[Algonquiana] animacy question

[MONICA MACAULAY]

That one holds in Menominee too - it seems to have something to do with size (large boards are animate but smaller ones are inanimate, according to Bloomfield).

- Monica

On Dec 10, 2015, at 3:07 PM, Guillaume Jacques <rgyalrongskad at gmail.com<mailto:rgyalrongskad at gmail.com>> wrote:

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<mailto: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
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--
Guillaume Jacques
CNRS (CRLAO) - INALCO
http://cnrs.academia.edu/GuillaumeJacques
http://himalco.hypotheses.org/
http://panchr.hypotheses.org/
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