Breakdown of Hän tuntee itsensä ulkopuolisena ja arvottomana.
hän
he / she
ja
and
itse
self, oneself
tuntea
to feel (experience a sensation or emotion)
Questions & Answers about Hän tuntee itsensä ulkopuolisena ja arvottomana.
Why are ulkopuolisena and arvottomana in the essive case here, and could we use the translative instead?
With the structure tuntea itsensä (to feel oneself to be), you can use either the essive (-na/-nä) or the translative (-ksi). The essive here emphasizes his ongoing state or role of being 'as an outsider'. The translative (ulkopuoliseksi ja arvottomaksi) is also perfectly correct and very common; it would focus slightly more on the subjective feeling or the emotional result itself.
How exactly is the reflexive pronoun itsensä constructed in this sentence?
It is formed from the pronoun itse (self). Since it acts as the total object of the verb tuntea, it would normally take the accusative -n ending. However, when adding the third-person possessive suffix -nsä, the object -n drops out. Therefore, itse + n + nsä becomes itsensä (himself).
Why does the word arvoton (worthless) change so much to become arvottomana?
Words ending in the suffix -ton or -tön (which means 'without' or '-less', derived here from arvo, meaning 'value') undergo a significant stem change. The -ton changes to -ttoma- (or -ttömä-) before case endings are attached. Thus, arvoton + na becomes arvottomana.