Since elementary school, you have an idea about living and inanimate nature. Nouns are also called objects of animate and inanimate nature. And share nouns into animate and inanimate. But not everything is so simple. Many interesting linguistic discoveries await you as you learn to distinguish between animate and inanimate nouns.

All common nouns in Russian 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 animation - inanimateness is based on the distinction between the living and the inanimate. However, in Russian there are cases when grammar contradicts common sense. It is enough 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 B.p. unit: I see a dead person - I see a corpse, compare: I see an elephant - I see a chair.

Animated nouns have the same form plural V.p. and R.p. (and for nouns m.r. of the 2nd declension and forms V.p. and R.p. singular), but for inanimate ones - no. Inanimate nouns have the same forms I.p. and V.p. plural.

I see (who?) Elephants, there are no (who?) Elephants; I see (who?) mice, there are no (who?) mice.

I see (what?) books, there are no (what?) books; see (what?) at homé, no (what?) houses.

Animated 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. Should pay attention

Note:

• the names of chess and card pieces and the nouns "dead man", "dead man", as well as the names of dolls ( parsley, marionette) and the word “doll” itself are animated nouns;
• and the words that name the totality of living beings: army, people, crowd, flock, students, mankind etc. are inanimate nouns.

Basically, animate nouns include masculine and female. There are few animate neuter nouns in Russian. This includes several nouns with the suffix -ische ( monster, bogeyman), individual nouns (formed from adjectives or participles): mammal, insect, animal and

nouns child, face(meaning "person").

3. Typical mistakes

Errors in the use of the category of animation - inanimate nouns can be divided into two groups:

First- the use of inanimate nouns as animate ones, for example: Everyone looked at him like ghost. Let's check by the formula “V.p. plural = R.p. plural ": (I see) ghosts- (No) ghosts. The endings don't match, hence the noun ghost - inanimate, so the sentence, according to the grammatical norms of the Russian language, should look like this: Everyone looked at him like ghost.

Second- the use of animate nouns as inanimate ones. For instance: When he carried securities, two people were given to accompany him. Right: When he carried securities, he was given as an escorttwo people.

Remember: in constructions with compound numbers ending in two three four, V.p. numeral retains the Im.p. form, regardless of the category of animation. For instance: The driver had to deliver twenty three athlete.

Bibliography

1. Russian language. Grade 6 / Baranov M.T. and others - M .: Education, 2008.
2. Babaitseva V.V., Chesnokova L.D. Russian language. Theory. 5-9 cells - M.: Bustard, 2008.
3. Russian language. 6 cells / Ed. MM. Razumovskaya, P.A. Lekanta. - M.: Bustard, 2010.

1. Terver.ru ().
2. 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, midge, infantryman, spirit, Sakhalin, children, detachment, 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, genius, youth, bell, milk, chick, silk, scarecrow, pea, tentacle, pea, comrade, cooking, oil, dishes, cement, poor, relative, sugar, tea, honey, kettle, yeast, tea leaf, herd, whiteness, pity, stubborn, hero, furniture, radiance, delight, heroism, running, journalist, walking, pearls, generals, pearl, freshness, crow.

Exercise #2

Read the tale of L. Uspensky:

A raft floats on the river. A fat lazy cat sits motionless on the shore. The raft asks the Cat:

Are you alive?

What can you prove?

I'm moving.

I swim and you sit.

I want to - 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'll kill you with the accusative case. Your nominative will not stand against my accusative.

Help the cat, prove that he is right. Using the elements of the essay-reasoning, complete the fairy tale.

Lesson type: explanation of new material.

Goals:

• educational: to acquaint students with the concept of animation and inanimateness; to consolidate the ability to distinguish between animate - inanimate nouns.
• Educational: to give the concept of personification as a technique used in fiction.
• worldview: students will be convinced that knowledge of the method for determining the animateness and inanimateness of nouns will help them in compiling a “morphological portrait” (morphological analysis) of a noun.

The pedagogical task of the lesson: create conditions for a joint training simulation action; to form students' communicative skills and skills of conducting an educational dialogue on a meaningful basis.

Epigraph to the lesson:“Language is a treasury from which we take pearl words that are spoken more than once. Sometimes they give "cracks and dents".

DURING THE CLASSES

1. Organizational moment

Five minute warm up.

The game: Who will remember more in two minutes the names of fairy-tale heroes, so that their names contain hissing f, h, sh, sh with vowels and, u, eh? (Chipollino, Chudo-Yudo, Jumping Bunny, Shapoklyak, Princess and the Pea, Pike ...)
- Who will remember the names of animals and birds more, in which there is a combination of hissing w, w, h, u with the letters i, a, y? (Giraffe, toad, seagull, siskin, hedgehog, crane, cubs, lapwing, etc.)

2. Self-checking homework on the key "Check yourself"

Assistants report homework results to the teacher during recess.

Competition "Who lives in the forest?"

What animal is called like this:

Oblique prickly clubfoot
Elk horned grey.

- Who's doing what? Write five sentences with homogeneous members.

