nekamieji

Nekamieji is a term used in Lithuanian linguistics and lexicography to refer to inanimate entities—things that are not living and do not have agency. The category is used to contrast with living beings such as animals and humans, and it helps describe how nouns and related parts of speech function in language.

The scope of nekamieji includes a wide range of references. Common nekamieji nouns are ordinary objects (stalas, knyga), materials (medis, metalas), places (miestas, namas), and abstract concepts (laikas, idėja). While the term marks a semantic category, nekamieji nouns are generally treated like other nouns in terms of basic grammar and declension. The distinction between nekamieji and animate nouns is more about meaning and use than about a drastic difference in morphology within standard Lithuanian grammar.

In practical use, nekamieji nouns appear across everyday language as descriptors, identifiers, and in combination with adjectives, pronouns, and verbs. The category helps learners and researchers discuss patterns of agreement, word choice, and semantics without implying life or sentience.

In linguistic study, nekamieji is often mentioned alongside the broader concept of animacy, which appears in other languages with more pronounced morphological effects. In Lithuanian, the nekamieji designation is a useful instrument for analyzing how nouns convey non-living reference and how this reference interacts with sentence structure and meaning.

Examples of nekamieji nouns include stalas (table), knyga (book), vanduo (water), laikas (time), and idėja (idea).