When is 死に used to describe something is dead instead of 死んでいる or 死んだ?


死に馬にむちを打つ - beat ［whip, flog］ a dead horse

After reading the sentence above, I was wondering when it's appropriate to use
死に to describe when something(or someone?) is dead instead of using 死んでいる or
死んだ.




[死]{し}に[馬]{うま} sounds archaic to me. I don't think you can use this 死に for
other animals (*死に猫, *死に犬, *死に牛...) at least in modern Japanese. I can only
think of [死]{し}に[人]{びと} (and maybe [死]{し}に[金]{がね}?). 死んだ人, [死人]{しにん},
[死者]{ししゃ} are more common.

死んだ/死んでいる馬に鞭を打つ is grammatically fine and makes perfect sense. Maybe 死に馬に鞭を打つ
sounds better as a proverb.  




[死]{し}に[馬]{うま} sounds archaic to me. I don't think you can use this 死に for
other animals (*死に猫, *死に犬, *死に牛...) at least in modern Japanese. I can only
think of [死]{し}に[人]{びと} (and maybe [死]{し}に[金]{がね}?). 死んだ人, [死人]{しにん},
[死者]{ししゃ} are more common.

死んだ/死んでいる馬に鞭を打つ is grammatically fine and makes perfect sense. Maybe 死に馬に鞭を打つ
sounds better as a proverb.  

