viittaavien

Viittaavien is the genitive plural form of the Finnish adjective viittaava, used in linguistic contexts to refer to a class of referential elements that point to something in the discourse, space, or time. In Finnish grammar, viittaava describes words that indicate or "point to" a referent rather than naming it directly. The term is commonly used to discuss what are broadly called demonstratives and related deictic expressions.

The set of viittaavat sanat typically includes demonstrative adjectives and pronouns such as tämä, tuo, nämä, nuo, as well as deictic adverbs and phrases like tässä, tuossa, tuolta. These elements encode deixis: they signal proximity or distance to the referent, location in space or time, and, in some cases, discourse prominence. They are used to establish or maintain reference to entities already present in the conversation or text, aiding cohesion and comprehension.

Morphology and syntax vary by function. Viittaavat sanat inflect for case and number, and they can occur attributively (tämä kirja), pronominally (tämä on hyvä), or adverbially (täällä, tuolla). Their precise form depends on grammatical role, such as subject, object, or complement, and on whether they function as demonstratives or as deictic adverbs.

In linguistic description, the notion of viittaavien sanojen käyttö helps analyze how speakers situate referents relative to their own position and to the evolving discourse. The concept is most often encountered in discussions of deixis, demonstratives, and cohesion in Finnish, rather than as a separate grammatical subsystem with a fixed, separate taxonomy.