3. Entering the learning situation (“inclusion in the lesson”)

"Intrigue"

“Guys, today we have an unusual lesson. Any student, apparently, dreams that the lesson began with a game. Our game is linguistic.
- What does it mean? (linguistic)
- What knowledge is required in this game? (Spelling, phonetic, lexical, syntactic)

"Lexical Workout"

– Let's read the epigraph to the lesson: “Language is a treasury from which we take pearl words that are spoken more than once. Sometimes they give "cracks and dents".
How did you understand this statement? (Language is our wealth. We must take care of our language, words, as a treasury. We must avoid mistakes in our speech).

4. Spelling workshop

- Let's write down a small vocabulary dictation "Before the first mistake" for work. (The words have been chosen so as to enter a new topic)

Sunset, dawn, sprout, growth, rustle, pike, giraffe, miracle, numbers, art, craftswomen, age, bee, quote, acorn, building.

"Entering the Learning Situation"

Let's read the words in which there are recently studied spellings. (Students name all words except the word "art".)
- Let's designate spellings or "error-prone" places graphically.
Nikolai Maksimovich Shansky, a linguist, advises using a "linguistic microscope" to see all spellings.

vocabulary work

- What is a microscope? Let's look at the explanatory dictionary. Microscope- a device for viewing objects that are indistinguishable to the naked eye).
- Let's name all the spellings found in the dictionary dictation:

1. Roots with alternation.
2. I-S after C.
3. O-Yo after hissing.
4. Spelling prefixes.

What do these words have in common? What part of speech do they represent? (They are all nouns.)
Who can prove? (They all answer the questions: Who? What?)
- The main goal of our lesson is to find out why we ask the question who to one word? And what about others?

5. Theme movement

- Let's write down the title of our lesson, which contains the main idea of ​​our work, and explain the punctuation marks in this sentence.
Animated means alive... (We will put a dash in the sentence, since the words “this”, “here”, “means” are always preceded by a dash).
Why is there an ellipsis at the end of a sentence?

“Page of history” (From the history of punctuation marks, the student gives a little information about the ellipsis).

Student message.

M.V. Lomonosov, the creator of the first Russian grammar, called this sign "ellipsis". The ellipsis placed at the end of the sentence suggests that the thought is not said, unfinished.

– So, in the process of work, we must finalize, that is, continue the thought in the form of reflection, reasoning.

Animated means alive... In the world we are surrounded by different objects. Among them there are those who live, breathe, move. So they are alive or animate.

– Let's go back to our vocabulary dictation and find all animated nouns. Let's highlight them with one line. Think out loud! Giraffe, pike, craftswomen, bee are animate nouns, because they answer the question Who?. They move, they breathe, they live.

Vocabulary work.

- Who are the masters? Let's look at the explanatory dictionary. Craftswomen- These are people who have achieved high art in their field.
- Let's make a sentence so that it contains a comparison or phraseological phrase with the word

Lace makers work like bees.

Let's explain the meaning of this phraseological unit. (Very diligently).

"Linguistic experiment"

Let's think and think aloud! Let's look at our words and find out: do the opinions of linguists and biologists about the living coincide? Let's prove it. (From the point of view of biologists, sprout and shoots are living organisms, because they live, breathe, grow. Our historical ancestors also considered a tree, a tulip, a stone to be alive).

Conclusion: Linguists now consider animate only those who ... (continue my thought further) can move: people, insects, animals.

What does alive mean? Let's single out the root in the word animated - -shower- (The one who lives, breathes, has a spirit, breath, the ability to move).
- Let's call inanimate nouns. What do they stand for? (They depict the "inanimate world": the plant world, the objective world).

6. Fixing

Now let's try to spread the words into two columns.

Youth, fungus, monster, child, face (in the meaning of “part of the body”), violet, slob, moss, feather grass, swallow, swift, hare, goat, bear, bee.

Who? What?

Youth Fungus
Monster Face
Child Violet
Slob Moss
Swallow Kovyl

What are the names of the first and second columns?

Remember: All nouns are divided into inanimate and animate. Animated nouns designate persons and animals and answer the question WHO?
Inanimate nouns denote objects, plants, phenomena of inanimate nature. They answer the question WHAT?
- Do you think the names are animate or inanimate?
- Name the heroes of literary works (stories, novels, etc.) that you read.
– Do you think that THESE proper names are animate and inanimate nouns?
- What category of nouns (animate or inanimate) do the names of the heroes of Russian fairy tales (Baba Yaga, Koschey the Immortal, Serpent Gorynych) belong to?

7. Physical education

Stand up together - one, two, three -
We are rich now.
We put our hands to our eyes,
Let's spread our strong legs,
Turning to the right
Let's look majestic.
And to the left too
Look from under the palms
And to the right. And further
Over the left shoulder.
Bowed left, right
Turns out to fame!

– Do you think it is easy to distinguish between animate and inanimate nouns? Not always, you can be wrong. Let's look at this with specific examples.

1. There are no chanterelles in our zoo. (R.P.)
2. Watched funny foxes. (V.P.)
3. Picked up a basket of chanterelles. (R.P.)
4. Collected red chanterelles. (V.P.)

Conclusion:

The coincidence of plural endings in Gen. and Vin. case is a sign of animation, and a mismatch is a sign of inanimateness.
How do we recognize animate and inanimate nouns?

"Knot for memory"

Remember: You need to know the gender of nouns in order to:

1. Correctly ask them a question (WHO or WHAT?).
2. Correctly form the accusative form of masculine and neuter nouns in the singular and all genders in the plural.

