It seems that it is easy to distinguish between animate and inanimate objects to the indecent: it's like a game of life and inanimate. But those who are guided by this principle are very much mistaken. Animation, as well as inanimateness, respectively, is a separate category in the characteristic that has nothing to do with the external features of some object. Here's how to explain the fact that, according to the rules, the word "corpse" is considered inanimate, and "dead" - animated? Act randomly? In no case! We'll figure out.

For the little ones

Let's start with the very basics. Animate and inanimate objects answer different questions - "who" and "what" respectively. It can be said that the formulation of the question is the most primitive, albeit very unreliable, way of defining this category. Usually children are introduced to him in the first or second grade. In order to practice this method, you can fill in the gaps with the students in the following text:

« In sleepy oblivion flows great (what?). Around (what?) and (what?). (Who?) Slowly moved the skis, shook off (what?) Hats from the ears. (Who?) quickly made a hole, and began (what?). Soon he pulled out a huge (who?). His mirror (what?) shone brightly in the sun". Words to be inserted: ice, scales, fisherman, frost, river, carp, snow, fishing. One word is repeated twice.

Grammar explanation

But it's worth moving on, right? How to determine whether an animate or inanimate object is based on rules, and not on intuition? The difference between these two categories lies in the different case forms of the nouns. Inanimate nouns have the same nominative and plural form, while animate nouns have the same genitive and accusative in the same number. Of course, understand concrete examples it will be much easier.

We take the noun cat". We put it in the plural "cats" and begin to decline: nominative - " cats”, genitive - “ cats", accusative -" cats"- as you can see, the forms of the genitive and accusative cases coincide. Whereas for the noun table”, which, to define this category, becomes “ tables» when declining « tables-tables-tables» the accusative and

Thus, the rule allows to separate an animate and inanimate object only when they are put in the plural and the subsequent declension. And then, already by the coincidence of case forms, this category is determined.

Exceptions

But, as you know, there are very few rules in Russian that do not have any exceptions. So, it is sometimes possible to separate animate and inanimate objects logically. Yes, all living beings will be animate, but at the same time, mythical creatures belong to the same category ( goblin-goblin-goblin-goblin) and toy names ( matryoshka-matryoshka-matryoshka) - here you can still find a logical explanation. As well as card and chess suit-pieces ( spades, spades, pawns, pawns, pawns), which even in their forms do not fit into this category.

Go ahead. Inanimate nouns, in turn, include large groups of people ( crowd-crowd-crowd) and some living organisms ( embryos-embryos-embryos; germs-germs-microbes) - it is impossible to explain this phenomenon, you just have to accept and remember.

More difficulties

I would also like to add that animate and inanimate objects in the grammatical sense have their own characteristics. So, for example, for animate masculine nouns, the forms of the genitive and accusative cases coincide and in the singular: Anton-Anton-Anton, accountant-accountant-accountant, however, this phenomenon is observed only in nouns of the second declension (compare: Dima-Dima-Dima, although it is also an animate masculine noun). So, in principle, this pattern can be used as another simple, albeit not very well-known, way to determine the category of animation in nouns.

I want to confuse

It is worth noting that in Russian there is an image of an inanimate object as animated. This is usually associated with the use of the word as an analogy to a living being: There is a mattress in the barn - Yes, the mattress is weak-willed! or Great and mighty is the Russian language! - This language (= captive) will tell us everything.

Exactly the same phenomenon occurs with the use of animate nouns as inanimate ones: Soars in the blue sky Kite; The fighter went down. Here the category of animation and inanimateness is determined based on the semantic content of the noun.

It is worth noting that, despite all the requirements of teachers to use the rules, most students continue to rely on intuition. As the above examples show, inner flair is not always reliable assistant in matters of philology. We can definitely say that the names of professions, the names of people by family affiliation, nationality and other groups will always be animated, and the names of animals can also be included here. By the way, among animate nouns, according to some researchers, there are only masculine and feminine words, while the neuter gender is already inanimate, like all names of objects of nature and other objects.

Practice for the little ones

Now that we have figured out how to distinguish one category of nouns from another, it is worth summarizing all of the above. Animate and inanimate objects for preschoolers, who still have no idea what cases are, differ in terms of “who” and “what”, respectively. For practice, you can play with the kids in “living-non-living”, where the word is called, and the child must determine what this object is.

