Animate nouns include the names of persons and animals: man, daughter, son, Vera, Petrov, Dima, duty officer, cow, goat, goose, starling, carp, spider, etc. These are mainly masculine and feminine nouns. Neuter nouns are few in number: child, creature (meaning “living organism”), person (meaning “person”), words in -ish (monster, horror, e), substantivized adjectives and participles (animal, insect, mammal). As a defining feature of animate nouns, the ability of the “objects” they call to independently move and 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 nonliving: in the science of nature, plants are also classified as living. It also does not fit into the framework of the “everyday” understanding of living and nonliving things. Thus, the words dead and dead belong to animate nouns, seemingly contrary to logic. (Boiled) duck, (roasted) goose in grammar are also animate. This also includes doll, ball (in the language of billiard players), ace, trump card, jack, etc. - words that have nothing to do with the living world. The category of inanimate includes nouns denoting a collection of living beings (people, crowd, platoon, flock, swarm, group, etc.), as well as collective nouns such as youth, peasantry, children, proletariat, etc., denoting a collection of individuals.
The division of nouns into animate and inanimate is based not only on semantic grounds, but also on grammatical ones. Accusative plural for animate nouns it coincides with the genitive, and for inanimate nouns it coincides with the nominative. Wed:
I see trees, mountains, rivers, clouds, I see people, cows, birds, insects,
flock of geese
I will buy cucumbers, notebooks, buttons I will buy sheep, pigeons, dolls
ate tangerines, oranges, ate chicken, crayfish
served (fried) eggplants served (fried) partridges
In the singular, the distinction between animate and inanimate nouns is consistently expressed morphologically in masculine words. Wed:
animate nouns I will cook a goose, a rooster, I will see off my friend, I will seat the guest
inanimate nouns
I’ll make soup and broth, see off the steamer, plant potatoes
The exception is masculine words ending in -a. In them, like in feminine nouns, the accusative case does not coincide with either the genitive or the nominative. Wed: I. - young man, girl; R. - boys, girls; V. - young man, girl.
Animate nouns of the neuter gender, like inanimate nouns, have a singular form accusative case matches the form. case. For example: “Oh, how I love this empty creature,” Pavel Petrovich (Turgenev) moaned. The same is observed for feminine nouns with zero ending in them fall: I see a lynx0, a mouse0.
A deviation from the basic norm of expressing the meaning of animation is the formation of wine forms. pad. pl. h. with the preposition in nouns - names of persons expressing an attitude towards a certain social group: student, nanny, livestock breeder, etc. In constructions with the meaning “to become (do) who,” these words form the form of wines. pad. as inanimate nouns: promote to general, elect to academician, candidate for deputy, etc.
The names of microorganisms fluctuate between animate and inanimate nouns: microbe, bacillus, ciliates, bacterium, amoeba, etc. They each have two forms of the accusative case: (to study) microbes and microbc (to examine) viruses and viruses (in a microscope); (destroy) bacilli I bacilli. In professional language, such words are usually used as animate nouns, and in the non-professional sphere as inanimate.
The same noun in one meaning can refer to animate things, and in another to inanimate ones. Thus, the names of fish in direct meanings are animate nouns: (to catch) crucian carp. When used as names of foods, they act as inanimate nouns: (there are) sprats, etc.
Animacy/inanimateness is manifested in a unique way in the words blockhead, idol, idol, graven image, etc., which figuratively designate people. In the meaning of “statue” these words clearly gravitate towards inanimate nouns, and in the figurative meaning of a person - towards animate nouns. True, this feature is expressed inconsistently. Wed: From shaving his beard, he creates an idol for himself (Saltykov-Shedrin) and... makes an idol out of this old useless man (L. Tolstoy).
The names of works of art based on their characters act as animate nouns. Wed: call Rudin and read “¦Rudin”, etc.
Wed. also: see a kite, let (launch) a kite, I make a kite.
The names of the ancient gods are animate nouns, and the names of the luminaries homonymous with them are inanimate: to anger Mars, I look at Mars, to honor Jupiter and to see Jupiter, etc. ~
The words type image, character are used as inanimate nouns, acting as the names of the 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 the comic character.

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

Inanimate nouns serve as 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, children 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 animate-inanimate with the concept of living-inanimate. Yes, from a grammatical point of view birch, aspen, elm- nouns are inanimate, but from a scientific point of view they are living organisms. In grammar, the names of deceased people are dead man, deceased- are considered animate, and only a noun dead body- inanimate. Thus, the meaning of animate-inanimate is a purely grammatical category.

• among the animate nouns, the accusative plural form coincides with the genitive plural form:

(c.p. plural = r.p. plural)

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

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

• in inanimate of nouns, the accusative plural form coincides with the plural nominative form:

(v.p. plural = im.p. plural)

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

v.p. (I see) forests, mountains, rivers

In addition, for animate nouns of the masculine gender of the second 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, masculine and feminine nouns are animate. Among neuter nouns there are few animate ones. This - child, person (meaning "person"), animal, insect, mammal, creature ("living organism"), monster, monster, monster and some others.

