# Ymmärtämättömyyttäni



## ibarrere

Is "ymmärtämättömyyttäni" parsable by a native speaker of Finnish? I'm sort of just trying to push the limits of morphological productivity and seeing what I can do with the verb ymmärtää.

As I understand it, ymmärtämättömyyttäni should mean something like "without my (lack of understanding)ness", but I'm not really sure:

*ymmärtää*
-Understand (verb)
*ymmärtä-mä*
-Understanding (participle)
*ymmärtä-mä-tön*
-Lack of understanding (participle)
*ymmärtämä-ttöm-yys*
-(Lack of understanding)ness
*ymmärtä-mä-ttöm-yy-ttä*
-Without (lack of understanding)ness
*ymmärtä-mä-ttöm-yy-ttä-ni*
-Without my (lack of understanding)ness

Any input as to the meaning of this word or how a native speaker interprets it?


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## kirahvi

It means _due to my lack of understanding_.

Tein virheen ymmärtämättömyyttäni = I made a mistake due to my lack of understanding.

I've never been very good at parsing Finnish words in the way you just presented, so I'll leave that to someone else. The word perfectly understandable and commonly used, there's nothing strange about it.


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## ibarrere

Ohhh, that makes sense, thanks. So the -ttä in this usage isn't the abessive case, but rather indicates causation. With that said, the parse should be:

*ymmärtää*
-Understand (verb)
*ymmärtä-mä*
-Understanding (participle)
*ymmärtä-mä-tön*
-Lack of understanding (participle)
*ymmärtämä-ttöm-yys*
-(Lack of understanding)ness
*ymmärtä-mä-ttöm-yy-ttä*
-Due to (lack of understanding)ness
*ymmärtä-mä-ttöm-yy-ttä-ni*
-Due to my (lack of understanding)ness

If somebody has any input on the derivation above I'd be happy to hear that too.


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## Gavril

The -tä in _ymmärtämättömyyttäni _is the partitive ending, and in some contexts (e.g., "Tein sitä ymmärtämättömyyttäni") it is interpreted as meaning "because of".

The abessive of this noun would be _ymmärtämättömyyde*ttä*_, I think ("without misunderstanding").

I don't see a problem with your derivation below, but it's hard to say how Finnish speakers parse the word when they see/hear it (if that's what you were asking) -- not every speaker will necessarily parse a word the same way.



ibarrere said:


> Ohhh, that makes sense, thanks. So the -ttä in this usage isn't the abessive case, but rather indicates causation. With that said, the parse should be:
> 
> *ymmärtää*
> -Understand (verb)
> *ymmärtä-mä*
> -Understanding (participle)
> *ymmärtä-mä-tön*
> -Lack of understanding (participle)
> *ymmärtämä-ttöm-yys*
> -(Lack of understanding)ness
> *ymmärtä-mä-ttöm-yy-ttä*
> -Due to (lack of understanding)ness
> *ymmärtä-mä-ttöm-yy-ttä-ni*
> -Due to my (lack of understanding)ness
> 
> If somebody has any input on the derivation above I'd be happy to hear that too.


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## ibarrere

Gavril said:


> The -tä in _ymmärtämättömyyttäni _is the partitive ending, and in some contexts (e.g., "Tein sitä ymmärtämättömyyttäni") it is interpreted as meaning "because of".



Wait, which -tä? The first one, as in ymmär*tä*? Or the second, as in ymmärtämättömyyt*tä*ni? The second one certainly looks like the -tta causitive suffix.


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## Gavril

ibarrere said:


> Wait, which -tä? The first one, as in ymmär*tä*? Or the second, as in ymmärtämättömyyt*tä*ni? The second one certainly looks like the -tta causitive suffix.



The -tä in the second-to-last syllable: ymmärtämättömyyt*tä*ni.

The reason why there are two "t"s at the end of _ymmärtämättöm_*yyttä* is that the partitive suffix -tä combines with the -t- of the stem: i.e., the stem of nouns whose nominative singular ends in -_yys _or -_uus _(e.g., _lyhyys_ "shortness" or _suuruus _"greatness") is usually -_yyt_-/-_uut_-.


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## ibarrere

I see, thanks for the clarification!


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