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Animacy (antonym: inanimacy) is a grammatical and semantic feature, existing in some languages, expressing how sentient or alive the referent of a noun is. [1] Widely expressed, animacy is one of the most elementary principles in languages around the globe and is a distinction acquired as early as six months of age.
The animate–inanimate opposition for the masculine gender applies in the singular, and the personal–impersonal opposition, which classes animals along with inanimate objects, applies in the plural. (A few nouns denoting inanimate things are treated grammatically as animate and vice versa.) The manifestations of the differences are as follows:
For instance, Quechua marks all direct objects with the direct-object ending -ta, whereas English has no overt markers on any direct objects. A common basis for differentially marking direct objects is the notion of "prominence," which reflects two properties that can be understood along decreasing scales: [3] Animacy: human > animate > inanimate
The Animate and the Inanimate (1925) The Tribes and the States (c.1935) William James Sidis (/ ˈsaɪdɪs /; April 1, 1898 – July 17, 1944) was an American child prodigy with mathematical and linguistic skills. He was active as a mathematician, linguist, historian, and author. He wrote the book The Animate and the Inanimate, published in 1925 ...
The gender distinction in Ojibwe is not a masculine/feminine contrast, but is rather between animate and inanimate.Animate nouns are generally living things, and inanimate ones generally nonliving things, although that is not a simple rule because of the cultural understanding as to whether a noun possesses a "spirit" or not (generally, if it can move, it possesses a "spirit").
Squash and stretch. The squash and stretch principle: rigid, non-dynamic movement of a ball is compared to a "squash" at impact and a "stretch" during the fall and after the bounce. Also, the ball moves less in the beginning and end (the "slow in and slow out" principle). The purpose of squash and stretch [4] is to give a sense of weight and ...
Anthropomorphizing household objects. When people feel sympathy for inanimate objects, they are anthropomorphizing, attributing human behaviors or feelings to animals or objects who cannot feel ...
The most widespread system, however, has four classes: male, female, animate beings and certain objects, and finally a class for the remaining nouns. The Andi language has a noun class reserved for insects. Among Northwest Caucasian languages, only Abkhaz and Abaza have noun class, making use of a human male/human female/non-human distinction.