Japanese - Ask questions thread

Basically if you have a question about the language, ask it and fellow 4channers might see it and answer it for you.

To start it off. When an animate object (iru) dies, is it considered inanimate(aru)?

ない=adjective, なく=adverb
なく= not, right? both are adverbs

What's the difference between じゃない and じゃなく? I'd say じゃない means "Is not"; However, not is an adverb, and nai is an adjective, so "Is not" would make more sense for じゃなく since both are adverbs it'd seem like.

Can anyone shed some light on why/how they are different?
I think though that you can change them if you were to combine a sentence, like ない to なくて、 but I'm talking about the fact that one is adjective and one is an adverb. I'm probably just completely misunderstanding everything and making myself look retarded, heh.