Animacy / Humanness
Animacy
Personhood
Differential object marking
Is the participant human, living, or non-living?
extended
intermediate
Description and quantity
Betekenis
A feature that can influence grammar depending on whether a participant is human, animate, animal, object, abstract, or respected.
Zo herken je het
Notice whether people and living beings behave differently from objects in the sentence.
Voorbeelden
Woorden
person|dog|tree|stone|idea
Zinnen
a person vs a thing|who vs what
Voorbeeldzin
I saw Maria at the station.
Visual guide
Basic shape
participant: Maria / dog / stone
|
animacy feature
human? animal? thing? idea?
|
grammar may change:
pronoun, object marker,
honorific, plural
Compare shape
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?
Taaloverzicht
In je taal
Dutch (standard)
Aanwezigheid
weak
Belang
Animacy is not a major grammatical category, though pronouns and word choice can reflect it.
Iedereen is welkom.
Everyone is welcome.
In de taal die je leert
Polish (standard)
Aanwezigheid
strong
Moeilijkheidsgraad
Animacy and masculine-personal status affect case and plural agreement.
Widzę psa.
I-see dog-ANIM.
Veelvoorkomend struikelpunt
Learners miss why masculine objects sometimes look genitive.
New in your learning language
This block is more central in your learning language. Give it extra focus in examples and practice.