Exercise: Put these nouns in the form Win. singular and plural cases: zoo, forest, deer, flock, dream, sparrow.

8. Work with the textbook

We will read additional material in the textbook “Take note”, p. 263 (textbook edited by M.M. Razumovskaya.)

What have you learned from the textbook material? (Mostly masculine and feminine nouns are animate. There are very few animate neuter nouns: child, animal, mammal, insect, monster, creature, monster. Nouns denoting plurality and answering the question what? are inanimate.)

- Orally compose sentences with such nouns ... (My family consists of three people.) See exercise 673
- The division of nouns into animate and inanimate does not always coincide with the scientific understanding of wildlife.
What category of nouns do they belong to?

1. Names of figures in checkers, chess ( king, pawn, knight, queen)?
2. ... names of objects of religious worship (God , angel, saint, brownie, water, goblin)?
3. ... the names of microorganisms in professional speech ( infusoria-shoe, microbe)?
4. ... designations (characteristics) of people through the names of objects ( rag, mattress, stump and etc.)
5. ... designations of the dead ( dead man, corpse).

- In all cases, we are talking about animated objects, except for the word corpse!
- Working with text.

Nature is a magician. She not only gives us joy, but also creates amazing things. You just have to bend down and look for them.

Assignment to the text.

1. Explain punctuation marks.
2. Let's name "erroneously dangerous" places in words.

What artistic technique does the author use? ? (Incarnation. The author compares nature with a living wizard.)
- Which useful advice can be extracted from this text? (The author reminds us that we need to take care of all living things that surround us. We must be attentive and observant of the world around us.)

"Take note!"

V fiction and in folklore the PERSONALIZATION TECHNIQUE is widely used - images of inanimate beings as living. Remember that in fairy tales, not only a goldfish, a clatter fly, but also a mirror can speak. Examples: “And the forest stands for itself, smiles”, “Already the sky was breathing in autumn”, “a sensitive reed is dozing”.

- Verbally perform ex. 675.

Let's solve a grammar problem.

"Find the third extra."

1. Cabbage, newspaper, driver.
2. Plant, offer, doll.
3. Ace, jack, kids.
4. Water, water, driver.

Slide show. Frames are shown, which depict objects of the living and non-living world. ( Annex 1 )

9. Let's summarize the lesson

- Let's summarize our linguistic research (i.e. scientific study) of the topic. Let's make a scientific conclusion based on the key words.

The environment is rich and varied. We are surrounded by living and non-living things. The animate are those who have the ability to move. They answer the question who?
Plants, natural phenomena - this is an inanimate world. These are inanimate nouns, they answer the question what?

What have you learned:

1. We learned that animate nouns answer the question WHO? And inanimate - to the question WHAT?
2. Matching plural endings in Gen. and Vin. cases is a sign of animation, and a mismatch is a sign of inanimateness.
3. The words doll, dead man, dead man, ace, jack, trump card refer to animated nouns.
4. Inanimate nouns include the words: people, crowd, platoon, flock, group, youth, peasantry, children, etc. All of them denote plurality.

10. Homework. Add text.

Why do you need to know this?
- The absent-minded from Basseinaya Street does not understand why it is so important to know whether this noun is animate or not, and does not want to learn the rules.
Explain to HIM, please, why this is necessary.

11. Grading

Bibliography:

1. Sergey Yesenin. Poems. Moscow. Publishing house "Soviet Russia", 1985
2. M.S. Lapatukhin, E.V. Skorlupovskaya, G. P. Snetova. School explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. M.: Enlightenment, 1998, p.179.
3. OK. Skorokhod. Vocabulary work in the lessons of the Russian language. Moscow: Enlightenment, 1990
4. Russian language. Grade 5 Textbook for educational institutions. Edited by Dr. pedagogical sciences M. M. Razumovskaya, Doctor of Philology P. A. Lekant. M.: Bustard, 1998, pp. 263-266.

How to determine whether a noun is animate or inanimate?

An animate noun is one that has a living component.

For example: a person, a hare, a grasshopper, etc. (hence the question is who?).

An inanimate noun is one that is not endowed with a living component.

For example: table, house, car, etc. (hence the question is what?).

In general, we intuitively, knowing the language well, can determine most words without rules. But, nevertheless, there is such a rule that will help to distinguish an animate noun from an inanimate one. So, for example, let's take two words for comparison: a corpse and a dead man. They need to be put in the plural first in the genitive case, and then in the accusative case. In the event that they are the same, then the word is animated. R.p. dead, corpses. V.p. dead, corpses. It turns out that dead man - animated, but corpse - 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.

For students, this is often a big problem. 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 man, a fox, a dog; what - flower, forest, sky. All nouns answering the question who are animate, and the question what are inanimate.

V primary school children are taught a lightweight rule: What question does this noun answer? On who or what?

And children intuitively divide everything around into animate and inanimate.

But in the older grades comes the understanding that there are more difficult cases this rule. Do plants have a soul: a flower, a bush, a tree? After all, they breathe, grow, get sick like us, die ..., i.e. alive, and why then they are inanimate? But the soul has already left the dead man, but is he still animated?

That's when the genitive and accusative case helps in the plural. If the words match, we have an animated object in front of us.

