Animate nouns include the names of persons and animals: man, daughter, son, Vera, Petrov, Dima, duty officer, cow, goat, goose, starling, carp, spider, etc. These are mainly masculine and feminine nouns. Neuter nouns are few in number: child, creature (meaning “living organism”), person (meaning “person”), words in -ish (monster, horror, e), substantivized adjectives and participles (animal, insect, mammal). As a defining feature of animate nouns, the ability of the “objects” they call to independently move and move, which inanimate objects do not possess, is often noted.
This semantic classification does not coincide with the scientific division of everything that exists in nature into living and nonliving: in the science of nature, plants are also classified as living. It also does not fit into the framework of the “everyday” understanding of living and nonliving things. Thus, animate nouns include the words dead, deceased, seemingly contrary to logic. (Boiled) duck, (roasted) goose in grammar are also animate. This also includes doll, ball (in the language of billiard players), ace, trump card, jack, etc. - words that have nothing to do with the living world. The category of inanimate includes nouns that denote a collection of living beings (people, crowd, platoon, flock, swarm, group, etc.), as well as collective nouns such as youth, peasantry, children, proletariat, etc., denoting a collection of persons.
The division of nouns into animate and inanimate is based not only on semantic grounds, but also on grammatical ones. The accusative plural for animate nouns coincides with the genitive, and for inanimate nouns it coincides with the nominative. Wed:
I see trees, mountains, rivers, clouds, I see people, cows, birds, insects,
flock of geese
I will buy cucumbers, notebooks, buttons I will buy sheep, pigeons, dolls
ate tangerines, oranges, ate chicken, crayfish
served (fried) eggplants served (fried) partridges
In the singular, the distinction between animate and inanimate nouns is consistently expressed morphologically in masculine words. Wed:
animate nouns I will cook a goose, a rooster, I will see off my friend, I will seat the guest
inanimate nouns
I’ll make soup and broth, see off the steamer, plant potatoes
The exception is masculine words ending in -a. In them, like in feminine nouns, the accusative case does not coincide with either the genitive or the nominative. Wed: I. - young man, girl; R. - boys, girls; V. - young man, girl.
In animate nouns of the neuter gender, as in inanimate nouns, in the singular the form of the accusative case coincides with the form im. case. For example: “Oh, how I love this empty creature,” Pavel Petrovich (Turgenev) moaned. The same is observed for feminine nouns with a zero ending in them. fall: I see a lynx0, a mouse0.
A deviation from the basic norm of expressing the meaning of animation is the formation of wine forms. pad. pl. h. with the preposition in nouns - names of persons expressing an attitude towards a certain social group: student, nanny, livestock breeder, etc. In constructions with the meaning “to become (do) who,” these words form the form of wine. pad. as inanimate nouns: promote to general, elect to academician, candidate for deputy, etc.
The names of microorganisms fluctuate between animate and inanimate nouns: microbe, bacillus, ciliates, bacterium, amoeba, etc. They each have two forms of the accusative case: (to study) microbes and microbc (to examine) viruses and viruses (in a microscope); (destroy) bacilli I bacilli. In professional language, such words are usually used as animate nouns, and in the non-professional sphere as inanimate.
The same noun in one meaning can refer to animate things, and in another to inanimate things. Thus, the names of fish in direct meanings are animate nouns: (to catch) crucian carp. When used as names of foods, they act as inanimate nouns: (there are) sprats, etc.
Animacy/inanimateness is manifested in a unique way in the words blockhead, idol, idol, graven image, etc., which figuratively denote people. In the meaning of “statue” these words clearly gravitate towards inanimate nouns, and in the figurative meaning of a person - towards animate nouns. True, this trait is expressed inconsistently. Wed: From shaving his beard, he creates an idol for himself (Saltykov-Shedrin) and... makes an idol out of this old useless man (L. Tolstoy).
The names of works of art based on their characters act as animate nouns. Wed: call Rudin and read “¦Rudin”, etc.
Wed. also: see a kite, let (launch) a kite, I make a kite.
The names of the ancient gods are animate nouns, and the names of the luminaries homonymous with them are inanimate: to anger Mars, I look at Mars, to honor Jupiter and to see Jupiter, etc. ~
The words type image, character are used as inanimate nouns, acting as the names of the characters in works of art: create a strong character; characterize negative types and positive images. Wed: list the characters of the novel, the heroes of the fairy tale, the characters of the fable, but: bring out the comic character.
Animated and Mena nouns serve as names of people, animals and answer the question Who?(student, mentor, entertainer, peer).
Inanimate nouns serve as names of inanimate objects, as well as objects of the plant world and answer the question What?(presidium, conference, landscape, mountain ash). This also includes nouns like group, people, crowd, flock, peasantry, youth, children etc.
The division of nouns into animate and inanimate mainly depends on what object this noun denotes - living beings or objects of inanimate nature, but it is impossible to completely identify the concept of animate-inanimate with the concept of living-inanimate. Yes, from a grammatical point of view birch, aspen, elm- nouns are inanimate, but from a scientific point of view they are living organisms. In grammar, the names of deceased people are dead man, deceased- are considered animate, and only a noun dead body- inanimate. Thus, the meaning of animate-inanimate is a purely grammatical category.
