It seems that distinguishing between animate and inanimate objects is obscenely simple: it's like playing in the animate and inanimate. But those who are guided by this principle are very much mistaken. Inanimateness, as well as inanimateness, is a separate category in the characteristic that has nothing to do with the external signs of some object. Here's how to explain the fact that, according to the rules, the word "corpse" is considered inanimate, and "deceased" - animate? Acting at random? In no case! We'll figure out.

For the little ones

Let's start with the very basics. Animated and inanimate objects answer different questions - "who" and "what", respectively. We can say that asking 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. To practice this method, you can fill in the blanks in the following text with your students:

« In a sleepy oblivion, a great (what?) Flows. Around (what?) And (what?). (Who?) Was slowly moving his skis, shaking off (what?) The caps from his ears. (Who?) Quickly made a hole, and it began (what?). Soon he pulled out a huge (who?). His mirrored (what?) Shone brightly in the sun". Words to be inserted: ice, scales, fisherman, frost, river, carp, snow, fishing... One word is repeated twice.

Grammatical explanation

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

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 genitive and accusative forms are the same. Whereas for the noun " table", Which for the definition of this category turns into" tables"With declination" tables-tables-tables»The accusative and

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

Exceptions

But, as you know, in the Russian language there are very few rules that have no exceptions. So, sometimes it is possible to separate animate and inanimate objects logically. Yes, all living things will be animate, but at the same time mythical creatures belong to the same category ( goblin-goblin-goblin-goblin) and names of toys ( nesting dolls-nesting dolls) - here you can still find a logical explanation. As well as card and chess suit-pieces ( spades-spades-spades, pawns-pawns-pawns), which even by their forms do not fit this category.

Go ahead. Inanimate nouns, in turn, include large groups of people ( crowd-crowd-crowd) and some living organisms ( germ-germ-germ; microbes-microbes-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 genitive and accusative forms 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 this is also an animated masculine noun). So, in principle, this pattern can be used as another simple, albeit not very well-known, way of defining the category of animation in nouns.

I want to confuse

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

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

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

Practice for the little ones

Now that we figured out how to distinguish one category of nouns from another, it is worth summarizing all of the above. Animated and inanimate objects for preschoolers, who still have no idea what the cases are, differ on the questions 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- suggest a number of animate nouns that can be turned into inanimate by replacing one letter: fox (linden), goat (scythe), heron (drop).

To finish the article on how to distinguish between animate and inanimate objects, I would like to say that, no matter how simple this topic may seem, it is better not to tempt fate and not act at random, relying on 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 the great and mighty Russian language.

The purpose of the lesson:

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

Lesson type:

Educational and educational.

According to the type of objects designated, nouns are divided into two categories: animate nouns and inanimate nouns.

Animated nouns are necessary to denote 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 "Song of the Water One." What are the animate nouns that you heard in the song?

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

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

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

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

The exercise: watch the sound film "Mukha-Tsokotukha", pay attention with what letter the names of the characters Mukha-Tsokotukha, Grandma-Bee, etc. are written. Name all the participants in the tale whose name is spelled with a capital letter, 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, the collective names of the sets of living beings are referred to inanimate: 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 are used that are quite familiar to living things - plants "breathe", "bloom", "multiply", "are born" and "die", but do not move.

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

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

Features of the declension of animate and inanimate nouns

To divide nouns in a grammatical way into animate and inanimate, it is necessary to take into account the features declensions :

Form accusative case 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 (whom?) - guys, queens, crucians, girls, forty, dolls) ...

Example: Accusative case (singular) - saw (who?) A dead man = Genitive case (singular) - there was no (who?) Dead man.

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

The accusative case is the same as the nominative case:

• in inanimate plural nouns.

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

• animate nouns (masculine 2 declensions) singular.

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

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

Bewitched by invisibility

The forest slumbers under the fairy tale of sleep.

Like a white kerchief

A pine tree is tied up.

I bent down like an old woman

Leaned on a stick

And under the very top of the head,

A woodpecker pounds on a bitch.

S. Yesenin.

The exercise. Listen to the tongue twister. Which nouns are animate and which are not?

Patter:

The mouse dried the dryers,

The mouse invited mice.

They began to eat drying mice,

The teeth were broken immediately.

The exercise. Answer the questions:

"Living and nonliving questions"

Who is flying? What flies?

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

Who is swimming? What floats?

Who is silent? What is silent?

Who goes under the water? What goes under the water?

Who is hissing? What's hissing?

Questions to consolidate a new topic:

The question that animate nouns answer?

The question answered by inanimate nouns?

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

- Is "Buratino" an animate or inanimate noun?

What noun does it refer to: "dead man", "people", "detachment"?