To determine whether a noun is animate or inanimate, it is enough to ask a question. Answers the question Who? - animate noun, answers the question What? - noun inanimate. For instance,

dog - Who?

column - What?

Questions will help us with this. Animated nouns include all living beings and they are asked the question who? . For example, a fox, a man, a hedgehog, a 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 we were driven in from school is to ask a question for a word, and if it turns out that the word answers who? we attribute it to the living (animate), and if on what? to non-living (inanimate). Later, such a rule was added - you need to take a noun and present it as a genitive case in the plural, and then compare it with the accusative case, also in the plural. If in front of you the same word in form means it is animated. If not, on the contrary, inanimate.

Nouns dead man, dead man are animate, and corpse - inanimate. How to define it? And you just need to put the noun in the form of the genitive plural and the accusative plural. If these forms match, we have an animated noun.

No dead = see dead

No dead = see dead

But there are no corpses, I see corpses.

Using this formula Rod.p.pl.ch. = Win.p. pl. h., we will accurately define an animate or inanimate noun. Inanimate nouns have the same forms of the nominative plural and the accusative plural.

I.p. what? chamomile = win.p. see what? chamomile

On the issue. Animate answers the question who, inanimate what

We were taught very simply in school to distinguish between animate and inanimate nouns from each other. All living things are animate nouns (for example, a person, an astronaut, a cat, a dog, a professor, and so on). These nouns answer the question WHO? .

And all non-living things are inanimate nouns (for example, a table, a chair, an apple, weather, and so on). These nouns answer the question What? .

Andrei NARUSHEVICH,
Taganrog

A few questions about the animate/inanimate category

The category of animate/inanimate nouns is little mentioned in school textbooks of the Russian language, but meanwhile it is one of the most interesting linguistic phenomena. Let's try to answer some questions that arise when considering this category.

What is "animate" and "inanimate" object?

It is known that the assignment of nouns to animate or inanimate is associated with the division of the surrounding world by a person into living and inanimate. However, V.V. Vinogradov noted the "mythology" of the terms "animate / inanimate", since textbook examples ( plant, deceased, doll, people and etc . ) demonstrate the discrepancy between the objective status of the subject and its comprehension in the language. There is an opinion that animate in grammar means “active” objects identified with a person, which are opposed to “inactive” and, therefore, inanimate objects 1 . At the same time, the attribute "activity/inactivity" does not fully explain why the words dead man, deceased belong to the animate, and people, crowd, flock- to inanimate nouns. Apparently, the category of animateness/inanimateness reflects everyday ideas about the living and the inanimate, i.e. a subjective assessment by a person of objects of reality, which does not always coincide with the scientific picture of the world.

Of course, the “standard” of a living being for a person has always been a person himself. Any language keeps "petrified" metaphors showing that people from ancient times saw the world as anthropomorphic, described it in their own image and likeness: the sun came out, the river runs, the leg of the chair, the spout of the kettle and so on . Let us recall at least anthropomorphic gods or characters of lower mythology. At the same time, life forms different from humans: some invertebrates, microorganisms, etc. - are often ambiguously evaluated by ordinary native speakers. For example, as the survey of informants showed, to nouns sea ​​anemone, amoeba, ciliate, polyp, microbe, virus question asked regularly what? Obviously, in addition to signs of visible activity (movement, development, reproduction, etc.), the ordinary concept of a living being (“animate” object) also includes a sign of similarity to a person.

How is the animateness/inanimateness of a noun determined?

Traditionally, as a grammatical indicator of animation, the coincidence of the accusative and genitive forms in the singular and plural of masculine nouns is considered. (I see a person, a deer, friends, bears) and only in the plural of feminine and neuter nouns (I see women, animals). Accordingly, grammatical inanimateness is manifested in the coincidence of the accusative and nominative cases. (I see a house, tables, streets, fields).

It should be noted that the grammatical opposition of nouns by animateness/inanimateness is expressed not only in the form of a specific case: the difference in the forms of nouns in the accusative case leads to a difference and opposition of paradigms in general. For masculine nouns, on the basis of animateness/inanimateness, singular and plural paradigms are distinguished, and for feminine and neuter nouns, only plural paradigms, that is, each of the animate/inanimate categories has its own declension paradigm.

There is an opinion that the main means of expressing the animateness / inanimateness of a noun is the form of the accusative case of the agreed definition: “It is by the form of the agreed definition in the accusative case that the animateness or inanimateness of the noun in the linguistic sense of the word is determined” 2 . Obviously, this provision requires clarification: the form of the adjectival word should be considered as the main means of expressing animateness/inanimateness only in relation to the use of invariable words: see beautiful cockatoo(V. = R.); see beautiful coat(V. = I.). In other cases, the form of the adjectival word duplicates the meanings of case, number, gender, and animateness/inanimateness of the main word - the noun.

The coincidence of case forms (V. = I. or V. = R.) in the declension of allied words of the adjective structure (in a subordinate clause) can also serve as an indicator of animation / inanimateness: These were books, which I knew(V. = I.); These were writers, which I knew(B. = R.).

Feminine and neuter nouns, which appear only in the singular form (singularia tantum), do not have a grammatical indicator of animation / inanimateness, since these words have an independent form of the accusative case, which does not coincide with either the nominative or the genitive: catch swordfish, study cybernetics etc. Thus, grammatically, the animateness/inanimateness of these nouns is not determined.