Animate nouns used figuratively are declined: admire "Sleeping Beauty".

Inanimate nouns used figuratively receive the meaning of a person and become animate: the tournament brought together all the table tennis stars.

The names of toys, mechanisms, human images refer to animate nouns: she loved her dolls, nesting dolls, and robots very much.

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

Name of gods, mythical creatures ( goblin, mermaid, devil, merman) refer to animate nouns, and the names of planets named after gods refer to inanimate nouns: looking at Jupiter, they prayed to Jupiter for help.

A number of nouns exhibit fluctuations in the expression of the animate-inanimate category (in the names of microorganisms, in nouns image, type, character, etc.): consider ciliates And ciliates, kill bacteria And bacteria; create vivid images, special characters.

Animated and not animate names nouns
Animated	Inanimate
names of living things	names of inanimate objects
	plant names
names of gods	names of planets based on 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

More from primary school you have an idea of ​​living and inanimate nature. Nouns also name objects of living and inanimate nature. And nouns are divided into animate and inanimate. But it's not that simple. Many interesting linguistic discoveries await you as you learn to distinguish animate nouns from inanimate ones.

All common nouns in the Russian language 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 animateness - inanimateness is based on the distinction between living and inanimate. However, in the Russian language there are often cases when grammar contradicts common sense. Suffice it 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 V.p. units: I see a dead man - I see a corpse, cf.: I see an elephant - I see a chair.

Animate nouns have the same plural forms V.p. and R.p. (and for nouns m.r. of the 2nd declension and forms V.p. and R.p. singular), but inanimate ones do not. Inanimate nouns have the same I.p. forms. and V.p. plural.

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

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

Animate 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. Please pay attention

Note:

• names of chess and card pieces and nouns “dead”, “dead”, as well as names of dolls ( parsley, puppet) and the word “doll” itself are animate nouns;
• and words that name a collection of living beings: army, people, crowd, flock, students, humanity etc. are inanimate nouns.

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

nouns child, face(meaning “person”).

3. Common mistakes

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

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

Second- using animate nouns as inanimate ones. For example: When he was carrying securities, he was given two people to accompany him. Right: When he was carrying securities, they gave him a guidetwo people.

Remember: in constructions with compound numerals ending in two three four, V.p. the numeral retains the form Imp.p., regardless of the category of animation. For example: The driver needed to deliver twenty three athlete.

Bibliography

1. Russian language. 6th grade / Baranov M.T. and others - M.: Education, 2008.
2. Babaytseva V.V., Chesnokova L.D. Russian language. Theory. 5-9 grades - M.: Bustard, 2008.
3. Russian language. 6th grade / 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, midges, foot soldier, spirit, Sakhalin, kids, squad, 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 animals, genius, youth, bell, milk, chick, silk, stuffed animal, pea, tentacle, peas, comrade, cooking, oil, dishes, cement, poor, relative, sugar, tea, honey, teapot, yeast, tea leaves, herd, whiteness, pity, stubborn, hero, furniture, radiance, delight, heroism, running, journalist, walking, pearls, generality, pearl, freshness, crow.

Exercise No. 2

Read the fairy tale by L. Uspensky:

A raft is floating along the river. A fat lazy cat sits motionless on the shore. The raft asks the cat:

Are you alive?

How can you prove it?

I'm moving.

I'm swimming and you're sitting.

If I want, 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 will kill you in the accusative case. Your nominative cannot resist my accusative.

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

This independent part speech that denotes an object and answers the questions who? What?
The meaning of an object expressed nouns, combines the names of a wide variety of objects and phenomena, namely: 1) the names of specific cabbage soup and objects (house, tree, notebook, book, briefcase, bed, lamp); 2) names of living beings (man, engineer, girl, boy, deer, mosquito); 3) names various substances(oxygen, gasoline, lead, sugar, salt); 4) names of various natural phenomena and public life(storm, frost, rain, holiday, war); 5) names of abstract properties and signs, actions and states (freshness, whiteness, blueness, illness, expectation, murder).
Initial form noun- nominative singular.
Nouns There are: proper (Moscow, Rus', Sputnik) and common nouns (country, dream, night), animate (horse, elk, brother) and inanimate (table, field, dacha).
Nouns belong to the masculine (friend, youth, deer), feminine (girlfriend, grass, land) and neuter (window, sea, field) gender. Names nouns change according to cases and numbers, that is, they decline. Nouns have three declension (aunt, uncle, Maria - I declension; horse, gorge, genius - II declension; mother, night, quiet - III declension).
In a sentence nouns usually act as a subject or object, but can also be any other part of a sentence. For example: When the soul in chains, screams in my heart yearning, and the heart longs for boundless freedom (K. Balmont). I lay in the scent of azaleas (V. Bryusov)

