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eldin raigmore Admin
Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 1621 Location: SouthEast Michigan
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Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 12:36 am Post subject: A List of Common Features in Natlangs |
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[EDIT]: (Instead of correcting this post, I've put in some new posts. See posts after T_F's.) [/EDIT]
This lists, according to WALS.info, the commonest feature-values of several grammatical, morphological, and syntactic features in the natlangs in their database.
For each feature, the feature-values are listed from the commonest to the rarest, until the cumulative percent rises to 67% or more.
The percentage to the left of each feature-value is the cumulative percent of languages which have that and commoner values for that feature.
I don't intend to do this for the Phonology, the Lexicon, or the "Other" groups of features.
I have done it, here, for:
* Nominal Syntax
* Complex Sentences
* Morphology
* Verbal Categories
* Word Order
I also intend to do it for "Simple Clauses" and for "Nominal Categories".
Nominal Syntax:
58: Obligatory Possessive Inflection
82.38% Absent
61: Adjectives without Nouns
58.87% Without marking
73.39% Marked by preceding word
63: Noun Phrase Conjunction
55.98% 'And' different from 'with'
100.00% 'And' identical to 'with'
60: Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses
55.80% Highly differentiated
79.71% Adjectives and relative clauses collapsed
64: Nominal and Verbal Conjunction
53.49% Identity
95.02% Differentiation
59: Possessive Classification
51.44% No possessive classification
90.12% Two classes
62: Action Nominal Constructions
25.00% No action nominals
42.26% Possessive-Accusative
57.14% Sentential
71.43% Restricted
Complex Sentences:
128: Utterance Complement Clauses
79.72% Balanced
122: Relativization on Subjects
75.30% Gap
[size=14][b]125: Purpose Clauses
60.00% Deranked
82.35% Balanced
127: Reason Clauses
53.25% Balanced
78.11% Deranked
124: 'Want' Complement Subjects
50.88% Subject is left implicit
76.33% Subject is expressed overtly
123: Relativization on Obliques
49.11% Gap
66.96% Pronoun-retention
79.46% Non-reduction
126: 'When' Clauses
48.28% Balanced
77.59% Deranked
Morphology:
Verbal Categories:
Word Order:
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Sorry, I'll come back to this. I'm about to get timed out. _________________ "We're the healthiest horse in the glue factory" - Erskine Bowles, Co-Chairman of the deficit reduction commission
Last edited by eldin raigmore on Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:28 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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Tolkien_Freak
Joined: 26 Jul 2007 Posts: 1231 Location: in front of my computer. always.
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Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:09 am Post subject: |
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I think I'm missing something, since those percents add up to more than 100%... |
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eldin raigmore Admin
Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 1621 Location: SouthEast Michigan
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Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:45 pm Post subject: |
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Tolkien_Freak wrote: | I think I'm missing something, since those percents add up to more than 100%... | Yes, those were the cumulative percents. I'm going to post with the percents instead. _________________ "We're the healthiest horse in the glue factory" - Erskine Bowles, Co-Chairman of the deficit reduction commission |
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eldin raigmore Admin
Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 1621 Location: SouthEast Michigan
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Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:49 pm Post subject: Nominal Syntax |
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Nominal Syntax
58: Obligatory Possessive Inflection
82.38% Absent
61: Adjectives without Nouns
58.87% Without marking
14.52% Marked by preceding word
60: Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses
55.80% Highly differentiated
23.91% Adjectives and relative clauses collapsed
64: Nominal and Verbal Conjunction
53.49% Identity
41.53% Differentiation
59: Possessive Classification
51.44% No possessive classification
38.68% Two classes
62: Action Nominal Constructions
25.00% No action nominals
17.26% Possessive-Accusative
14.88% Sentential
14.29% Restricted _________________ "We're the healthiest horse in the glue factory" - Erskine Bowles, Co-Chairman of the deficit reduction commission |
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eldin raigmore Admin
Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 1621 Location: SouthEast Michigan
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Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:52 pm Post subject: Complex Sentences |
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Complex Sentences
128: Utterance Complement Clauses
79.72% Balanced
122: Relativization on Subjects
75.30% Gap
125: Purpose Clauses
60.00% Deranked
22.35% Balanced
127: Reason Clauses