Homework:

The exercise: write out 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, infantryman, spirit, Sakhalin, kids, 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 growth, genius, youth, bell, milk, chick, silk, stuffed animal, pea, tentacle, peas, comrade, cooking, oil, dishes, cement, poor people, relative, sugar, tea, honey, kettle, yeast, tea leaves, 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, Genesa, 2008.

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

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

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

Lesson on the topic: "Nouns animate and inanimate", Kunina L.V., Christmas school

Lesson on the topic: "Inanimate and inanimate nouns", Aivazyan N. V., secondary school No. 4, Meleuz, Republic of Bashkortostan

Lesson on the topic: "Inanimate and inanimate nouns", Babchenko TV MOU school №4, Tatarsk, Novosibirsk region.

Edited and sent by A.A. Lytvyn

Worked on the lesson

Bogdanova G.A.

Ayvazyan N.V.

L.V. Kunina

T.V. Babchenko

A.A. Litvin

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Subjects> Russian language> Russian language grade 6

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

Inanimate nouns serve as names for 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, children etc.

The division of nouns into animate and inanimate mainly depends on what kind of 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. 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- considered animate, and only a noun dead body- inanimate. Thus, the meaning of animate-inanimate is a purely grammatical category.

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

(wp plural = wp plural)

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

vp (to love) people, birds, animals

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

(vp plural = im. plural)

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

vp (I 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 - 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 of the neuter gender. This - child, face (meaning "man"), animal, insect, mammal, creature ("living organism"), monster, monster, monster and some others.

Animated nouns used in a figurative sense are declined: admire "Sleeping Beauty".

Inanimate nouns used in a figurative sense take on the meaning of a person and become animate: the tournament brought together all the table tennis stars.

The names of toys, mechanisms, images of a person refer to animate nouns: she loved her dolls, matryoshkas, robots very much.

The names of the figures in games (chess, cards) are inclined like animate nouns: donate knight, take ace.

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

In a number of nouns, fluctuations are observed in the expression of the category of animate-inanimate (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.

Inanimate and inanimate nouns
Animate	Inanimate
names of wildlife items	names of inanimate objects
	plant names
names of gods	the 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	dead body
microorganism names
image, character

Andrey NARUSHEVICH,
Taganrog

Several questions about the animate / inanimate category

Little is said about the category of animate / inanimate nouns in school textbooks of the Russian language, and yet it is one of the most interesting linguistic phenomena. Let's try to answer some of the questions that arise when considering this category.

What are "animate" and "inanimate" objects?

It is known that the attribution of nouns to animate or inanimate is associated with the division of the surrounding world by a person into living and inanimate. However, even V.V. Vinogradov noted the “mythological nature” 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 interpretation 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 sign "activity / inactivity" does not fully explain why the words dead man belong to animate, and people, crowd, flock- to inanimate nouns. Apparently, the category of animate / inanimate reflects ordinary ideas about living and nonliving, i.e. subjective assessment of objects of reality by a person, which does not always coincide with the scientific picture of the world.

Of course, the “standard” of a living being for man has always been man 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 is running, 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 assessed by ordinary native speakers. For example, as shown by a survey of informants, to nouns sea ​​anemone, amoeba, infusoria, polyp, microbe, virus the question is regularly asked what? Obviously, in addition to signs of visible activity (movement, development, reproduction, etc.), the common concept of a living being ("animate" object) also includes a sign of similarity to a person.

How is animate / inanimate of a noun determined?

Traditionally, the coincidence of the accusative and genitive forms in the singular and plural in masculine nouns is considered as a grammatical indicator of animation. (I see a man, a deer, friends, bears) and only in the plural for feminine and neuter nouns (I see women, animals)... Accordingly, grammatical inanimate 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 animate / inanimate 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 animate / inanimate, singular and plural paradigms differ, while feminine and neuter nouns have 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 animate / inanimate of a noun is the accusative form of the agreed definition: "It is precisely by the form of the agreed definition in the accusative case that the animate or inanimate of the noun is determined in the linguistic sense of the word" 2. Obviously, this provision requires clarification: to consider the form of an adjective word as the main means of expressing animate / inanimate should only be in relation to the use of unchangeable words: see beautiful cockatoo(V. = R.); see beautiful coat(V. = I.). In other cases, the form of the adjective word duplicates the meanings of case, number, gender and animate / inanimate 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(V. = R.).

Do not have a grammatical indicator of animate / inanimate nouns of the feminine and neuter gender, acting only in the singular form (singularia tantum), since these words have independent form the accusative case, which does not coincide with either the nominative or the genitive: catch swordfish, study cybernetics etc. Thus, grammatically animate / inanimate of these nouns is not defined.

What is the fluctuating grammatical indicator of animate / inanimate?

