yhdyssanamuotonsa

Yhdyssanamuotonsa is a Finnish linguistic term used to refer to the form that a compound word (yhdyssana) takes in a given syntactic context. It is formed from yhdyssana and muoto, with the possessive suffix -nsa, yielding “its compound form.” In linguistic descriptions, yhdyssanamuotonsa denotes the specific inflected variant of a compound under discussion, for example when describing declension or case endings.

Finnish compounds are created by joining stems, often with no space and sometimes with a hyphen in long or easily readable forms. Most such compounds decline like ordinary nouns, with endings attached to the final element. The yhdyssanamuotonsa of a word therefore depends on the grammatical case, number, and other factors, and may differ from the inflected form of the final stem alone. For example, the compound tietokone (computer) has inflected forms such as tietokoneen (genitive singular) and tietokonetta (partitive singular). Similarly, tiedostojärjestelmä (file system) has genitive tiedostojärjestelmän and partitive tiedostojärjestelmää. The term yhdyssanamuotonsa would be used when explicitly referring to these inflected, compound-based variants rather than to the base stem alone.

Orthography generally writes compounds in closed form, though hyphenation is used for readability or at line breaks in longer compounds. This does not change the underlying concept of yhdyssanamuotonsa, which remains the specific inflected form of a compound word.

See also: yhdyssana, Finnish grammar, inflection.