animacy

English

Etymology

animate +‎ -cy

Noun

animacy (usually uncountable, plural animacies)

1. (linguistics) In some languages, the characteristic of a noun, dependent on its living or sentient nature, which affects grammatical features (it can modify verbs used with the noun, affect the noun's declension, etc.).
2. (biology) The state of being alive.
   • 2011, Seppo Kittilä, Katya Västi, Jussi Ylikoski, Case, Animacy and Semantic Roles‎^[1], page 6:

     These may differ radically in their linguistic animacy, as briefly discussed above, without this having any consequences for their biological animacy.

Antonyms

• inanimacy

Related terms

• animate
• inanimate

Translations

quality of being animate

• Bulgarian: одушеве́ност f (oduševénost)
• Chinese: 有生性, 生命度
• Czech: životnost (cs) f
• French: animéité (fr) f, animacité f
• German: Belebtheit f
• Portuguese: animacidade f
• Russian: одушевлённость f (oduševljónnostʹ)

Anagrams

• Mayniac