Animation category

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The liveliness category ( liveliness or inanimate ) is a category in the grammars of various languages, e.g. B. the Slavic languages . Here are nouns divided into a group of animate and inanimate. Essentially, this relates to whether the word in question denotes a living being or not.

The animation category in the languages ​​of the world

In many languages ​​of the world, the difference in the reference to the animate and the inanimate is most evident in the word class of the question pronouns . First compare the languages ​​of the Indo-European family :

animat inanimat
Icelandic hver hvað
Norwegian hvem hva
Swedish vem vad
Danish hvem hvad
English who what
Dutch how wat
German who What
animat inanimat
Latin quis quid
Italian chi che
Spanish quién qué
Portuguese quem quê
French qui que / quoi
Romanian cine ce
Schott.-Gäl. co de
animat inanimat
Czech kdo co
Slovak account čo
Polish account co
Russian account čto
Slovenian kdo kaj
Bosnian / Croatian / Serbian ko / tko što / šta
Bulgarian koj kakvo
animat inanimat
Modern Greek poiós ti
Albanian kush çfarë
Persian ki če
Armenian inč ow
Hindi kauna kyā
Bengali kē ki
Romani con so

Only in a few Indo-European languages ​​this distinction is not made, for example in the Baltic languages Latvian and Lithuanian , in which the pronouns for both Animata and Inanimata are kas .

This distinction is also usually made in other languages ​​of the world:

animat inanimat
Finnish kuka withä
Estonian kes mida
Hungarian ki mi
Basque nor zer
animat inanimat
Arabic man mā
Hebrew mi ma
Turkish kim no
Swahili nani nini
animat inanimat
Japanese dare nani
Georgian vin ra
Greenlandic kiná suná
Pitjantjatjara ngananya nyaa

In English

In the English language, personal pronouns are decided according to the categories animate and inanimate :

  • On nouns referring to animate beings, v. a. Persons referring to are referenced with the pronouns he and she indicating sex .
  • Other nouns (with a few exceptions) are referred to with the pronoun it .

In German

In the German language, liveliness only plays a subordinate role. However, there are certain restrictions on the use of prepositions for nouns that denote animate, and in these cases the prepositional expression can not be replaced by a pronominal adverb . Example:

  • He's waiting for a thunderstorm. - He's waiting for it.
  • He is waiting for a child. - He's waiting * for it.

In the second example, pronouncing with on is not possible, since the noun child denotes something animate.

In the Slavic languages

In all Slavic languages, animation is distinguished in the masculine paradigm :

In most Slavic languages, this syncretism only applies to the singular category, in Russian it also applies to the plural category of all genera.

Example:

"I'm looking for the neighbor."

  • Polish: Szukam sąsiada.
  • Russian: Išču soseda.
  • Serbo-Croatian: Tražim susjeda.
  • Slovak: Hľadám suseda.
  • Slovenian: Iščem soseda.
  • Czech: Hledám souseda.
  • Ukrainian: Šukaju susida.

In all examples shown, the noun for "neighbor" ends in -a and thus shows the genitive form, although the verb for "seek" in the Slavic languages ​​requires a direct object. If the direct object referred to something inanimate, the nominative would take the place of the genitive.

Russian

The division of nouns into animate ( Russian oduševlënnye ) and inanimate ( neoduševlënnye ) is shown in the Russian declination scheme in such a way that the accusative forms of the animate may coincide with those of the genitive . this applies

a) masculine nouns of the 1st declension (ending in a consonant) in singular and plural.

Example:

  • Ona vstretila mal'čik a .
  • Ona vstretila mal'čik ov .

b) for nouns feminine and neuter gender only in the plural.

Example:

  • Yes vižu studentok _ . - opposite singular: Yes vižu studentk u .
  • Yes vižu nasekom ych . - vs.: Yes vižu nasekom oe .
  • Yes znaju ego dočer ej . - vs.: Yes vižu ego doč _ .

c) masculine nouns of the 2nd declension (ending in -a ) only in the plural.

Example:

  • Yes vstrečaju djad ej . - vs.: Yes vstrečaju djad ju .
  • Yes vstrečaju sirot _ . - vs.: Yes vstrečaju sirot u .

In the inanimate, the accusative form coincides with that of the nominative. Collectives such as B. People (Russian narod ) or (human) crowd ( tolpa ) belong to the group of the inanimate. All words in the sentence that are in congruence with the noun in question behave in the same way.

Polish, Slovak, Czech

A special feature of Polish and also of the Slovak and Czech is that in the vernacular , for the class of animate nouns. B. has expanded to motor vehicles and in particular the names of car brands.

Example:

  • Is it mercedes a ? - instead of standard language: Masz mercedes _ ? (Polish)
  • Máš mercedes a ? - instead of standard language: Máš mercedes _ ? (Slovak, Czech)

In Polish, this extension also includes some nouns from the field of PC and Internet (laptop - Mam laptop a , mail - Napisałem mail a .)

Tamil

In Tamil , a Dravidian language , the liveliness category plays a role in certain contexts. The direct object of a sentence is always in the accusative when it is animated. If, on the other hand, the direct object is inanimate, it can also be in the nominative if the word is indefinite . Compare:

  • குமார் ஒரு பையனைப் பார்த்தான்.
    Kumār oru paiyaṉai (p) pārttāṉ.
    "Kumar saw a boy ."
  • குமார் ஒரு பெட்டி / ஒரு பெட்டியை வாங்கினான்.
    Kumār oru peṭṭi / oru peṭṭiyai vāṅkiṉāṉ.
    "Kumar bought a suitcase ."

See also

literature

  • Herbert Mulisch: Handbook of contemporary Russian language . 1st edition. Langenscheidt, Leipzig, Berlin, Munich 1993.
  • Hans Schlegel (Ed.): Compendium lingvističeskich znanij dlja Practičeskich zanjatij po russkomu jazyku. Berlin: Volk und Wissen Verlag 1992. ISBN 3-06-502214-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Lehmann: A Grammar of Modern Tamil, Pondicherry 1989, pp. 27 ff.