What is the fluctuating grammatical indicator of animateness/inanimateness?

Let's look at a few examples: And from now on the embryo is called fruit(I. Akimushkin) - I AM saw in a flask embryo, swirling like a French horn(Yu. Arabov); science microbiology studies various bacteria and viruses(N. Goldin) - Bacteria can be identified by morphological properties(A. Bykov); Marrying a woman blows away with myself their dolls (I. Solomonik) - Before going to bed, you played again in my office. Feeding dolls (L. Panteleev). As you can see, the same words behave either as animate or as inanimate.

Variative forms of the accusative case of nouns germ, embryo, microbe, bacterium etc. are explained by the ambiguity of the assessment of the corresponding objects by the speakers. Usually these forms of life are inaccessible to observation, which causes the fluctuation of native speakers in attributing these objects to living or non-living.

Dolls are involved in the game (as well as magical) human activities. In children's games, dolls function like living beings. Dolls are bathed, combed, put to bed, that is, actions are performed with them, which in other conditions are aimed only at living beings. Game activity creates conditions for understanding dolls as objects that are functionally similar to the living (functionally animated). At the same time, dolls remain inanimate objects. The combination of signs of living and non-living causes fluctuations in the grammatical indicator of animation / inanimateness. Similar features are revealed by some names of game pieces: queen, ace, pawn and etc.: I AM took from the table, as I remember now, ace of hearts and threw it up(M. Lermontov) - By placing the cards take all the aces lying on top of the packs(Z. Ivanova).

Some animals have long been considered by people mainly as food (cf. the modern word seafood). For example, lobsters, oysters, lobsters, as V.A. Itskovich, “are not found in Central Russia in a living form and became known first as exotic dishes and only later as living beings” 2 . Apparently, nouns oyster, squid, lobster and others were originally inclined only according to the inanimate type, the appearance of the accusative form, coinciding with the genitive form, is associated with the development of the meaning of ‘living being’, which is later in relation to the meaning of ‘food’: Boil squids, cut into noodles(N. Golosova) - Squids are boiled in salt water(N. Akimova); Local fishermen brought fish in the city: in spring - small anchovy, in summer - ugly flounder, in autumn - mackerel, fat mullet and oysters (A. Kuprin) - And are you eat oysters? (A. Chekhov) Interestingly, in the meaning of ‘food’, not only the names of exotic animals acquire grammatical inanimateness: fatty herring Okay soak, cut into fillets(M. Peterson); Processed pike perch cut into pieces(V.Turygin).

Thus, the fluctuation of the grammatical indicator of animateness/inanimateness is caused by the peculiarities of semantics, as well as the ambiguity of assessing the subject as living or inanimate.

Why nouns dead man and Deceased animated?

Human understanding of living nature is inextricably linked with the concept of death. ‘Dead’ is always ‘being alive’, having previously possessed life. In addition, it is no coincidence that folklore is replete with stories about the living dead. Until now, you can find echoes of the ideas of our distant ancestors that some special form of life is inherent in the dead, as if dead man able to hear, think, remember.

Nouns dead person, deceased, departed and others denote dead people, i.e. possess the attribute ‘human’ – the most important for the meaning of animation. And here is the word dead body means ‘the body of a dead organism’, i.e. only the material shell (cf. expressions corpses of the dead, corpses of the dead). Apparently, this semantic difference explains the grammatical animation of the names of the dead and the inanimateness of the word corpse: How strong are the stones all in their callings, - When the dead covered watch over (K.Sluchevsky); A convene I am the ones I work for the dead Orthodox... - Cross yourself! call the dead for housewarming(A. Pushkin); Nastya only once, long before the war, had to see a drowned man (V.Rasputin); Teamsters throwing corpses on a sled with a wooden clatter(A. Solzhenitsyn).

Why words people, crowd, flock inanimate?

The listed words denote a certain set of living objects - people or animals. This set is understood as a single whole - a set of living beings, and this set is not equal to the simple sum of its components. For example, the attribute "set", expressing the idea of ​​quantity in the concept of "people", in the concept of "people" is combined with the idea of ​​quality - "the totality of people in their specific interactions". Thus, the common feature of the words of this group - 'collection' - turns out to be the leading one and forms the meaning of inanimateness. V.G. Gak connects the nouns under consideration with the category of a collective (quasi-animate) object: “Between animate and inanimate objects there is an intermediate group of collective objects consisting of animate units. Words denoting such objects ... can be conditionally called quasi-animate” 4 . The grammatical generalization of semantics is expressed in the morphological indicator of inanimateness (V. = I.): I see crowds, nations, flocks, herds etc.

Why are nouns denoting plants inanimate?

In the language picture plant world, which are qualitatively different life form than animals and humans are not perceived as living organisms. The ability to move independently has long been recognized as one of the characteristic features alive. As Aristotle pointed out, “the beginning of movement arises in us from ourselves, even if nothing has set us in motion from outside. We do not see anything like this in inanimate [bodies], but they are always set in motion by something external, and a living being, as we say, moves itself” 5 . The inability of plant organisms to move independently, the lack of visible motor activity and a number of other signs lead to the fact that in the mind of a person, plants, together with objects of inorganic nature, constitute an immovable, static part of the world. This is indicated by V.A. Itskovich: "... a living object is understood as an object capable of independent movement, so that plants are inanimate objects" 6 . Thus, the predominance of signs of the inanimate in everyday concepts of plants, as well as the nature labor activity man, who has long been widely using plants for a variety of purposes, led to the fact that plants in most cases are perceived as inanimate objects.