Proper and common nouns

Proper nouns- these are the names of individuals, individual objects. Proper nouns include: 1) first names, surnames, nicknames, nicknames (Peter, Ivanov, Sharik); 2) geographical names (Caucasus, Siberia, Central Asia); 3) astronomical names (Jupiter, Venus, Saturn); 4) names of holidays (New Year, Teacher's Day, Defender of the Fatherland Day); 5) names of newspapers, magazines, works of art, enterprises (the newspaper “Trud”, the novel “Resurrection”, the publishing house “Prosveshchenie”), etc.
Common nouns They call homogeneous objects that have something in common, the same, some kind of similarity (person, bird, furniture).
All names own are written with a capital letter (Moscow, Arctic), some are also placed in quotation marks (the Cosmos cinema, the Evening Moscow newspaper).
In addition to differences in meaning and spelling proper names nouns have a number of grammatical features: 1) are not used in the plural (except in cases of designating different objects and persons with the same name: We have two Ira and three Olya in our class); 2) cannot be combined with numerals.
Proper nouns can turn into common nouns, and common nouns- V own, for example: Narcissus (the name of a handsome young man in ancient Greek mythology) - narcissus (flower); Boston (city in the USA) - boston ( wool fabric), boston (slow waltz), boston ( card game); labor - newspaper "Trud".

Animate and inanimate nouns

Animate nouns serve as names of living beings (people, animals, birds); answer the question who?
Inanimate nouns serve as names for inanimate objects, as well as objects of the plant world; answer the question what? Initially, in the Russian language, the category of animate-inanimate was formed as a semantic one. Gradually, with the development of language, this category became grammatical, therefore the division of nouns into animate And inanimate does not always coincide with the division of everything that exists in nature into living and nonliving.
An indicator of the animation or inanimateness of a noun is the coincidence of a number of grammatical forms. Animated and inanimate nouns differ from each other in the accusative plural form. U animate nouns this form coincides with the genitive case form, and inanimate nouns- with the nominative case form, for example: no friends - I see friends (but: no tables - I see tables), no brothers - I see brothers (but: no lights - I see lights), no horses - I see horses (but: no shadows - I see shadows), no children - I see children (but: no seas - I see seas).
For masculine nouns (except for nouns ending in -a, -я), this difference is preserved in the singular, for example: no friend - I see a friend (but: no house - I see a house).
TO animate noun may include nouns that, according to their meaning, should be considered inanimate, for example: “our nets brought in a dead man”; discard the trump ace, sacrifice the queen, buy dolls, paint nesting dolls.
TO inanimate noun may include nouns that, according to the meaning they express, should be classified as animated, for example: study pathogenic microbes; neutralize typhus bacilli; observe the embryo in its development; collect silkworm larvae, believe in your people; gather huge crowds, arm armies.

Concrete, abstract, collective, real, singular nouns

According to the characteristics of the expressed meaning, nouns can be divided into several groups: 1) concrete nouns(chair, suit, room, roof), 2) abstract, or abstract, nouns(struggle, joy, good, evil, morality, whiteness), 3) collective nouns(animal, fool, foliage, linen, furniture); 4) real nouns(cycle: gold, milk, sugar, honey); 5) singular nouns(pea, grain of sand, straw, pearl).
Specific are nouns that denote phenomena or objects of reality. They can be combined with cardinal, ordinal and collective numbers and form plural forms. For example: boy - boys, two boys, second boy, two boys; table - tables, two tables, second table.
Abstract, or abstract, are nouns that denote any abstract action, state, quality, property or concept. Abstract nouns have one form of number (only singular or only plural), are not combined with cardinal numerals, but can be combined with the words many, few, how many, etc. For example: grief - a lot of grief, little grief. How much grief!
Collective are called nouns that denote a collection of persons or objects as an indivisible whole. Collective nouns have only the singular form and are not combined with numerals, for example: youth, old man, foliage, birch forest, aspen forest. Wed: Old people gossiped for a long time about the lives of young people and the interests of youth. - Whose are you, old man? Peasants, in essence, have always remained owners. - In no country in the world has the peasantry ever been truly free. On the first of September all children will go to school. - The children gathered in the yard and waited for the adults to arrive. All students successfully passed state exams. - Students take an active part in the work of charitable foundations. The nouns old people, peasantry, children, students are collective, the formation of plural forms from them is impossible.
Real are nouns that denote a substance that cannot be divided into its component parts. These words can be called chemical elements, their compounds, alloys, medications, various materials, types of food products and crops, etc. Real nouns have one form of number (only singular or only plural), are not combined with cardinal numerals, but can be combined with words naming units of measure kilogram, liter, ton. For example: sugar - a kilogram of sugar, milk - two liters of milk, wheat - a ton of wheat.
Singular nouns are a type real nouns . These nouns name one instance of those objects that make up the set. Wed: pearl - pearl, potato - potato, sand - grain of sand, pea - pea, snow - snowflake, straw - straw.