- among the animate nouns, the accusative plural form coincides with the genitive plural form:
(c.p. plural = r.p. plural)r.p. (no) people, birds, animals
v.p. (to love) people, birds, animals
- in inanimate nouns, the accusative plural form coincides with the plural nominative form:
In addition, for animate nouns of the masculine gender of the second declension, the accusative case coincides with the genitive also in the singular, for inanimate nouns - with the nominative: I see a student, an elk, a crane, but a detachment, a forest, a regiment.(v.p. plural = im.p. plural)i.p. (there are) forests, mountains, rivers
v.p. (I see) forests, mountains, rivers
Most often, masculine and feminine nouns are animate. Among neuter nouns there are few animate ones. This - child, person (meaning "person"), animal, insect, mammal, creature ("living organism"), monster, monster, monster and some others.
Animate nouns used figuratively are declined: admire "Sleeping Beauty".
Inanimate nouns used figuratively receive the meaning of a person and become animate: the tournament brought together all the table tennis stars.
The names of toys, mechanisms, human images refer to animate nouns: she loved her dolls, nesting dolls, and robots very much.
The names of figures in games (chess, cards) are declined like animate nouns: sacrifice a knight, take an ace.
Name of gods, mythical creatures ( goblin, mermaid, devil, merman) refer to animate nouns, and the names of planets named after gods refer to inanimate nouns: looking at Jupiter, they prayed to Jupiter for help.
A number of nouns exhibit fluctuations in the expression of the animate-inanimate category (in the names of microorganisms, in nouns image, type, character, etc.): consider ciliates And ciliates, kill bacteria And bacteria; create vivid images, special characters.
| Animate and inanimate nouns | |
| Animated | Inanimate |
| names of living things | names of inanimate objects |
| plant names | |
| names of gods | names of planets based on gods |
| names of mythical creatures | |
| names of figures in games | |
| names of toys, mechanisms, human images |
|
| dead man, deceased | dead body |
| names of microorganisms | |
| image, character | |
How do you determine whether a noun is animate or inanimate?
An animate noun is one that has a living component.
For example: man, hare, grasshopper, etc. (therefore the question is asked who?).
An inanimate noun is one that does not have a living component.
For example: table, house, car, etc. (so the question is asked what?).
In general, we can intuitively define most words, knowing the language well, without rules. But there is still a rule that will help distinguish an animate noun from an inanimate one. So, for example, let's take two words for comparison: corpse and dead man. They must be put in the plural first in the genitive case, and then in the accusative case. If they are the same, then the word is animate. R.p. dead bodies, corpses. V.p. dead people, corpses. It turns out that a dead person is animate, but a corpse is inanimate
If a noun answers the question Who?, then it is animate. For example, a person, a cat, a bird, a girl. If a noun answers the question What?, then it is inanimate. For example, a house, a tree, a city.
This is often a big problem for schoolchildren. But there is no difficulty here. The first thing to do to determine whether a noun is animate or not is to ask a question. For example: who is a person, a fox, a dog; what - a flower, a forest, a sky. All nouns that answer the question who are animate, and those that answer the question what are inanimate.
In elementary school, children are taught a simplified rule: What question does this noun answer? To whom or what?
And children intuitively divide everything around into animate and inanimate.
But in higher grades one comes to understand that there are more complex cases of this rule. Do plants have a soul: a flower, a bush, a tree? After all, they breathe, grow, get sick like us, die... that is. alive, but why then are they inanimate? But the soul has already left the dead man, and he is still animated?
That’s when the plural genitive and accusative cases help. If the words match, we have an animate object in front of us.
To determine whether a noun is animate or inanimate, just ask a question. Answers the question Who? - animate noun, answers the question What? - inanimate noun. For example,
dog - Who?
pillar - What?
Questions will help us with this. Animate nouns include all living beings and the question is asked who?. For example, fox, human, hedgehog, hippopotamus, etc.
Inanimate nouns are objects and answer the question what??. An example is a large set, a stool, a table, a chair, a floor, a ceiling, a lamp.
The simplest example that was drilled into us from school is to ask a question about a word, and if it turns out that the word answers who? we attribute it to the living (animate), and what if for what? to the non-living (inanimate). Later, the following rule was added: take a noun and present it as the genitive case in the plural, and then compare it with the accusative case, also in the plural. If you see the same word in form, it means it is animate. If not, on the contrary, it is inanimate.
The nouns dead, deceased are animate, and corpse is inanimate. How to determine this? All you need to do is put the noun in the genitive plural and accusative plural form. If these forms coincide, we have an animate noun.
No dead people = see dead people
No dead people = I see dead people
But there are no corpses, I see corpses.
Using this formula Rod.p.pl.h. = Vin.p. pl. h., we will accurately identify an animate or inanimate noun. Inanimate nouns have the same forms of the nominative plural case and the accusative plural case.