How does the meaning of animate/inanimate manifest itself?

The attribute ‘living’ (‘non-living’) can be manifested not only in the meanings of nouns, but also in the meanings of indicative words. Indeed, the analysis showed that not only nouns, but also verbs and adjectives have the meaning of animateness/inanimateness in the language. This is manifested in the fact that verbs and adjectives can denote signs of objects that characterize these objects as living or inanimate. For example, the meaning of the verb read indicates that the action is performed by a person (person) and is directed to an inanimate object: read a book, newspaper, ad etc.

The existence of such semantic connections made it possible to build a classification of Russian verbs according to the presence in their meanings of an indication of the animateness / inanimateness of the subject and object of the action. This classification was developed by Prof. L.D. Chesnokova 7 . So, all the verbs of the Russian language can be divided into the following groups:

1) animated-marked - denote actions performed by living beings: breathe, dream, sleep and etc;
2) inanimate-marked - denote actions performed by inanimate objects: burn, crumble, evaporate and etc . ;
3) neutral - denote actions common to living and inanimate objects: stand, lie, fall and etc .

A similar division is observed among adjectives:

1) animate-marked adjectives denote signs of living beings: external signs, temperament, volitional qualities, emotional, intellectual and physical properties, etc.: lean, long-legged, lop-eared, phlegmatic, quick-tempered, kind, evil, intelligent, persistent, blind, talented etc.;
2) inanimate-marked adjectives denote signs of inanimate objects (phenomena) - spatial and temporal qualities and relationships, the properties and qualities of things perceived by the senses, signs in relation to the material of manufacture, etc.: liquid, rare, deep, spicy, sour, bitter, strong, thick, iron, glassy, ​​woody, marshy etc.;
3) neutral adjectives denote features that can be attributed to both living beings and inanimate objects - the most common spatial characteristics, color characteristics, evaluative characteristics, belonging, etc.: left, right, tall, small, heavy, white, red, good, mother's.

Thus, the animate/inanimate meaning of a noun is usually supported by animate or inanimate marked context elements. Otherwise, update figurative meanings, which provides semantic agreement of words.

So, for animate nouns in combination with inanimate-marked verbs, the metonymic transfer ‘work - author’ is most typical: Then the worker started read Brockhaus (M. Bulgakov); But anyway Doderlein necessary view... Here it is - Doderlein. "Operational Obstetrics"(M. Bulgakov).

For inanimate nouns, names can be transferred from inanimate objects to living ones: hungry bursa prowled through the streets of Kiev and forced everyone to be careful(N. Gogol); Me saw off all warm and loving camera in full force, without party distinctions(E. Ginzburg); Prison doesn't like brave men(V.Shalamov). There are also many cases of occasional metonymic transfer affecting the semantics of the animate/inanimate substantive: - Quickly! To the phone! A tube vibrated, fluttered, choked with anxiety, did not dare to speak fatal question. Only repeated with an interrogative intonation: “Is that you? It's you?"(E. Ginzburg); Once in the hospital I heard: “From the seventh ward nasal furuncle discharged» (V. Levy).

The semantic discrepancy in the aspect of animateness/inanimateness can be overcome due to the metaphorical transfer of the meaning of the noun. An example is the combination of inanimate nouns with animate-marked words, creating artistic technique personifications (personifications): sitting on the forehead of a short man, Pimple with envy glanced on foreheads tall people and thought: “I wish I were in such a position!”(F.Krivin).

So, let's sum up. Animate and inanimate nouns designate not so much living and inanimate objects as objects, understood as both living and non-living. In addition, between the members of the opposition ‘thinkable as living / thinkable as inanimate’, there are a number of intermediate formations that combine the signs of the living and the inanimate, the presence of which is due to the associative mechanisms of thinking and other features of human mental activity, for example:

1) conceivable as having been alive ( dead person, deceased, departed and etc.);
2) mentally represented alive ( mermaid, goblin, cyborg and etc.);
3) conceivable as a semblance of a living ( doll, baby doll, jack, queen and etc.);
4) conceivable as a set of living things ( people, crowd, flock, herd and etc.).

Thus, the category of animate/inanimate nouns, like some other linguistic phenomena, reflects the anthropocentric setting of human thinking, and the discrepancy between the linguistic picture of the world and scientific understanding is another manifestation of the subjective factor in the language.

1 Stepanov Y.S.. Fundamentals of general linguistics. M., 1975. S. 130.

2 Miloslavsky I.G. Morphological categories of the modern Russian language. M.: Nauka, 1981. S. 54.

3 Itskovich V.A.. Animate and inanimate nouns in the modern Russian language (norm and tendency) // Questions of Linguistics. 1980, No. 4. S. 85.

4 Gak V.G. Verbal compatibility and its reflection in the dictionaries of verb control // Lexicology and lexicography / Pod. ed. V.V. Morkovkin. M.: Russk. yaz., 1972. S. 68.

