Re: Animacy of nouns

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Carsten Becker <naranoieati@B...>
> wrote:
> [snip]
> ... how do you know how animate a
> noun is compared to another one? Are there rules (maybe only
> rules of thumb), or is this completely up to the speaker, or
> are there groups of "objects with high animateness",
> "objects with an average animacy", "objects with a low
> animacy", "inanimate objects", i.e. some kind of noun
> classes for this?
> [snip]
M.H. Klaiman's Chapter 3 of his "Grammatical Voice" talks about the
grammar of control.  In his opinion, "animachy" and "sympathy"
and "agency-potential" are really about "control-potential".  He does
have rules, which he partially credits to someone else, I forget who.
They are; (1) the participant's role must be crucial to the situation,
and (2) the situation and the participant's role must be at least
compatible with the possibility that the participant intended to have
that situation and that role in it.
He distinguishes "agenda control" from "outcome control".  He also
distinguishes conscious from unconscious control, and intentional from
unintentional control.

More later -- I'm getting kicked out.

Tom H.C. in MI