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)?

When kanji have other readings over them, like in katakana, they want you to read the katakana version instead of the kanji version, right? Is this called 当て字? Anyways, what's the point of it? To give it like two meanings or some kind of joke?