5 Aristotle. Physics // Works in 4 vols. M., 1981. T. 3. S. 226.

6 Itskovich V.A.. Animate and inanimate nouns in the modern Russian language (norm and tendency) // Questions of Linguistics. 1980, No. 4. S. 96.

7 Chesnokova L.D.. Pronouns who, what and the semantics of animation - inanimateness in the modern Russian language // Russian Linguistics. Kiev: Higher. school, 1987. Issue. 14. P. 69–75.

Word check:

Letterer

Grammar

Study microbes or microbes? Animation of nouns

1. What is the animation of nouns?

“The category of animate-inanimate nouns is a grammatical expression of the opposition of the living and the inanimate, but understood not in scientific terms (in the sense of living and inanimate nature, that is, the organic and inorganic world), but in terms of everyday life.”

(Eskova N.A. A Brief Dictionary of the Difficulties of the Russian Language. 6th ed., Rev. M., 2008.)

2. How is animation expressed?

“Firstly, animateness-inanimateness is expressed by the endings of the noun itself:

1) animated nouns have the same accusative and genitive plural endings, and for masculine nouns this extends to the singular;

2) inanimate nouns have the same accusative and nominative plural endings, and for masculine nouns this extends to the singular.

Animation has and extraverbal expression: the ending of an adjective or participle agreed with the noun in the accusative case differs depending on the animateness or inanimateness of the noun, cf .: (I see) new- s students, but new- s tables».

(Litnevskaya E.I. Russian language. A short theoretical course for schoolchildren. M., 2006.)

3. When Do Hesitation and Variations Occur?

“All fluctuations between grammatical animation and inanimateness (found in the variative formation of the accusative case) are explained precisely by the ambiguity in assessing the object as living or inanimate.

Some of these cases refer to those objects whose belonging to animals or plants may seem non-obvious: amoeba, bacteria, bacilli, vibrios, viruses, ciliates, microbes and etc. ( study microbes and microbes).

The second typical case is the name of those living beings that we tend to perceive primarily as food: squid, shrimps, mussels, lobsters, sea cucumbers, oysters and etc. ( eat oysters and oysters).

Another clear case is the names of inanimate objects imitating living beings: kite (paper), doll, puppet, robot, sphinx and etc. ( make dolls and dolls)».

(Eskova N. A. A Brief Dictionary of the Difficulties of the Russian Language. 6th ed., edited by M., 2008.)

Seafood should be mentioned separately. Words like squid, crabs, shrimps, mussels, lobsters, oysters, according to most reference books, can be used as inanimate and animate nouns when talking about food, but only as animate when talking about living beings. However, in the "Grammar Dictionary of the Russian Language" by A. A. Zaliznyak, the words squid, crab, mussel, lobster given as animate in all senses (we reproduce the recommendations of this dictionary below in the answers of the "Information Bureau") .

Titles canned fishsprats, gobies, sprats, sardines(in plural) are used as inanimate nouns: open sprats, eat sprats, love sardines.

QUESTIONS FROM THE "INFORMATION OFFICE"

Anchovy

How to: cook anchovy or cook anchovy?

Answer: Noun anchovy in the meaning of "food" inanimate. Right: cook anchovy, pickle anchovies. However, it is true to say about a living being: catch anchovy, breed anchovies.

Daughter

Would the phrase be correct? as well as Gazprom decided to support its subsidiaries if the word daughter used in the sense of "subsidiary"?

Answer: Word daughters in the meaning of "subsidiaries" is used as an inanimate noun: Gazprom decided to support its subsidiaries.

Bunny

How to: catch a sunbeam or sunshine bunny?

Answer: Both options are correct. "Grammar dictionary of the Russian language" A. A. Zaliznyak indicates that the word bunny in the meaning of "light spot" can be used both as animated and as

germ

Is the word animated germ?

Answer:Germ - inanimate noun.

Serpent

At school, the task was to make a sentence out of words. The child made: The boy bought a kite. The teacher corrected The boy bought Kite . Who is right?

Answer: According to dictionaries, the word snake in all meanings The children flew a kite.

Squid

How to: boil squid or cook squid?

Answer:Squid - cook squid.

Goat

How to: slaughter the goat or goat(about playing dominoes) jump over the goat or through the goat?

Answer: Noun goat can be used both animate and inanimate, depending on the meaning. In the meaning "animal" as well as " card game or playing dominoes" is an animated noun: feed the goat, slaughter the goat, play the goat. In the meaning of "sports equipment" options are possible: jump over the goat and jump over the goat. See: Zaliznyak A. A. Grammatical Dictionary of the Russian Language. 5th ed., rev. M., 2008.

Crab

How to: export crabs or crabs?

Answer:Crab - animate noun. Right: export crabs.

Shrimp

How to: ate shrimp or eat shrimp?

Answer: Noun shrimp is animate when it comes to a live shrimp ( I saw tiny brown shrimps in the aquarium). If it's about shrimp as food, options are possible: the word shrimp in this case, it can also be declined as an animated noun ( ate with pleasure tiny brown shrimp), and as an inanimate noun ( ate tiny brown shrimp with pleasure).

Doll

How to: love dolls or love dolls?

