Breakdown of Tiede on yhteiskunnallinen asia.
olla
to be
asia
thing, matter
tiede
science
yhteiskunnallinen
societal
Questions & Answers about Tiede on yhteiskunnallinen asia.
How exactly do we build the adjective yhteiskunnallinen from the word for society?
The base noun is yhteiskunta (society). To add the -llinen suffix, we use the noun's stem. Because the suffix triggers consonant gradation, the strong nt in yhteiskunta becomes a weak nn, giving the stem yhteiskunna-. Then we just add -llinen to mean "societal" or "relating to society".
Is the base word yhteiskunta a compound word?
Yes! It combines yhteis- (from yhteinen, meaning common or shared) and kunta (municipality, body, or group). So the concept of a "shared group" gives us the Finnish word for "society".
Does the word tiede (science) come from a verb we already know?
It comes directly from the verb tietää (to know). Adding the -de suffix is a traditional way to turn certain verbs into abstract nouns, effectively transforming the act of "knowing" into "science".
Why is the phrase yhteiskunnallinen asia in the basic nominative case here instead of the partitive?
In basic "A is B" sentences, the noun after the verb olla (to be) takes the nominative case if it is a singular, countable thing. Since asia (matter or issue) is a countable concept, both the noun and its adjective stay in the nominative. If it were an uncountable mass like "water" or "love", we would use the partitive case instead.