Breakdown of Tämä lapsonen nukahti vasta äsken.
tämä
this
äsken
just now
nukahtaa
to fall asleep
vasta
not until, only just
Questions & Answers about Tämä lapsonen nukahti vasta äsken.
How is the word lapsonen formed, and what nuance does it add compared to just saying lapsi?
Lapsonen is a diminutive formed from the noun lapsi (child). When the suffix -nen is added to noun stems, it often creates a diminutive form. In this context, it adds a strong tone of endearment or smallness, turning the neutral word for child into "dear child" or "little child".
Why is the word lapsonen instead of lapsinen, given that the inflectional stem of lapsi is lapse-?
When deriving diminutives with the -nen suffix, words whose stems end in -e- typically change that vowel to -o- (or -ö- for front-vowel words) before the suffix is attached. Therefore, the stem lapse- shifts to lapso-, giving us lapsonen.
Why does the sentence use vasta for "only" instead of vain?
Vasta is specifically used when "only" or "just" relates to time, implying "not until" or "as recently as". Vain is used to restrict quantities, things, or people (like "only one" or "just me"). Because äsken (a moment ago) is a time expression, vasta äsken is the correct collocation for "only a moment ago".
Nukahti means "fell asleep". How does this verb relate to the basic verb nukkua (to sleep)?