Answer: doll in the meaning of "toy" can be used both as an animate and as an inanimate noun. But doll in the meaning of "man" (a doll can be called a soulless and empty person, as well as a person blindly acting at the will of another) - only animated.

Face

How to say: we invite interested persons or stakeholders?

Answer: Word face in the meaning of "man" - an animated noun. Right: we invite all interested persons. N. A. Eskova writes: Noun face in the meaning of "man" behaves like an animate, but in combination actor fluctuates between animate and inanimate (cf. character).

Salmon

How to: salmon or get salmon?

Answer:Salmon - animate noun . Right: harvest salmon.

Maksim

How to correctly about the machine gun: Ribbons inserted into "maxima" or in maxim?

Answer: Word " Maksim" in the meaning of "machine gun" is declined as an inanimate noun. This means that the form of the accusative case will be the same as the form of the nominative case. Therefore it is true: ribbons are inserted into the "maxim".

Mussel

Who do I eat: mussels or mussel?

Answer: Mussel- animated noun eat mussels. See: Zaliznyak A. A. Grammatical Dictionary of the Russian Language. 5th ed., rev. M., 2008.

Microbe

How to say: studying microbes or studying microbes?

Answer: Word microbe can be used both as an animate and inanimate noun. Both options are correct.

Moskvich

What is correct when it comes to cars: attempt on "Muscovites" or assassination attempt on "Muscovites"?

Answer:Moskvich in the meaning of "car" - an inanimate noun: attempt on Muscovites.

An object

How to: or consider pathogenic biological objects?

Answer: Word an object is not animated. Right: consider pathogenic biological objects.

Oscar

How to: The film won an Oscar or Did the movie win an Oscar?

How to write in an essay: introduce a comic character or introduce a comic character?

Answer: Options are possible. Here is what N. A. Eskova writes about the word character: Word character simultaneously names a person and expresses a certain literary concept. hesitation depicts a character, characters and depicts a character, characters obviously connected with the fact that it is the writer (or the speaker) who wants to emphasize (Eskova N.A. A Brief Dictionary of the Difficulties of the Russian Language. 6th ed., Rev. M., 2008).

Parsley

How to write: make parsley or parsley(about dolls)?

Answer: Noun parsley used as animate in the meaning of "doll; theatrical character" (correct: make parsley). In the meanings of "puppet theater; ridiculous thing" and "plant" parsley - inanimate noun.

Policeman

How to: drive through a speed bump or through a speed bump(about a traffic obstacle)?

Answer: Both options are possible (cf. goat as the name of a sports equipment can also be used both animate and inanimate) .

Ghost

What is the best way to write: believe in ghosts or believe in ghosts?

Answer: According to the "Grammar Dictionary of the Russian Language" by A. A. Zaliznyak ghost may be animate or inanimate.

Prototype

Correct way: created prototypes or created prototypes?

Answer:Prototype - inanimate noun in meaning. "original pattern, prototype of smth.": I see a prototype of a new weapon. In the meaning "a person who served as an original for the author to create a literary image" prototype can be used as an animated noun.

Robot

How to: or use robots for body welding?

Answer: Word robot- an animated noun. Right: use robots for body welding.

snowman

How to: The kids made a snowman or Did the kids make a snowman?

Answer:snowman- an animated noun. Right: The kids made a snowman.

Subject

What about the subject? I see a suspicious person or see a suspicious person?

Answer:"Grammar dictionary of the Russian language" A. A. Zaliznyak indicates that the word subject(in philosophy, in law) can be used both as an animate and as an inanimate noun. When used in other meanings: subject(in logic, in grammar) - only inanimate, subject(personality, person) - only animated.

Creature

Answer: According to the "Grammar Dictionary of the Russian Language" by A. A. Zaliznyak, the word creature in the meaning of "something alive" can be used both as an animate and as an inanimate noun.

Talent

How does the word talent? As an animate or inanimate noun?

Answer:Talent - inanimate noun (including about a person). Right: He came to support folk talents.

Ace

How to: pull an ace or pull an ace(in a card game)?

Answer: Word ace– animate noun in the meanings " playing card" and "important person". Correct: pull an ace, turn into a financial ace.

Tuna

How to: chop the tuna or cut tuna?

Answer:Tuna- animate noun, correct: chop the tuna.

Snail

Is a snail an animated noun?

Answer: Yes, even when it comes to snails used for food. Right: eat snails.

Oyster

How they behave oysters? As animate nouns or as inanimate ones?

Answer: Noun oyster is animate when it comes to a live oyster ( breed oysters). If it's an oyster as food, options are possible: buy oysters and buy oysters.

Embryo

How to: carries an embryo or an embryo?

Answer:Embryo - inanimate noun. Right: bears an embryo.

References:

Belchikov Yu. A. Practical stylistics of the modern Russian language. 2nd ed., M., 2012.

Graudina L. K., Itskovich V. A., Katlinskaya L. P. Dictionary of grammatical variants of the Russian language. -3rd ed., ster. M., 2008.

Zaliznyak A. A. Grammatical Dictionary of the Russian Language. 5th ed., rev. M., 2008.

Eskova N. A. Brief dictionary of difficulties in the Russian language. 6th ed., rev. M., 2008.

Russian Grammar / Ed. N. Yu. Shvedova. M., 1980.