Talk:vasta

Finnish declines all

Studying Finnish, it seems to me that "Western grammar" is a poor fit. Here, the word "vasta" as a noun is declined, but not as an adverb. That makes "sense" in western grammar, but what of "vastaan", which appears to be an illative form of "vasta" but which is classed as an adverb? It can also be used as a preposition. It variously means "counter to, or against". Or consider "vastassa", an inessive form of "vasta", also an adverb, and meaning "faced with". Conceptually I find it very hard to consider all the various declined forms of "vasta", and other Finnish nouns as nouns, even though in the taxonomy being applied I can accept that they might be so classified. As an English speaker, it apears to me that the "noun aspect" of a word must be combined with adverbs etc to convey a particular declension's meaning. This fundamental "adverb aspect" of the word is lost or added back in the translation process as necessary to aid readability. However grammars lay claim to a precision which in Finnish, to me, isn't evident. Is there not an argument to be made therefore for considering the declined cases of Finnish words as having distinct meanings and matching use/classifications in English, rather than trying to parallel a grammatical taxonomy that seems unsuited to the language? LookingGlass (talk) 13:04, 16 April 2013 (UTC)