“Stolova noga” (Table’s leg) or about the category of animacy in recent Croatian linguistic handbooks

Abstract

This paper examines the category of animacy in Croatian and its connection with category of possessiveness within grammars and other linguistic manuals of standard Croatian language. The influence of category of animacy on word formation and word forms is also analysed, with special consideration given to word forms used to express possession, especially possessive adjectives. The influence of other linguistic categories (countability, definiteness, specificity) on word formation, the options available, as well as on the use of possessive word forms is also studied. The paper determines the bearers of possessiveness as [+ living] nouns or as nouns which changed their actual [- living] feature into the linguistic [+ living] feature. Restrictions in possessive adjectives formed from collective nouns are also noticed.

Keywords

• Croatian standard language
• animacy
• possessiveness