Universal 913: speaker (1st person pronouns) > addressee (2nd person pronouns) > kin > rational > human > animate > inanimate

Original: The Animacy hierarchy:
speaker (1st person pronouns) > addressee (2nd person pronouns) > kin > rational > human > animate > inanimate.
If a plurality split occurs, it occurs in accord with the animacy hierarchy.
Standardized: IF a plurality split occurs, THEN all NPs to the left from it will have the distinction of plurality and those to the right from it will lack it.
Keywords: hierarchy, animacy, split, number, plural
Domain: inflection
Type: implicational hierarchy
Status: achronic
Quality: statistical
Basis: languages in Smith-Stark 1974
Source: Smith-Stark 1974: 665

Counterexamples: English, where the distinction of plurality is neutralized in the 2nd person pronoun.Zuni (islolate) – where nouns referring to plants and animals do not distinguish plural, but human and non-living nouns do.Acooli (Nilo-Saharan) where there is class of nouns which can be pluralized, of which only a part seem in accord with this proposal.‘Minor numbers’ (paucal, dual, collective, general, mass) are not subject to the Animacy Hierarchy. See examples from Avar, Budux (both Caucasian), Italian, Spanish dialects (both Italic, Indo-European), Hebrew, Maltese (both Semitic, Afro-Asiatic), Fula (Niger-Congo) in Corbett 1996.

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