Gender of nouns

Genus- this is the ability of nouns to be combined with forms of compatible words specific for each generic variety: my house, my hat, my window.
Based on gender nouns are divided into three groups: 1) masculine nouns(house, horse, sparrow, uncle), 2) feminine nouns(water, earth, dust, rye), 3) neuter nouns(face, sea, tribe, gorge).
In addition, there is a small group common nouns, which can serve as expressive names for both male and female persons (crybaby, touchy-feely, youngster, upstart, grabber).
The grammatical meaning of gender is created by the system of case endings of a given noun in the singular (thus gender of nouns distinguished only in the singular).

Masculine, feminine and neuter gender of nouns

TO masculine include: 1) nouns with a base on a hard or soft consonant and a zero ending in the nominative case (table, horse, reed, knife, cry); 2) some nouns with the ending -а (я) such as grandfather, uncle; 3) some nouns with endings -о, -е such as saraishko, bread, little house; 4) noun journeyman.
TO feminine refers to: 1) most nouns with the ending -a (ya) (grass, aunt, earth) in the nominative case; 2) part of the nouns with a base on a soft consonant, as well as on zh and sh and a zero ending in the nominative case (laziness, rye, quiet).
TO neuter include: 1) nouns ending in -о, -е in the nominative case (window, field); 2) ten nouns starting with -mya (burden, time, tribe, flame, stirrup, etc.); 3) noun “child”.
The nouns doctor, professor, architect, deputy, guide, author, etc., naming a person by profession, type of activity, are classified as masculine. However, they can also refer to females. Coordination of definitions in this case is subject to the following rules: 1) a non-separate definition must be put in the masculine form, for example: A young doctor Sergeeva appeared at our site. New option articles of the law were proposed by the young deputy Petrova; 2) a separate definition after the proper name should be placed in the feminine form, for example: Professor Petrova, already known to the trainees, successfully operated on the patient. The predicate must be put in the feminine form if: 1) the sentence contains a proper noun standing before the predicate, for example: Director Sidorova received a prize. Tour guide Petrova took students through oldest streets Moscow; 2) the form of the predicate is the only indicator that we're talking about about a woman, and it is important for the writer to emphasize this, for example: The school director turned out to be a good mother. Note. Such constructions should be used with great caution, since not all of them correspond to the norms of book and written speech. Common nouns Some nouns with endings -а (я) can serve as expressive names for both male and female persons. These are nouns of a general gender, for example: crybaby, touchy, sneak, slob, quiet. Depending on the gender of the person they denote, these nouns can be classified as either feminine or masculine: a little crybaby is a little crybaby, such a mischief is such a mischief, a terrible slob is a terrible slob. In addition to similar words, common nouns may include: 1) unchangeable surnames: Makarenko, Malykh, Defieux, Michon, Hugo, etc.; 2) colloquial forms of some proper names: Sasha, Valya, Zhenya. The words doctor, professor, architect, deputy, tour guide, author, which name a person by profession or type of activity, do not belong to the general nouns. They are masculine nouns. Common nouns are emotionally charged words, have a pronounced evaluative meaning, and are used mainly in colloquial speech, therefore, are not characteristic of scientific and formal business styles speech. By using them in a work of art, the author seeks to emphasize the conversational nature of the statement. For example: - You see how it is, on someone else’s side. Everything turns out hateful for her. No matter what you see, it’s not the same, it’s not like mom’s. Right? - Oh, I don’t know! She's a crybaby, that's all! Aunt Enya laughed a little. Such a kind laugh, light sounds and leisurely, like her gait. - Well, yes! You are our man, a knight. You won't shed tears. And she's a girl. Tender. Mom and Dad (T. Polikarpova). Gender of indeclinable nouns Foreign language common nouns are distributed by gender as follows: The masculine gender includes: 1) names of male persons (dandy, maestro, porter); 2) names of animals and birds (chimpanzees, cockatoos, hummingbirds, kangaroos, ponies, flamingos); 3) the words coffee, penalty, etc. The feminine gender includes the names of female persons (Miss, Frau, Lady). The neuter gender includes the names of inanimate objects (coat, muffler, neckline, depot, subway). Indeclinable nouns of foreign origin denoting animals and birds are usually masculine (flamingos, kangaroos, cockatoos, chimpanzees, ponies). If, according to the conditions of the context, it is necessary to indicate a female animal, the agreement is carried out using the feminine gender. The nouns kangaroo, chimpanzee, pony are combined with a past tense verb in the feminine form. For example: The kangaroo was carrying a baby kangaroo in her bag. The chimpanzee, apparently a female, fed the baby a banana. The mother pony was standing in a stall with a small foal. The noun tsetse is an exception. Its gender is determined by the gender of the word mukha (feminine). For example: Tsetse bit a tourist. If determining the gender of an indeclinable noun is difficult, it is advisable to refer to spelling dictionary. For example: haiku (Japanese tercet) - s.r., takku (Japanese quintet) - s.r., su (coin) - s.r., flamenco (dance) - s.r., taboo (prohibition) - s.r. .R. Some indeclinable nouns are recorded only in dictionaries of new words. For example: sushi (Japanese dish) - sr., tarot (cards) - plural. (genus is not determined). The gender of indeclinable foreign-language