Or one more interesting task for junior schoolchildren- offer a number of animate nouns that can be turned into inanimate ones by replacing one letter: fox (linden), goat (spit), heron (drop).

I would like to finish the article on how to distinguish between animate and inanimate objects by saying that, no matter how simple this topic may seem, it is better not to tempt fate and not act at random, trusting intuition. A minute spent checking the category of a noun can sometimes change the way you think about it. So spare no effort and practice in the great and mighty Russian language.

The purpose of the lesson:

• to form knowledge and skills to distinguish animate nouns from inanimate ones,
• to study the features of the declension of animate and inanimate nouns,
• remember words that are inanimate in Russian.

Lesson type:

Educational and educational.

Nouns according to the type of objects designated are divided into two categories: animated nouns and inanimate nouns.

Animated nouns necessary to refer to all living beings - people, birds, animals, insects and fish. Animated nouns answer the question " Who?"- mother, father, dog, cuckoo, crucian carp, caterpillar, mosquito.

Primarily animate nouns there are male and female(child, girl, soldier, fish, frog, etc.).

Animated nouns are rare neuter(animal, child, insect, monster, monster, etc.)

The exercise: Listen to "The Waterman's Song". Name the animate nouns you heard in the song.

Since in grammar and in scientific representation, living and dead nature criteria for animateness or inanimateness differ, animate nouns also include:

• names or nicknames of fairy-tale characters, myths and legends (Baba Yaga, Koschei, ghost, Pegasus, centaur, cyclops, etc.)

• names of children's toys (bear, car, doll, tumbler)

• titles card suits figures (king, jack, queen)
• names of chess pieces (queen, bishop, round, knight, etc.)

The exercise: watch the sound filmstrip "Fly-Tsokotuha", pay attention to what letter the names of the characters of the Fly-Tsokotuha, Grandmother-Bee, etc. are written. Name all the participants in the tale whose name is capitalized, explain why.

Inanimate nouns are necessary to designate all objects and phenomena occurring in reality that do not belong to living nature. Inanimate nouns answer the question " What?- snow, rain, door, darkness, laughter.

Also inanimate are the collective names of many living beings: army, people, herd, flock, swarm and names plants: chamomile, cornflower, oak, coltsfoot, aspen, boletus.

You should know that when writing the names of plants, words that are quite familiar to living beings are used - plants "breathe", "bloom", "reproduce", "are born" and "die", but do not move.

However, attention should be paid to cases in which it is necessary to clearly understand the differences between animate and inanimate nouns. For example, nouns detachment, group, class, (denoting a collection of people), but nevertheless are inanimate nouns. Either the noun microbe - in biology, a microbe is creature, but in grammar, microbe is an inanimate noun.

Activity: Listen to "Song of the Pirates". What type of nouns do the words "pirates", "dearlings", "robbers", "murderers" belong to? name similar words belonging to this category.

Features of the declension of animate and inanimate nouns

To divide nouns grammatically into animate and inanimate, it is necessary to take into account the features declination :

Form accusative matches the genitive form:

• in animate nouns plural.

Example: Genitive case (plural) - no (who?) - guys, queens, crucians, girls, forty, dolls = Accusative case (plural) - I see (who?) - guys, queens, crucians, girls, forty, dolls) .

Example: Accusative case (singular) - saw (whom?) the dead man = Genitive case (singular) - there was no (whom?) dead man.

Accusative case (singular) - I see (who?) father = Genitive case (singular) - there was no (who?) father ..

The form of the accusative case is the same as the form of the nominative case:

• plural inanimate nouns.

Example: Accusative case (plural) - I see (what?) - curls, cans, canned food = Nominative (plural) - there is (what?) - curls, cans, canned food

• for animated nouns (masculine 2 declensions) singular.

Example: Accusative case (singular) - saw (what?) a stone = Nominative case (singular) - there is (what?) a stone here.

Accusative case (singular) - saw (what?) a corpse = Nominative case (singular) - there is (what?) a corpse.

Bewitched by the invisible

The forest slumbers under the fairy tale of sleep.

Like a white scarf

The pine has tied up.

Bent over like an old lady

Leaned on a stick

And under the very crown,

The woodpecker hammers at the bitch.

S. Yesenin.

The exercise. Listen to the short story. Which nouns are animate and which are not?

Patter:

The mouse dried the dryers,

The mouse invited mice.

Drying mice began to eat,

The teeth broke right away.

The exercise. Answer the questions:

"Living and non-living questions"

Who is flying? What flies?