Let's look at a few examples: And from this moment the embryo is called fruit(I. Akimushkin) - I AM saw in a flask embryo Swirling like a French horn(Yu.Arabov); Science microbiology examines various bacteria and viruses(N. Goldin) - Bacteria can be identified by morphological properties(A. Bykov); Marrying woman carries away with myself your 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 sometimes as animate, sometimes as inanimate.

Variable accusative forms of nouns embryo, embryo, microbe, bacteria etc. are explained by the ambiguity of the assessment of the corresponding objects by the speakers. Usually, these life forms are inaccessible to observation, which causes the hesitation of native speakers in classifying these objects as living or inanimate.

Dolls are involved in play (as well as magical) human activity. In children's games, dolls function like living things. Dolls are bathed, combed, put to bed, that is, they are treated with actions that in other conditions are directed only at living beings. Play activity creates conditions for understanding dolls as objects functionally similar to living things (functionally animated). At the same time, dolls remain inanimate objects. The combination of signs of living and inanimate causes fluctuations in the grammatical indicator of animate / inanimate. Some of the names of the game pieces show similar features: queen, ace, pawn and etc.: I AM took from the table, as I remember now, ace of hearts and threw up(M.Lermontov) - Having placed the cards, take all the aces lying on top of the packs(Z. Ivanova).

For a long time, people have considered some animals 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 live form and became known first as exotic dishes and only later as living creatures" 2. Apparently nouns oyster, squid, lobster and others initially declined only according to the inanimate type, the appearance of the accusative case, coinciding with the genitive form, is associated with the development of the meaning ‘living being’, later in relation to the meaning ‘food’: Boil squids, cut into noodles(N. Golosova) - Squid is boiled in salt water(N. Akimova); Nearby fishermen brought fish to the city: in the spring - small anchovy, in the summer - ugly flounder, in the fall - mackerel, oily mullet and oysters (A. Kuprin) - 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 zander is cut into pieces(V. Turygin).

Thus, the fluctuation of the grammatical indicator of animate / inanimate is caused by the peculiarities of the semantics, as well as the ambiguity of the assessment of the object as living or inanimate.

Why nouns dead man and Deceased animate?

Human comprehension of living nature is inextricably linked with the concept of death. The 'deceased' is always the 'alive' who previously possessed life. In addition, it is no coincidence that folklore is replete with stories about the living dead. You can still find echoes of the ideas of our distant ancestors that the dead are inherent in a certain special form of life, as if dead man able to hear, think, remember.

Nouns dead, deceased, deceased and others denote dead people, i.e. possess the sign ‘human’ - the most important for the meaning of animation. And here is the word dead body means 'the body of a deceased organism', i.e. only a material shell (cf. expressions corpses of the killed, corpses of the dead)... Apparently, this semantic difference explains the grammatical animateness of the names of the dead and the inanimateness of the word. corpse: How strong are all stones in their vocations, - When the dead covering guard (K. Sluchevsky); A will convene I am the ones I work for dead Orthodox ... - Cross yourself! Summon the dead for housewarming(A. Pushkin); Nastena only once, long before the war, had to see a drowned man (V. Rasputin); Carters throwing corpses on a sled with a wooden knock(A. Solzhenitsyn).

Why words people, crowd, flock inanimate?

These words designate a certain set of living objects - people or animals. This set is interpreted 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 “many”, which expresses the idea of ​​quantity in the concept of ‘people’, in the concept ‘people’, is connected with the idea of ​​quality - ‘a set of people in their specific interactions’. In this way, common feature the words of this group - ‘the aggregate’ - turns out to be the leading one and forms the meaning of inanimate. V.G. Gack connects the considered nouns 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 conventionally called quasi-animated ”4. The grammatical generalization of semantics is expressed in the morphological indicator of inanimate (V. = I.): I see crowds, peoples, flocks, herds etc.

Why are nouns for plants inanimate?

In the language picture world plants which are qualitatively different form of life 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 the [bodies] of the inanimate, 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 absence of visible motor activity and a number of other signs lead to the fact that in the human mind, 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 thing is understood as an object capable of independent movement, so that plants belong to 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 is the meaning of animate / inanimate manifested?

The sign ‘alive’ (‘inanimate’) can manifest itself not only in the meanings of nouns, but also in the meanings of characteristic words. Indeed, the analysis showed that in the language the meaning of animate / inanimate is not only nouns, but also verbs and adjectives. 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 at an inanimate object: read a book, newspaper, ad etc.

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

1) animatedly 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) animatedly-labeled adjectives denote signs of living beings: external signs, temperament features, volitional qualities, emotional, intellectual and physical properties and etc.: lean, long-legged, lop-eared, phlegmatic, quick-tempered, kind, evil, smart, persistent, blind, talented etc.;
2) inanimate-labeled 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, glass, wooden, squishy etc.;
3) neutral adjectives designate 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 meaning of animate / inanimate of a noun is usually supported by animate or inanimate labeled contextual elements. Otherwise, figurative meanings are updated, which ensures semantic agreement of words.