geographical names, as well as names of newspapers and magazines, is determined by the generic common noun, for example: Pau (river), Bordeaux (city), Mississippi (river), Erie (lake), Congo (river), Ontario (lake), "Humanité" (newspaper). The gender of indeclinable compound words is in most cases determined by the gender of the core word of the phrase, for example: MSU (university - m.r.) MFA (academy - zh.r.). The gender of compound nouns written with a hyphen The gender of compound nouns written with a hyphen is usually determined: 1) by the first part, if both parts change: my chair-bed - my chair-bed (sr.), a new amphibious aircraft - new amphibious aircraft (m.r.); 2) according to the second part, if the first does not change: sparkling firebird - sparkling firebird (g.r.), huge swordfish - huge swordfish (g.r.). In some cases, the gender is not determined, since compound word used only in the plural: fairy-tale boots-runners - fairy-tale boots-runners (plural). Number of nouns Nouns are used in the singular when talking about one object (horse, stream, crevice, field). Nouns are used in the plural when talking about two or more objects (horses, streams, cracks, fields). According to the characteristics of the forms and meanings of the singular and plural, the following are distinguished: 1) nouns that have both singular and plural forms; 2) nouns that have only a singular form; 3) nouns that have only a plural form. The first group includes nouns with a concrete object meaning, denoting countable objects and phenomena, for example: house - houses; street - streets; person people; city ​​dweller - city dwellers. The nouns of the second group include: 1) names of many identical objects (children, teachers, raw materials, spruce forest, foliage); 2) names of objects with real meaning (peas, milk, raspberries, porcelain, kerosene, chalk); 3) names of quality or attribute (freshness, whiteness, dexterity, melancholy, courage); 4) names of actions or states (mowing, chopping, delivery, running, surprise, reading); 5) proper names as names of individual objects (Moscow, Tambov, St. Petersburg, Tbilisi); 6) words burden, udder, flame, crown. The nouns of the third group include: 1) names of composite and paired objects (scissors, glasses, watches, abacus, jeans, trousers); 2) names of materials or waste, residues (bran, cream, perfume, wallpaper, sawdust, ink, 3) names of periods of time (vacations, days, weekdays); 4) names of actions and states of nature (troubles, negotiations, frosts, sunrises, twilight); 5) some geographical names (Lyubertsy, Mytishchi, Sochi, Carpathians, Sokolniki); 6) the names of some games (blind man's buff, hide and seek, chess, backgammon, grandma). The formation of plural forms of nouns is mainly done with the help of endings. In some cases, some changes in the base of the word may also be observed, namely: 1) softening of the final consonant of the base (neighbor - neighbors, devil - devils, knee - knees); 2) alternation of the final consonants of the stem (ear - ears, eye - eyes); 3) adding a suffix to the plural stem (husband - husband\j\a], chair - chair\j\a], sky - heaven, miracle - miracle-es-a, son - son-ov\j\a]) ; 4) loss or replacement of formative suffixes of the singular (mister - gentlemen, chicken - hens, calf - tel-yat-a, bear cub - bear cubs). For some nouns, plural forms are formed by changing the stem, for example: person (singular) - people (plural), child (singular) - children (plural). In indeclinable nouns, number is determined syntactically: young chimpanzee (singular) - many chimpanzees (plural). Case of nouns Case is an expression of the relationship of an object called by a noun to other objects. Russian grammar distinguishes six cases of nouns, the meanings of which are generally expressed using case questions: The nominative case is considered direct, and all others are indirect. To determine the case of a noun in a sentence, you need to: 1) find the word to which the noun refers; 2) put a question from this word to the noun: see (who? what?) brother, be proud of (what?) successes. Among the case endings of nouns, homonym endings are often found. For example, in the forms of the genitive case from the door, the dative case to the door, and the prepositional case about the door, there is not the same ending -i, but three different homonym endings. The same homonyms are the endings of the dative and prepositional cases in the forms by country and about country-e. Types of declension of nouns Declension is the change of a noun by case and number. This change is expressed using a system of case endings and shows the grammatical relationship of the given noun to other words in the phrase and sentence, for example: School\a\ is open. Construction of schools has been completed. Graduates send greetings to schools\e\ According to the peculiarities of case endings in the singular, a noun has three declensions. The type of declination can only be determined in the singular. Nouns of the first declension The first declension includes: 1) feminine nouns with the ending -а (-я) in the nominative singular (country, land, army); 2) masculine nouns denote people with the ending -a (ya) in the nominative singular case (uncle, young man, Petya). 