-like, agentive nuance suitable for attributive or referential use. The exact use and inflection of tulkitseman vary by author and register, reflecting the broader Finnish pattern of forming agent nouns from participial stems.