animacy
nounEtymology From animate + -cy.
1
Usually The state of being animate (alive or supernaturally seeming alive).
- These may differ radically in their linguistic animacy, as briefly discussed above, without this having any consequences for their biological animacy.2011, Seppo Kittilä, Katja Västi, Jussi Ylikoski, Case, Animacy and Semantic Roles, page 6:
2
Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences Usually 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.).