3) nouns of the general gender with endings -а (я) in the nominative case (crybaby, sleepyhead, bully). First declension nouns in indirect cases singular have the following endings: It is necessary to distinguish between the forms of nouns in -ya and -iya: Marya - Maria, Natalya - Natalia, Daria - Daria, Sofya - Sofia. Nouns of the first declension in -iya (army, guard, biology, line, series, Maria) in the genitive, dative and prepositional cases have the ending -i. In writing, mistakes are often caused by mixing the endings of nouns of the first declension into -ee and -iya. Words ending in -eya (alley, battery, gallery, idea) have the same endings as feminine nouns with a base on a soft consonant such as earth, will, bathhouse, etc. Nouns of the second declension The second declension includes: 1) nouns masculine with a zero ending in the nominative singular (house, horse, museum); 2) masculine nouns with the ending -о (-е) in the nominative singular (domishko, saraishko); 3) neuter nouns with the ending -о, -е in the nominative singular case (window, sea, gorge); 4) noun journeyman. Masculine nouns of the second declension have the following endings in the oblique singular cases: In the prepositional singular case, the ending -e predominates for masculine nouns. The ending -у (у) is accepted only by inanimate masculine nouns if: a) they are used with the prepositions in and on; b) have (in most cases) the nature of stable combinations denoting a place, state, time of action. For example: eyesore; remain in debt; on the verge of death; grazing; to follow the lead; stew in one's own juices; be on good standing. But: work by the sweat of your brow, in the sunshine; grammatical structure; V right angle; in some cases, etc. It is necessary to distinguish between the forms of nouns: -ie and -ie: teaching - teaching, treatment - treatment, silence - silence, torment - torment, radiance - radiance. Nouns of the second declension ending in -i, -i in the prepositional case -i. Words ending in -ey (sparrow, museum, mausoleum, frost, lyceum) have the same endings as masculine nouns with a base on a soft consonant such as horse, elk, deer, fight, etc. Nouns of the third declension The third declension includes names feminine nouns with a zero ending in the nominative singular (door, night, mother, daughter). Nouns of the third declension in the oblique singular cases have the following endings: The words mother and daughter belonging to the third declension, when changed in all cases except the nominative and accusative, have the suffix -er- at the base: Declension of nouns in the plural B case endings plural differences between individual types of noun declension are insignificant. In the dative, instrumental and prepositional cases, nouns of all three declensions have the same endings. In the nominative case, the endings -и, -ы и|-а(-я) predominate. The ending -e is less common. You should remember the formation of the genitive plural forms of some nouns, where the ending can be zero or -ov. This includes words naming: 1) paired and composite objects: (not) felt boots, boots, stockings, collars, days (but: socks, rails, glasses); 2) some nationalities (in most cases, the stem of the words ends in n and r): (no) English, Bashkirs, Buryats, Georgians, Turkmens, Mordvins, Ossetians, Romanians (but: Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Yakuts); 3) some units of measurement: (five) amperes, watts, volts, arshins, hertz; 4) some vegetables and fruits: (kilogram) apples, raspberries, olives (but: apricots, oranges, bananas, tangerines, tomatoes, tomatoes). In some cases, plural endings perform a semantic distinguishing function in words. For example: dragon teeth - saw teeth, tree roots - fragrant roots, sheets of paper - tree leaves, scratched knees (knee - “joint”) - complex knees (knee - “dance move”) - trumpet knees (knee - “ joint at the pipe"). Indeclinable nouns Indeclinable nouns include: 1) ten nouns ending in -mya (burden, time, udder, banner, name, flame, tribe, seed, stirrup, crown); 2) noun path; 3) noun child. Diversified nouns have the following features: 1) ending - both in the genitive, dative and prepositional cases of the singular - as in the III declension; 2) the ending -еm in the instrumental case of the singular as in the 2nd declension; 3) the suffix -en- in all forms, except for the nominative and accusative cases of the singular (only for nouns ending in -mya) The word path has case forms of the third declension, with the exception of instrumental case singular number, which is characterized by the form of the second declension. Wed: night - nights, path - paths (in the genitive, dative and prepositional cases); steering wheel - steering wheel, path - path (in the instrumental case). The noun child in the singular retains the archaic declension, which is currently not actually used, but in the plural it has the usual forms, except for the instrumental case, which is characterized by the ending -mi (the same ending is characteristic of the form by people). Indeclinable nouns Indeclinable nouns do not have case forms, these words do not have endings. Grammatical meanings individual cases in relation to such nouns are expressed syntactically, for example: drink coffee, buy cashews, novels by Dumas. Indeclinable nouns include: 1) many nouns of foreign origin with final vowels -о, -е, -и, -у, -у, -а (solo, coffee, hobby, zebu, cashew, bra, Dumas, Zola); 2) foreign-language surnames denoting female persons ending in a consonant (Michon, Sagan); 3) Russian and Ukrainian surnames with -o, -ih, -yh (Durnovo, Krutykh, Sedykh); 4) complex abbreviated words of alphabetic and mixed nature (Moscow State University, Ministry of Internal Affairs, head of department). Syntax function indeclinable nouns are determined only in context. For example: The Walrus asked the Kangaroo (RP): How can you stand the heat? I'm shaking from the cold! - Kangaroo (I.p.) said to Walrus. (B. Zakhoder) Kangaroo is an indeclinable noun, denotes an animal, masculine gender, and is the object and subject of a sentence. Morphological analysis of a noun Morphological analysis of a noun includes the identification of four constant characteristics (proper-common noun, animate-inanimate, gender, declension) and two inconsistent ones (case and number). The number of constant features of a noun can be increased by including features such as concrete and abstract, as well as real and collective nouns. Scheme of morphological analysis of a noun.

