THE REFLECTION OF THE CATEGORY OF ANIMATENESS / INANIMATENESS IN ANCIENT INDO-EUROPEAN SYSTEM OF NOUN DECLENSION
The ancient Indo-European system of noun declension was based on the division of substantives into groups according to the stem-building suffix. The ancient division of all objects of reality into two big classes (animated vs. inanimated) was reflected in the system of noun declension in the ancient Indo-European. The ground for grouping nouns into different types of declension was the common semantic principle of the ancient stem-building suffixes. Ancient substantives were semantically united on the basis of their treatment by the ancient people according to their role and place in the surrounding reality.
Keywords: ancient Indo-European system of noun declension, stem-building suffix, semantic principle, category of animateness / inanimateness, gender differentiation, ethnocultural importance
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Issue: 7, 2010
Series of issue: Issue 7
Rubric: Topical Problems of Germanic Philology
Pages: 5 — 12
Downloads: 1352