Animacy / Humanness
Animacy
Personhood
Differential object marking
Is the participant human, living, or non-living?
extended
intermediate
Description and quantity
Значение
A feature that can influence grammar depending on whether a participant is human, animate, animal, object, abstract, or respected.
Как распознать
Notice whether people and living beings behave differently from objects in the sentence.
Примеры
Слова
person|dog|tree|stone|idea
Фразы
a person vs a thing|who vs what
Предложение
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?
Разбор по языкам
В вашем языке
Russian
Выраженность
strong
Важность
Animacy affects accusative forms, especially masculine singular and plural nouns.
Я вижу брата.
I see brother.
В изучаемом языке
Polish (standard)
Выраженность
strong
Сложность
Animacy and masculine-personal status affect case and plural agreement.
Widzę psa.
I-see dog-ANIM.
Типичная трудность
Learners miss why masculine objects sometimes look genitive.
Same block, different coding
Both languages use this block strongly, but they signal it differently. Focus on form changes, not only meaning.