Thread: Genitive case being ignored?

For example, "жареный цыпленок" is animate.

Furthermore: Words such as глаз ("eye"), рот ("mouth"), нос ("nose"), таз ("pelvis; hipbones") and still others refer to body parts of an animate person, and are made of living tissue, and are even masculine in gender. So, logically, one might expect that such words have an accusative identical in form to the genitive -- but they don't. Yet, as it-ogo notes, a (dead) and roasted young chicken IS animate! (I'm reminded that Karl Orff's Carmina Burana has an entire song performed by a Жареный Лебедёнок, "roasted cygnet"!)

P.S. I couldn't think of an example of a masculine body part that one might use in referring to a roasted chick or swan -- maybe окорок, "thigh"? If so, then one would say Я съел жареного лебедёнка (animate masc. acc.) but Я съел жареный лебединый окорок (inanimate masc. acc.)

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Furthermore: Words such as глаз ("eye"), рот ("mouth"), нос ("nose"), таз ("pelvis; hipbones") and still others refer to body parts of an animate person, and are made of living tissue, and are even masculine in gender.

Err... They are not animate. "Вижу рот". not "Вижу рта".

Originally Posted by it-ogo

Err... They are not animate. "Вижу рот". not "Вижу рта".

That's what he said after that.

So, logically, one might expect that such words have an accusative identical in form to the genitive -- but they don't.

Originally Posted by zxc

That's what he said after that.

Ah, so his logic was the following: animate is like animated that is something that moves and lives. So body parts should be animate.

But in Russian "animate" - одушевленный, "which has a soul", so this logic is not apparent for me. BTW in Latin "anima" also means "soul". "Animate" in fact is not just something living and moving (like a body part) but something that makes an impression of possessing its own will. So the word "цыпленок" is animate (independently of its current fried condition) and "тело" is not animate because it's a soul that possess body, not vice versa.