animacy
noun[U]
languagespecializeduk/ˈæn.ɪ.mə.si/us/ˈæn.ə.mə.si/thequalityin anounof referring to somethinganimate(= alivingbeing):
Studiessuggestthat animacy has someinfluenceon thesyntacticstructureofsentences.
Animacy andagencyarelinkedinEnglish; forexample,sentencessuch as "The mankickedtheball" are morefrequentthansentencessuch as "Theladderhitthe man."
- Witholderchildrenanimacy mightelicittheproductionofpassiveclauses.
- Animacy is one of the mostelementaryprinciplesin manylanguages, and is adistinctionunderstoodat a very earlyage.
- Slaviclanguagesthat havecase,includingRussian, have acomplexhierarchyof animacy.
- Thestudylookedat theinfluenceof animacy onrelativeclauseprocessing.
Linguistic terms & linguistic style
- affricate
- allophone
- allophony
- anaphor
- anaphora
- chatty
- colloquial
- double entendre
- downtoner
- emphatic
- entailment
- etymological
- etymologically
- flowery
- oxymoron
- philological
- polysemy
- portmanteau word
- prescriptivism
- prescriptivist