Who's drumming on the roof? What is drumming on the roof?

Who is swimming? What is floating?

Who is silent? What is silent?

Who goes underwater? What goes under the water?

Who hisses? What's hissing?

Questions to reinforce a new topic:

Question answered by animate nouns?

Question answered by inanimate nouns?

Does the animateness-inanimateness of nouns always coincide with the belonging of an object to living (inanimate) nature?

- Is Pinocchio an animate or inanimate noun?

Which noun refers to: "dead man", "people", "detachment"?

Homework:

The exercise: 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, crockery, 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.

List of used literature:

Malykhina E.V., Russian language, Geneza, 2008.

L.A. Akhremenkova "To the five step by step", M., Enlightenment, 2008.

Baranova M.T. "Russian language. Grade 6 ”, M. Education, 2008.

Lesson on the topic: “Noun”, Bogdanova G.A., Moscow

Lesson on the topic: "Inanimate and inanimate nouns", Kunina L.V., Rozhdestvenskaya secondary school

Lesson on the topic: “Animate and inanimate nouns”, Ayvazyan N. V., secondary school No. 4, Meleuz, Republic of Bashkortostan

Lesson on the topic: “Animate and inanimate nouns”, Babchenko T. V. MOU secondary school No. 4, Tatarsk, Novosibirsk region.

Edited and submitted by A.A. Litvin

Working on the lesson

Bogdanova G.A.

Ayvazyan N.V.

Kunina L.V.

Babchenko T.V.

Litvin A.A.

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Subjects > Russian language > Russian language grade 6

animated and nouns serve as the names of people, animals and answer the question who?(student, mentor, entertainer, peer).

Inanimate nouns are the names of inanimate objects, as well as objects flora and answer the question what?(presidium, conference, landscape, mountain ash). This also includes nouns like group, people, crowd, flock, peasantry, youth, kids 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 animation-inanimateness with the concept of living-inanimate. So, from a grammatical point of view birch, aspen, elm- nouns are inanimate, but from a scientific point of view, these are living organisms. In grammar, the names of dead people - dead man, deceased- are considered animate, and only a noun dead body- inanimate. Thus, the meaning of animateness-inanimateness is a purely grammatical category.

• animate For nouns, the accusative plural form is the same as the genitive plural form:

(v.p. pl. = r.p. pl.)

r.p. (no) people, birds, animals

c.p. (to love) people, birds, animals

• inanimate For nouns, the plural accusative form is the same as the plural nominative form:

(w.p. pl. = im.p. pl.)

i.p. (there are) forests, mountains, rivers

c.p. (see) forests, mountains, rivers

In addition, for animate masculine nouns of the II 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.

Most often, animate nouns are masculine and feminine. There are few animate nouns among neuter nouns. This - child, person (in the meaning of "man"), animal, insect, mammal, creature ("living organism"), monster, monster, monster and some others.

Animated nouns, used in a figurative sense, decline: admire "Sleeping Beauty".

Inanimate nouns, used in a figurative sense, get the meaning of a person and become animated: the tournament brought together all the table tennis stars.

The names of toys, mechanisms, images of a person refer to animated nouns: she was very fond of her dolls, nesting dolls, robots.

The names of pieces in games (chess, cards) are declined like animated nouns: sacrifice a knight, take an ace.

The name of the gods mythical creatures (goblin, mermaid, devil, water) refer to animate nouns, and the names of the planets by the name of the gods - to inanimate: looking at Jupiter, they begged Jupiter for help.

For a number of nouns, there are fluctuations in the expression of the category of animation-inanimateness (in the names of microorganisms, in nouns, the 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 the planets by the names of the 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

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 subordinate clause): These were books, which I knew(V. = I.); These were writers, which I knew(B. = R.).

No nouns of the feminine and neuter gender, which appear only in the singular form (singularia tantum), do not have a grammatical indicator of animation / inanimateness, since these words have independent form 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, “do not occur 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". In this way, common feature of the words of this group - 'totality' - 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 a motionless, static part of the surrounding 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) animately marked adjectives denote signs of living beings: external signs, temperamental features, volitional qualities, emotional, intellectual and physical properties and 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, figurative meanings are updated, which ensures the 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 an artistic device of personification (personification): sitting on the forehead of a short man, Pimple with envy glanced on the foreheads of 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.