Andrey NARUSHEVICH,
Taganrog

A few 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 represents one of the most interesting linguistic phenomena. Let's try to answer some questions that arise when considering this category.

What is an “animate” and an “inanimate” object?

It is known that the classification of nouns as animate or inanimate is associated with the division by man of the surrounding world into living and inanimate. However, even V.V. Vinogradov noted the “mythological nature” of the terms “animate/inanimate”, since textbook well-known examples ( plant, dead person, doll, people and etc . ) demonstrate the discrepancy between the objective status of an object and its comprehension in language. There is an opinion that by animate in grammar we mean “active” objects identified with a person, to which are contrasted “inactive” and, therefore, inanimate objects 1. At the same time, the “activity/inactivity” sign does not fully explain why the words dead man, deceased are considered animate, and people, crowd, flock– to inanimate nouns. Apparently, the category of animate/inanimate reflects everyday ideas about living and inanimate things, i.e. a person’s subjective assessment of the 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 the person himself. Any language stores “petrified” metaphors, showing that people since ancient times saw the world as anthropomorphic, described it in their own image and likeness: the sun is out, the river is running, the leg of a chair, the spout of a teapot and so on . Let us recall at least the anthropomorphic gods or characters of lower mythology. At the same time, life forms other than humans: some invertebrates, microorganisms, etc. are often ambiguously assessed by ordinary native speakers. For example, as a survey of informants showed, to nouns sea ​​anemone, amoeba, ciliate, polyp, microbe, virus the question is regularly asked What? Obviously, in addition to signs of visible activity (movement, development, reproduction, etc.), the everyday concept of a living being (an “animate” object) also includes a sign of similarity to a person.

How is the animate/inanimate nature of a noun determined?

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

The coincidence of case forms (V. = I. or V. = R.) in the declension of allied words of the adjectival structure (in subordinate clause): These were books, which I knew(V. = I.); These were writers, which I knew(V. = R.).

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

What is the fluctuating grammatical indicator of animate/inanimate?

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

Variable forms of the accusative case of nouns germ, embryo, microbe, bacterium and so on. are explained by the ambiguity in the assessment of the corresponding objects by speakers. Typically, these forms of life are inaccessible to observation, which causes hesitation among native speakers in classifying these objects as living or nonliving.

Dolls are involved in playful (as well as magical) human activities. In children's games, dolls function as living beings. The dolls are bathed, combed, put to bed, that is, actions are performed on them that in other conditions are aimed only at living beings. Play activity creates conditions for understanding dolls as objects that are functionally similar to living things (functionally animate). 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 names of game pieces exhibit similar features: queen, ace, pawn and etc.: I took from the table, as I remember now, ace of hearts and threw it up(M. Lermontov) – Having placed the cards, take all the aces, lying on top of the packs(Z. Ivanova).

Some animals have long been considered by people primarily as food (cf. modern word seafood). For example, lobsters, oysters, lobsters, as noted by V.A. Itskovich, “are not found alive in Central Russia 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 form, coinciding with the genitive form, is associated with the development of the meaning ‘living being’, later in relation to the meaning of ‘food’: Boil squid, cut into noodles(N. Golosova) – Squid is boiled in salt water(N. Akimova); Nearby fishermen brought to the city fish: in the spring - small anchovy, in the summer - ugly flounder, in the fall - mackerel, fatty mullet and oysters (A. Kuprin) – Are you really eat oysters? (A. Chekhov) It is interesting that in the meaning of ‘food’, not only the names of exotic animals acquire grammatical inanimateness: Fat herring Fine soak, cut into fillets(M. Peterson); Processed pike perch being cut into pieces(V. Turygin).

Thus, fluctuations in the grammatical indicator of animate/inanimate are caused by the peculiarities of semantics, as well as the ambiguity in assessing an object as living or inanimate.

Why nouns dead man And Deceased animated?

Man's understanding of living nature is inextricably linked with the concept of death. ‘Deceased’ is always ‘one who was alive’, who previously had 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 have a certain special shape life, as if dead man able to hear, think, remember.

