Animacy / Humanness
Is the participant human, living, or non-living?
Merkitys
A feature that can influence grammar depending on whether a participant is human, animate, animal, object, abstract, or respected.
Näin tunnistat sen
Notice whether people and living beings behave differently from objects in the sentence.
Esimerkit
person|dog|tree|stone|idea
a person vs a thing|who vs what
I saw Maria at the station.
Visual guide
participant: Maria / dog / stone
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animacy feature
human? animal? thing? idea?
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grammar may change:
pronoun, object marker,
honorific, plural
same role: object of 'saw' I saw Maria. human I saw a dog. animate I saw a stone. thing Some languages: higher animacy -> extra marking lower animacy -> less/no marking who? vs what?
Kielinäkymä
Sinun kielessäsi
Animacy and masculine-personal status affect case and plural agreement.
Widzę psa.
I-see dog-ANIM.
Opiskeltavassa kielessä
Animacy and humanness matter strongly in the personal 'a' and in pronoun choices.
Busco a mi hermano. Busco un libro.
I am looking for my brother. I am looking for a book.
Learners often fail to mark specific human direct objects with 'a'.
Same block, different coding
Both languages use this block strongly, but they signal it differently. Focus on form changes, not only meaning.