Animated nouns include the names of persons and animals: man, daughter, son, Vera, Petrov, Dima, on duty, cow, goat, goose, starling, carp, spider etc. These are mostly masculine and feminine nouns. Nouns of the middle gender are few: child, creature (in meaning "living organism"), face (meaning "man"), words in -ische (monster, monster), substantivized adjectives and participles ( animal, insect, mammal). As a defining feature of animate nouns, the ability of the “objects” they call to move independently, to 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 non-living: in the sciences of nature, plants also belong to the living. It does not fit into the framework of the "everyday" understanding of the living and non-living. So, words are animate nouns dead man, deceased seemingly contrary to logic. Boiled duck, roast goose are also animate in the grammar. This also includes a doll, a ball (in the language of billiard players), ace, trump, jack etc. - words that have nothing to do with the living world. The category of inanimate includes nouns denoting the totality of living beings ( people, crowd, platoon, flock, swarm, group etc.), as well as collective nouns like youth, peasantry, children, proletariat etc., denoting a set of persons.

The division of nouns into animate and inanimate is based not only on semantic grounds, but also on
grammatical. Accusative plural
for animate nouns it coincides with the genitive, and
for the inanimate - with the nominative. Wed:
I see trees, mountains, rivers, clouds, I see people, cows, birds,
flocks of insects, geese, I will buy cucumbers, notebooks, buttons, I will buy sheep, pigeons, dolls, I ate tangerines, oranges, ate chickens, crayfish, fried eggplants were served, fried partridges were served.

In the singular, the distinction between animate and inanimate nouns is consistently expressed morphologically in masculine words. Cf.: inanimate nouns and animate nouns I’ll cook soup, broth, cook a goose, a rooster, see off the steamer, see off a friend, plant potatoes, plant a guest.

An exception is masculine words ending in -a. For them, as for feminine nouns, the accusative case does not coincide with either the genitive or the nominative. Compare: I. - boy, girl; R. - boys, girls; V. - young man, girl.

In animate neuter nouns, as well as inanimate ones, in the singular the form of the accusative case coincides with the form of the im. case. For instance: Oh, how I love this empty creature! moaned Pavel Petrovich(Turgenev). The same is observed for feminine nouns with a zero ending in them. case: I see a lynx, a mouse.

A deviation from the basic norm of expressing the meaning of animation is the formation of wine forms. pad. pl. h. with a preposition in nouns - the names of persons expressing attitudes towards a certain social group: student, nanny, livestock breeder, etc. In constructions with the meaning "become (do) what" these words form the form of wines. cases as inanimate nouns: to be promoted to general, to be elected to academicians, to enter the janitors, to join the partisans, a candidate for deputies etc.

The names of microorganisms fluctuate between animate and inanimate nouns: microbe, bacillus, ciliate, bacterium, amoeba etc. They have two forms of the accusative case: study microbes and microbes; examine viruses and viruses in a microscope; destroy bacilli and bacilli. V professional language such words are usually used as animate nouns, and in the non-professional sphere as inanimate ones.

One and the same noun in one of its meanings can refer to animate, in another - to inanimate. So, the names of fish in direct meanings are animated nouns ( catch a crucian). Used as the names of foods, they act as inanimate nouns: eat sprats, invite for trout etc. Cf. also: I see a huge stump and I see this stump (whom?) every day.

Animation / inanimateness in words is peculiarly manifested blockhead, idol, idol, idol etc., which figuratively designate people. In the meaning of “statue”, these words clearly gravitate to inanimate, and in the figurative meaning of a person, to animate nouns. True, this feature is expressed inconsistently. Wed: put up an idol and it is difficult to convince this idol, but: On the banks of the Danube, the Russians set up a wooden idol (A. N. Tolstoy); From shaving his beard, he creates an idol for himself (Saltykov-Shedrin) and ... to make an idol out of this old useless person (L. Tolstoy).

The names of works of art based on their heroes act as animated nouns. Wed: get to know Eugene Onegin and listen to "Eugene Onegin"; call Rudin and read "Rudin" etc.

Wed also: treated a Muscovite and bought "Moskvich", feed a horse and sculpt a horse, but feed a crocodile and buy a "Crocodile"; see a kite, let (launch) a kite and make kites.

The names of the ancient gods are animate nouns, and the names of the luminaries homonymous with them are inanimate: anger Mars and look at Mars, honor Jupiter and see Jupiter and etc.

The words type, image, character are used as inanimate nouns, which are the names of 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 a comic character.