| The case marking pattern for each noun being inflected depends on the noun's degree of animacy. |
|
| To a lesser extent, a noun's animacy or humanness may add another layer of complexity. |
|
| Other words use the forms of the genitive case or the nominative case in place of the accusative, depending on their animacy. |
|
| The split may sometimes be linked to animacy, as in many Australian Aboriginal languages, or to aspect, as in Mayan languages. |
|
| A few Australian languages, such as Diyari, are split among accusative, ergative, and tripartite alignment, depending on animacy. |
|
| The most natural hierarchy of animacy and definiteness places transitive subjects higher than transitive object. |
|
| The definiteness and animacy scale of Differential Subject Marking has the same hierarchical structure exhibited in the section on Differential Object Marking. |
|
| Analysis of the alternation between impersonal reflexives and reflexive passives in Spanish shows that higher animacy makes an argument less marked as an object. |
|