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

For inanimate nouns, it is possible to transfer names from inanimate objects to living ones: Hungry bursa prowled through the streets of Kiev and made everyone be careful(N. Gogol); Me saw off warm and lovingly all camera in full force, without party differences(E. Ginzburg); The prison does not like brave men(V. Shalamov). There are also many cases of occasional metonymic transference, affecting the semantics of animate / inanimate of the substance: - Quickly! To the phone! .. A tube vibrated, trembled, choked with anxiety, did not dare to pronounce 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 a nasal furuncle is discharged» (V. Levy).

Semantic mismatch in the aspect of animate / inanimate can be overcome by metaphorical transfer of the meaning of the noun. An example is the combination of inanimate nouns with animate-marked words, which create an artistic method 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 had such a situation!"(F.Krivin).

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

1) thinkable as being alive ( dead, deceased, deceased and etc.);
2) mentally imagined alive ( mermaid, goblin, cyborg and etc.);
3) conceivable as a semblance of a living ( doll, bobblehead, 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 attitude of human thinking, and the inconsistency of the linguistic picture of the world with scientific understanding is another manifestation of the subjective factor in the language.

1 Stepanov Yu.S.... Foundations of General Linguistics. M., 1975.S. 130.

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

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

4 Gak V.G... Verb collocation and its reflection in dictionaries of verb control // Lexicology and lexicography / Under. ed. V.V. Morkovkin. M .: Russian. yaz., 1972.S. 68.

5 Aristotle... Physics // Works in 4 volumes.Moscow, 1981.Vol. 3.P. 226.

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

7 Chesnokova L.D.... Pronouns who, what and semantics of animate - inanimate in modern Russian // Russian linguistics. Kiev: Higher. shk., 1987. Issue. 14.P. 69–75.

Animated nouns include the names of persons and animals: man, daughter, son, Vera, Petrov, Dima, attendant, cow, goat, goose, starling, carp, spider etc. These are mostly masculine and feminine nouns. Neuter nouns are few in number: child, creature (in meaning "living organism"), face (meaning "person"), words in -ish (monster, bogeyman), substantive 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 is not possessed by inanimate objects, 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 sciences of nature, plants also belong to the living. It also does not fit into the framework of the "everyday" understanding of the living and nonliving. So, animate nouns include the words dead man seemingly contrary to logic. Boiled duck, roast goose are also animated in grammar. This also includes a doll, a ball (in the language of billiard players), ace, trump, jack and so on - 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 such as youth, peasantry, children, proletariat and others, 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
among the inanimate - with the nominative. Wed:
I see trees, mountains, rivers, clouds, I see people, cows, birds,
flocks of insects, geese, buy cucumbers, notebooks, buttons, buy sheep, pigeons, dolls, ate tangerines, oranges, ate chickens, crayfish, served fried eggplants, served fried partridges.

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

An exception is the masculine word na -a. For them, like for feminine nouns, the accusative case does not coincide with either the genitive or the nominative. Wed: I. - boy, girl; R. - boys, girls; V. - boy, girl.

In animate nouns of the neuter gender, as in inanimate ones, in the singular the accusative case coincides with the form of them. case. For instance: Oh, how I love this empty creature! - Pavel Petrovich moaned(Turgenev). The same is observed in 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 an attitude towards a certain social group: student, nanny, livestock breeder, etc. In constructions with the meaning “to become (to make) who,” these words form the form of wines. cases as inanimate nouns: to be promoted to generals, to be elected to academics, to enroll in janitors, to become partisans, candidate for deputy etc.

The names of microorganisms fluctuate between animate and inanimate nouns: microbe, bacillus, ciliates, bacteria, amoeba etc. They have two accusative forms: study microbes and germs; examine viruses and viruses through 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.

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

Animation / inanimateness manifests itself in a peculiar way in words blockhead, idol, idol, idol and others, which figuratively designate people. In the meaning of "statue" these words clearly gravitate towards inanimate, and in the figurative meaning of a person - to animate nouns. True, this feature is expressed inconsistently. Wed: to 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 according to their heroes act as animate 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 a Moskvich, feed the horse and sculpt the horse, but feed the crocodile and buy the Crocodile; see a snake, let (launch) a snake and make a snake.

The names of 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.

Used as inanimate nouns are the words type, image, character, which are the names of the characters of works of art: create a strong character; characterize negative types and positive images... Wed: list the characters in the novel, heroes of a fairy tale, characters in a fable, but: bring out a comic character.