It seems that it is indecently easy to distinguish between animate and inanimate objects: it's like a game of life and inanimate. But those who are guided by this principle are very much mistaken. Animation, as well as inanimateness, respectively, is a separate category in the description of a noun, which has nothing to do with the external features of some object. Here's how to explain the fact that, according to the rules, the word "corpse" is considered inanimate, and "dead" - animated? Act randomly? In no case! We'll figure it out.
For the little ones
Let's start from the very basics. Animate and inanimate objects answer different questions - "who" and "what" respectively. It can be said that the formulation of the question is the most primitive, albeit very unreliable, way of defining this category. Usually children are introduced to him in the first or second grade. In order to practice this method, you can fill in the gaps with the students in the following text:
« In the sleepy oblivion flows great (what?). Around (what?) and (what?). (Who?) Slowly moved the skis, shook off (what?) Caps from the ears. (Who?) quickly made a hole, and began (what?). Soon he pulled out a huge (who?). Its mirrored (what?) gleamed brightly in the sun.” Words that are proposed to be inserted: ice, scales, fisherman, hoarfrost, river, carp, snow, fishing. One word is repeated twice.
Grammar explanation
But it's worth moving on, right? How to determine whether an animate or inanimate object is based on rules, and not on intuition? The difference between these two categories lies in the different case forms of the nouns. Inanimate nouns have the same plural nominative and accusative, while animate nouns have the same genitive and accusative in the same number. Of course, it will be much easier to understand with concrete examples.
Take the noun "cat". We put it in the plural "cats" and begin to decline: nominative - "cats", genitive - "cats", accusative - "cats" - as you can see, the forms of the genitive and accusative cases coincide. Whereas for the noun “table”, which to define this category turns into “tables”, the declension “tables-tables-tables” turns out to be the same accusative and nominative case.
Thus, the rule allows to separate an animate and inanimate object only whensetting them into the plural and subsequent declension. And then, already by the coincidence of case forms, this category is determined.
Exceptions
But, as you know, there are very few rules in Russian that do not have any exceptions. So, it is sometimes possible to separate animate and inanimate objects logically. Yes, all living beings will be animate, but at the same time, mythical creatures (goblin-goblin-goblin-goblin) and the names of toys (matryoshka-matryoshka-matryoshka) belong to the same category - here you can still find a logical explanation. As well as card and chess suits-pieces (pikes-picks-pikes, pawns-pawns-pawns), which even in their forms do not fit into this category.
Let's move on. Inanimate nouns, in turn, include large groups of people (crowds-crowds-crowds) and some living organisms (embryos-embryos-embryos; 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 forms of the genitive and accusative cases coincide and in the singular: Anton-Anton-Anton, accountant-accountant-accountant, however, this phenomenon is observed only in nouns of the second declension (compare: Dima-Dima-Dima, although it is also an animate masculine noun). So basically thisregularity can be used as another simple, albeit not very well-known, way to determine the category of animation in nouns.
I want to confuse
It is worth noting that in Russian there is an image of an inanimate object as animated. This is usually associated with the use of the word as an analogy to a living being: There is a mattress in the barn - Yes, it is a weak-willed mattress! or the Russian language is great and mighty! – This tongue (=prisoner) will tell us everything.
Exactly the same phenomenon occurs with the use of animate nouns as inanimate ones: A kite flies in the blue sky; The fighter went down. Here the category of animateness and inanimateness is determined based on the semantic content of the noun.
It is worth noting that, despite all the requirements of teachers to use the rules, most students continue to rely on intuition. As the above examples show, inner instinct is not always a reliable assistant in matters of philology. We can definitely say that the names of professions, the names of people by family affiliation, nationality and other groups will always be animated, and the names of animals can also be included here. By the way, among animate nouns, according to some researchers, there are only masculine and feminine words, while the middle gender isalready inanimate, like all the names of objects of nature and other objects.
Practice for the little ones
Now that we have figured out how to distinguish one category of nouns from another, it is worth summarizing all of the above. Animate and inanimate objects for preschoolers, who still have no idea what cases are, differ in terms of “who” and “what”, respectively. For practice, you can play with the kids in “living-non-living”, where the word is called, and the child must determine what this object is.
Or another interesting task for younger students is to offer a number of animate nouns that can be turned into inanimate ones by replacing one letter: fox (linden), goat (spit), heron (drop).
And advice for the older ones
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 act at random, trusting intuition. A minute spent checking the category of a noun can sometimes change the way you think about it. So spare no effort and practice the great and mighty Russian language.
