Re: Animacy in active languages (was Re: Non-static verbs?)

Jörg Rhiemeier wrote:
> Are they so rarely?
I think so.  I'm not an expert in that, but the languages I know of with
an animate/inanimate distinction place plants (or at least most plants)
in an inanimate category.

> Is this gender also used for plants?
Yeah.

> I assume that W is a VSO language, with the exception that inanimate
> subjects are moved to the end of the clause, thus in a sense labelling
> them as not-really-subjects.
Well, it's more of a hierarchy of animacy.  A sentient being would tend
to precede an animal, so "The tiger ate the man" would be "ate man
tiger" (fakapatíl nlakús latáigal).  But, this is not as closely
followed as the animate/inanimate distinction.  If the tiger were the
focus of the sentence, it would probably precede "man", as well as
probably using an antipassive construction.

> broke John-ERG window-ABS hammer-ERG
>
> "John broke the window with a hammer."
The cases are too ingrained to change that much.

> (with some
> mythologically motivated exceptions: _An`r_ (Sun) and _Kem_ (Earth) are
> considered female, while _It`l_ (Moon) and _Men`l_ (Sky) are male),
Those are in gender 6, except sky which is inanimate.  However, when
personified, they have conventional genders.  The suns are feminine for
the main sun, and masculine for the lesser.

> Looks like a class prefix system as found in Bantu languages.
Exactly.  That was my inspiration.  :-)

> 1 feminine speaking
> 2 masculine speaking
> 3 epicene speaking
> 4 infant/domestic animal
> 5 feral animal???
> 6 "pseudo-animate"
> 7 inanimate
Yep, that's it exactly, except that I use slightly different
terminology.  "Sentient" instead of speaking, and "wild animal" for #5.
Early Common Kassí had an eighth gender (well, actually seventh, present
seventh was eighth), "artificial object", but it was absorbed into the
eighth early on.

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