Nouns dead, deceased, departed and others denote deceased people, i.e. possess the attribute 'man' - the most important for the meaning of animation. Here's the word dead body means ‘the body of a deceased organism’, i.e. only a 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 all the stones in their callings, - When dead having covered guard (K. Sluchevsky); A convene I am those for whom I work, dead people Orthodox... - Cross yourself! Summon 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 sleigh with a wooden knock(A. Solzhenitsyn).

Why words people, crowd, flock inanimate?

The listed words denote a certain set of living objects - people or animals. This set is conceptualized as a single whole - a collection of living beings, and this collection is not equal to the simple sum of its components. For example, the attribute “set,” which expresses the idea of ​​quantity in the concept of “people,” is combined in the concept of “people” with the idea of ​​quality—“the totality of people in their specific interactions.” Thus, common feature words of this group – ‘totality’ – turns out to be leading and forms the meaning of inanimateness. V.G. Gak connects the nouns in question with the category of 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, peoples, flocks, herds and so on.

Why are plant nouns inanimate?

In the language picture plant world, which are a 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 within us from ourselves, even if nothing from outside has set us in motion. 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 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: “...by living we mean an object capable of independent movement, so plants are classified as inanimate objects” 6. Thus, the predominance of inanimate signs in everyday concepts of plants, as well as the nature labor activity people, who have long been widely using plants for a variety of purposes, have determined that plants in most cases are perceived as inanimate objects.

How does the meaning of animate/inanimate manifest itself?

The sign 'living' ('non-living') can appear not only in the meanings of nouns, but also in the meanings of characteristic words. Indeed, the analysis showed that in language not only nouns, but also verbs and adjectives have the meaning of animate/inanimate. This is manifested in the fact that verbs and adjectives can denote attributes of objects that characterize these objects as living or nonliving. 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, advertisement and so on.

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

1) animately marked – denote actions performed by living beings: breathe, dream, sleep and etc;
2) inanimately 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 characteristics of living beings: external signs, characteristics of temperament, strong-willed qualities, emotional, intellectual and physical properties and etc.: lean, long-legged, lop-eared, phlegmatic, hot-tempered, kind, evil, smart, persistent, blind, talented etc.;
2) inanimately marked adjectives denote signs of inanimate objects (phenomena) - spatial and temporal qualities and relationships, perceptible properties and qualities of things, signs in relation to the material of manufacture, etc.: liquid, rare, deep, spicy, sour, bitter, strong, thick, iron, glass, wood, swampy etc.;
3) neutral adjectives denote characteristics that can be attributed to both living beings and inanimate objects - the most common spatial characteristics, color characteristic, evaluation characteristic, affiliation, etc.: left, right, high, small, heavy, white, red, good, mother's.

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

Thus, for animate nouns in combination with inanimate marked verbs, the most typical metonymic transfer is ‘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 was on the prowl through the streets of Kyiv and forced everyone to be careful(N. Gogol); Me saw off all warm and loving camera in full force, without party differences(E. Ginzburg); Prison doesn't like brave men(V. Shalamov). There are also many cases of occasional metonymic transfer, affecting the semantics of animate/inanimate substantive: - Fast! To the phone!.. A tube vibrated, trembled, choked with anxiety, didn't dare speak out fatal question. Only kept repeating with a questioning intonation: “Is that you? It's you?"(E. Ginzburg); Once in the hospital I heard: “From the seventh ward nasal boil is prescribed» (V. Levi).

Semantic mismatch in the animate/inanimate aspect can be overcome through metaphorical transfer of the meaning of the noun. An example is the combination of inanimate nouns with animate marked words, creating the artistic device of personification (personification): Sitting on the forehead of a short man, Pimple with envy looked on the foreheads tall people And thought: “I wish I was in such a position!”(F. Krivin).

So, let's summarize. Animate and inanimate nouns denote not so much living and inanimate objects as objects conceptualized as living and nonliving. In addition, between the members of the opposition ‘thought of as living / thought of as inanimate’, there are a number of intermediate formations that combine the signs of living and inanimate, the presence of which is determined by associative mechanisms of thinking and other features of human mental activity, for example:

1) conceivable as being alive ( dead, deceased, departed and etc.);
2) mentally imagined alive ( mermaid, goblin, cyborg and etc.);
3) conceived as a semblance of a living thing ( doll, baby doll, jack, queen and etc.);
4) conceived as a totality 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 language picture world scientific understanding is another manifestation of the subjective factor in language.

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

2 Miloslavsky I.G.. Morphological categories of modern Russian language. M.: Nauka, 1981. P. 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. Verbal combinability and its reflection in dictionaries of verb control // Lexicology and lexicography / Under. ed. V.V. Morkovkina. M.: Russian. lang., 1972. P. 68.

5 Aristotle. Physics // Works in 4 volumes. M., 1981. T. 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 the semantics of animation - inanimateness in the modern Russian language // Russian linguistics. Kyiv: Higher. school, 1987. Issue. 14. pp. 69–75.