[Algonquiana] animacy question

[Guillaume Jacques]

In Ojibwe, mitig means "tree" when animate (pl mitigoog), and "stick" when
inanimate (pl mitigoon), which looks in some way similar to the "apple"
case you mention (becoming inanimate when removed from the place where it
grew). This pair exists in other Algonquian languages, I think.

2015-12-10 21:48 GMT+01:00 MONICA MACAULAY <mmacaula at wisc.edu>:

> Recently I’ve heard Menominee learners saying that “apple” is animate
> while it’s attached to the tree, but inanimate when it falls on the
> ground.  Bloomfield does talk about how inanimate nouns can be treated as
> animate in, for example, stories where some object takes on magical
> qualities, but I don’t think he talks about this kind of switch (although I
> could just be missing it!).  Do you find this in other Algonquian
> languages?  Or do you think this is an innovation by the learners?  I’ve
> heard it from a lot of people and have been wondering about it for a while.
>
> thanks!
>
> - Monica
> _______________________________________________
> Algonquiana mailing list
> Algonquiana at listserv.linguistlist.org
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/algonquiana
>



-- 
Guillaume Jacques
CNRS (CRLAO) - INALCO
http://cnrs.academia.edu/GuillaumeJacques
http://himalco.hypotheses.org/
http://panchr.hypotheses.org/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/algonquiana/attachments/20151210/8e59a0d4/attachment.htm>