Animacy and egophoricity: Grammar, ontology and phylogeny

Some results of earlier work on animacy by Kari Fraurud and the author are reviewed, demonstrating the close relationship between (i) the role of animacy as a determinant of grammatical rules and the choice between types of referential expressions, and (ii) statistical regularities in discourse. The...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLingua Vol. 118; no. 2; pp. 141 - 150
Main Author Dahl, O
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier B.V 01.02.2008
Subjects
Animacy
Animacy and Inanimacy
Cognitive Linguistics
Cognitive Processes
Egophoricity
Grammar
HUMANIORA och RELIGIONSVETENSKAP
HUMANITIES and RELIGION
Language Usage
Languages and linguistics
Linguistic subjects
Linguistics
Lingvistik
Lingvistikämnen
Ontological category
Phylogeny
Self Concept
Språkvetenskap
Syntax Semantics Relationship
Ontological category
Animacy
Grammar
Phylogeny
Egophoricity
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Summary:Some results of earlier work on animacy by Kari Fraurud and the author are reviewed, demonstrating the close relationship between (i) the role of animacy as a determinant of grammatical rules and the choice between types of referential expressions, and (ii) statistical regularities in discourse. The idea that animacy is an ontological category is developed further. In the final section, the phylogenetic basis of the notions behind animacy and egophoricity is discussed. It is argued that the grammatical animacy hierarchy corresponds to a three-step cognitive scale: the self is the model for other animate individuals, which are in their turn models for inanimate objects when understood as individual ‘things’.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0024-3841
1872-6135
1872-6135
DOI:10.1016/j.lingua.2007.02.008