Finnish: An Essential Grammar

by Fred Karlsson

Overview

This thoroughly revised third edition of Finnish: An Essential Grammar is grounded in fundamental insights of modern linguistics and incorporates some of the latest achievements in the description of written and spoken Finnish.

It gives a systematic account of the structures of the written language and offers increased attention to the key characteristics of present-day colloquial Finnish. No prior knowledge is assumed on the part of the reader and grammatical rules are clearly explained without jargon.

Features of this new edition include:

• pronunciation guide, including the tendencies in present-day colloquial Finnish

• thorough descriptions of morphology (word structure) and syntax (sentence structure)

• clear rules and an abundance of concrete examples, from both written and colloquial Finnish

• updated vocabulary in the examples

• an effective new scheme for detecting the morphological structure of any word form

• subject index.

This is the ideal reference source both for those studying Finnish independently and for students in schools, colleges, universities and adult classes of all types.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138821576
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/13/2015
Series:	Routledge Essential Grammars
Edition description:	Bilingual
Pages:	342
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Fred Karlsson is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Helsinki.

Table of Contents

Preface. Abbreviations. 1. Introduction 2. Pronunciation and sound structure 3. Word structure 4. Two important sound alternations 5. The declension of nominals 6. The conjugation of verbs 7. Sentence structure 8. The nominative case and the partitive case 9. The genitive case, total objects and possessive suffixes 10. The six local cases 11. Other cases 12. Numbers and numerals 13. Pronouns 14. Tenses 15. Moods 16. The passive 17. Infinitives 18. Participles 19. Comparison of adjectives 20. Other word classes and clitics 21. Word formation 22. The colloquial spoken language Appendix 1. Appendix 2.

Editorial Reviews

'Finnish: An Essential Grammar is an intelligent and effective introduction to standard Finnish... . A learner using any kind of approach for learning Finnish will also find it useful as a reference grammar. - Scandanavica

'The somewhat daunting task facing students of Finnish has been vastly simplified by Fred Karlsson's notably practical and supremely competent survey and guide. It amply merits a place in reference and lending libraries alike.' - Languages and Literature 14/1 [2000] 18-29

From the Publisher