I.p.what? chamomile = vin.p. see what? daisies
On the question. Animate answers the question who, inanimate what
At school we were very simply taught to distinguish animate and inanimate nouns from each other. All living things are animate nouns (for example, man, astronaut, cat, dog, professor, and so on). These nouns answer the question WHO?.
And everything inanimate is inanimate nouns (for example, table, chair, apple, weather, and so on). These nouns answer the question What?.
Since elementary school, you have an idea of animate and inanimate nature. Nouns also name objects of living and inanimate nature. And nouns are divided into animate and inanimate. But it's not that simple. Many interesting linguistic discoveries await you as you learn to distinguish animate nouns from inanimate ones.
All common nouns in the Russian language are divided into two categories: animate and inanimate. Animate nouns answer the question “who?”, and inanimate nouns answer the question “what?”
For example, "who?" - boy, dog, bird; "What?" - book, stone, earth.
1. Category of animation - inanimateness - grammatical category
It seems that everything is simple: the category of animateness - inanimateness is based on the distinction between living and inanimate. However, in the Russian language there are often cases when grammar contradicts common sense. Suffice it to remember the synonyms dead body And dead man.
The noun "corpse" is inanimate, and the noun "dead" is animate. The difference is found only in the form of V.p. units: I see a dead man - I see a corpse, cf.: I see an elephant - I see a chair.
Animate nouns have the same plural forms V.p. and R.p. (and for nouns m.p. of the 2nd declension and forms V.p. and R.p. singular), but for inanimate ones - not. Inanimate nouns have the same I.p. forms. and V.p. plural.
I see (who?) elephants, but there are no (who?) elephants; I see (who?) mice, but there are no (who?) mice.
I see (what?) books, no (what?) books; I see (what?) at homé, there are no (what?) houses.
Animate nouns include the names of people, animals, insects, etc., that is, living beings. Inanimate nouns are the names of objects, phenomena of reality that are not classified as living beings.
2. Please pay attention
Please note:
- names of chess and card pieces and nouns “dead”, “dead”, as well as names of dolls ( parsley, puppet) and the word “doll” itself are animate nouns;
- and words that name a collection of living beings: army, people, crowd, flock, students, humanity etc. are inanimate nouns.
Basically, animate nouns include masculine and feminine nouns. There are few animate neuter nouns in the Russian language. This includes several nouns with the suffix -ishe ( monster, bogeyman), individual nouns (formed from adjectives or participles): mammal, insect, animal And
nouns child, face(meaning “person”).
3. Common mistakes
Errors in the use of the category of animation - inanimate nouns can be divided into two groups:
First- using inanimate nouns as animate ones, for example: Everyone looked at him like he was ghost. Let's check using the formula “V.p. plural = R.p. plural": (I see) ghosts- (No) ghosts. The endings don't match, so it's a noun ghost - inanimate, therefore the sentence, according to the grammatical norms of the Russian language, should look like this: Everyone looked at him like he was ghost.
Second- using animate nouns as inanimate ones. For example: When he was carrying securities, he was given two people to accompany him. Right: When he was carrying securities, they gave him a guidetwo people.
Remember: in constructions with compound numerals ending in two, three, four, V.p. the numeral retains the form Imp.p., regardless of the category of animation. For example: The driver needed to deliver twenty three athlete.
References
- Russian language. 6th grade / Baranov M.T. and others - M.: Education, 2008.
- Babaytseva V.V., Chesnokova L.D. Russian language. Theory. 5-9 grades - M.: Bustard, 2008.
- Russian language. 6th grade / Ed. MM. Razumovskaya, P.A. Lekanta. - M.: Bustard, 2010.
- Terver.ru ().
- Hi-edu.ru ().
Homework
Exercise 1.
Write the words in 2 columns - animate nouns and inanimate nouns:
Creature, janitor, monster, tin, journalism, youth, insect, engine, coal, corpse, warmth, stubbornness, student, hazel grouse, mushroom, doll, peddler, midges, foot soldier, spirit, Sakhalin, kids, squad, steel, coal, poverty, cap, infantry, small fry, general, herd, canned food, table, larva, aluminum, snake, red tape, crow, fox, humanity, relatives, boyar, Karakum, horse, young animals, genius, youth, bell, milk, chick, silk, stuffed animal, pea, tentacle, peas, comrade, cooking, oil, dishes, cement, poor, relative, sugar, tea, honey, teapot, yeast, tea leaves, herd, whiteness, pity, stubborn, hero, furniture, radiance, delight, heroism, running, journalist, walking, pearls, generality, pearl, freshness, crow.
Exercise No. 2
Read the fairy tale by L. Uspensky:
A raft is floating along the river. A fat lazy cat sits motionless on the shore. The raft asks the cat:
Are you alive?
How can you prove it?
I'm moving.
I'm swimming and you're sitting.
If I want, I will move.
I am a great raft, alive, and cats are inanimate. You are a thing, and I exist.
The cat thought and said:
I will prove to you grammatically exactly who is who and what is what. I will kill you in the accusative case. Your nominative cannot resist my accusative.
Help the cat, prove that he is right. Using the elements of an argumentative essay, complete the fairy tale.