53.25% Balanced
24.85% Deranked
124: 'Want' Complement Subjects
50.88% Subject is left implicit
25.44% Subject is expressed overtly
123: Relativization on Obliques
49.11% Gap
17.86% Pronoun-retention
12.50% Non-reduction
126: 'When' Clauses
48.28% Balanced
29.31% Deranked _________________ "We're the healthiest horse in the glue factory" - Erskine Bowles, Co-Chairman of the deficit reduction commission |
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eldin raigmore Admin
Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 1621 Location: SouthEast Michigan
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Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:57 pm Post subject: Morphology |
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Morphology
20: Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives
75.76% Exclusively concatenative
27: Reduplication
75.27% Productive full and partial reduplication
28: Case Syncretism
62.12% No case marking
17.68% No syncretism
25: Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology
51.27% Inconsistent or other
19.92% Head-marking
21: Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives
46.30% No case
43.83% Monoexponential case
26: Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology
42.73% Strongly suffixing
14.54% Equal prefixing and suffixing
13.65% Little affixation
24: Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases
41.53% Dependent marking
33.05% Head marking
29: Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking
40.91% Not syncretic
30.30% Syncretic
22: Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb
35.86% 4-5 categories per word
21.38% 6-7 categories per word
16.55% 2-3 categories per word
23: Locus of Marking in the Clause
30.08% Head marking
26.69% Dependent marking
24.58% Double marking _________________ "We're the healthiest horse in the glue factory" - Erskine Bowles, Co-Chairman of the deficit reduction commission |
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eldin raigmore Admin
Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 1621 Location: SouthEast Michigan
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Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:04 pm Post subject: Verbal Categories |
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Verbal Categories
73: The Optative
84.95% Inflectional optative absent
80: Verbal Number and Suppletion
82.38% None
74: Situational Possibility
67.52% Verbal constructions
79: Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect
63.73% None
18.65% Tense
69: Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes
59.23% Tense-aspect suffixes
14.12% Tense-aspect prefixes
72: Imperative-Hortative Systems
53.60% Neither type of system
35.47% Maximal system
70: The Morphological Imperative
53.38% Second singular and second plural
22.30% No second-person imperatives
68: The Perfect
51.35% No perfect
36.04% Other perfect
76: Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking
50.72% No overlap
31.88% Overlap for either possibility or necessity
77: Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality
43.30% No grammatical evidentials
39.71% Indirect only
78: Coding of Evidentiality
43.30% No grammatical evidentials
31.34% Verbal affix or clitic
66: The Past Tense
42.34% Present, no remoteness distinctions
39.64% No past tense
75: Epistemic Possibility
37.92% Other
35.00% Affixes on verbs
71: The Prohibitive
36.77% Normal imperative + special negative
29.29% Special imperative + special negative
22.83% Normal imperative + normal negative _________________ "We're the healthiest horse in the glue factory" - Erskine Bowles, Co-Chairman of the deficit reduction commission |
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eldin raigmore Admin
Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 1621 Location: SouthEast Michigan
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Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:11 pm Post subject: Word Order |
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Word Order
82: Order of Subject and Verb
78.87% SV
90: Order of Relative Clause and Noun
71.77% Noun-Relative clause
93: Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions
67.50% Not initial interrogative phrase
87: Order of Adjective and Noun
63.31% Noun-Adjective
28.11% Adjective-Noun
94: Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause
60.07% Initial subordinator word
14.73% Final subordinator word
86: Order of Genitive and Noun
54.84% Genitive-Noun
37.65% Noun-Genitive
89: Order of Numeral and Noun
51.40% Noun-Numeral
42.91% Numeral-Noun
96: Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun
48.94% VO and NRel
23.15% Other
85: Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase
48.42% Postpositions
43.48% Prepositions
91: Order of Degree Word and Adjective
46.91% Degree word-Adjective
40.50% Adjective-Degree word
83: Order of Object and Verb
46.72% OV
46.72% VO
88: Order of Demonstrative and Noun
45.49% Demonstrative-Noun
44.29% Noun-Demonstrative
84: Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb
42.09% VOX
33.85% No dominant order
95: Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase
41.34% OV and Postpositions
40.37% VO and Prepositions
81: Order of Subject, Object and Verb
40.47% SOV
35.50% SVO
92: Position of Polar Question Particles
39.77% No question particle
35.14% Final
97: Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun
34.53% VO and NAdj
24.53% OV and NAdj
17.18% OV and AdjN _________________ "We're the healthiest horse in the glue factory" - Erskine Bowles, Co-Chairman of the deficit reduction commission |
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eldin raigmore Admin
Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 1621 Location: SouthEast Michigan
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Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:17 pm Post subject: Simple Clauses |
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Simple Clauses
115: Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation
82.52% Predicate negation also present
111: Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions
81.94% Morphological but no compound
108: Antipassive Constructions
75.26% No antipassive
119: Nominal and Locational Predication
69.69% Different
116: Polar Questions
62.00% Question particle
18.29% Interrogative verb morphology
101: Expression of Pronominal Subjects
60.68% Subject affixes on verb
11.42% Obligatory pronouns in subject position
110: Periphrastic Causative Constructions
57.63% Purposive but no sequential
29.66% Sequential but no purposive
106: Reciprocal Constructions
56.57% Distinct from reflexive
25.14% Identical to reflexive
100: Alignment of Verbal Person Marking
55.79% Accusative
22.11% Neutral
109: Applicative Constructions
54.64% No applicative construction
26.78% Benefactive and other; both bases
98: Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases
51.58% Neutral
24.21% Nominative - accusative (standard)
102: Verbal Person Marking
51.06% Both the A and P arguments
21.69% No person marking
105: Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'
50.00% Indirect-object construction
22.22% Double-object construction
104: Order of Person Markers on the Verb
49.34% A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb
25.33% A precedes P
103: Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking
47.63% No zero realization
25.26% No person marking
112: Negative Morphemes
47.18% Negative particle
33.53% Negative affix
121: Comparative Constructions
46.71% Locational
20.36% Conjoined
99: Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns
45.93% Neutral
35.47% Nominative - accusative (standard)
113: Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation
43.77% Both
38.38% Symmetric
118: Predicative Adjectives
39.12% Verbal encoding
34.20% Nonverbal encoding
114: Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation
38.38% Non-assignable
27.61% A/Cat
13.47% A/Fin
117: Predicative Possession
26.25% Have-Possessive
24.58% Conjunctional Possessive
20.00% Locational Possessive _________________ "We're the healthiest horse in the glue factory" - Erskine Bowles, Co-Chairman of the deficit reduction commission |
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eldin raigmore Admin
Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 1621 Location: SouthEast Michigan
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Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:25 pm Post subject: Nominal Categories |
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Nominal Categories
42: Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives
71.14% Same forms
44: Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns
67.20% No gender distinctions
52: Comitatives and Instrumentals
66.15% Differentiation
23.60% Identity
45: Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns
65.70% Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction
23.67% Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction
39: Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns
60.00% No inclusive/exclusive opposition
31.50% Inclusive and exclusive differentiated
46: Indefinite Pronouns
59.51% Interrogative-based indefinites
26.07% Generic-noun-based indefinites
31: Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems
56.42% No gender system
32.68% Sex-based gender system
32: Systems of Gender Assignment
56.42% No gender system
22.96% Semantic and formal assignment
30: Number of Genders
56.42% None
19.46% Two
48: Person Marking on Adpositions
55.29% Adpositions without person marking
21.96% Person marking for pronouns only
41: Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives
54.27% Two-way contrast
37.61% Three-way contrast
33: Coding of Nominal Plurality
51.36% Plural suffix
15.66% Plural word
51: Position of Case Affixes
46.04% Case suffixes
36.19% Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics
34: Occurrence of Nominal Plurality
45.70% Plural in all nouns, always obligatory
18.90% Plural in all nouns, always optional
13.75% Plural only in human nouns, obligatory
43: Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives
44.44% Third person pronouns and demonstratives are unrelated to demonstratives
23.11% Third person pronouns and demonstratives are related to all demonstratives
36: The Associative Plural
44.30% Associative plural marker also used for additive plurals
20.25% Special bound associative plural marker
19.83% Special non-bound associative plural marker
35: Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns
43.68% Person-number stem
18.01% Person-number stem with a pronominal plural affix
9.58% Person-number affixes
38: Indefinite Articles
39.75% Neither indefinite nor definite
19.24% Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one'
19.03% