Breakdown of Kirkko sortuu ilman mitään syytä.
kirkko
church
mikään
anything, nothing (with negation)
syy
reason
ilman
without
Questions & Answers about Kirkko sortuu ilman mitään syytä.
Why are mitään and syytä in the partitive case here?
They are in the partitive case because they follow the preposition ilman (without). In Finnish, ilman dictates that the noun phrase it modifies must be in the partitive case.
How is the partitive form mitään created from the basic form mikään?
Negative indefinite pronouns like mikään are built with a stem and a suffix, and only the stem changes for the case. The partitive of the base stem mi- is mitä. Then we add the negative suffix. Because mitä ends in a short vowel, the suffix softens from -kään to -ään, giving us mitään.
Normally mikään is used in negative sentences with ei. Why is there no negative verb here?
You are right that mikään and kukaan usually need a negative verb like ei. However, the preposition ilman (without) carries a built-in negative meaning. This inherent negativity is enough to trigger the use of mitään instead of a positive pronoun like jotakin (something or any).
The verb is sortuu, but I've seen sortaa used for 'to oppress'. Are they related?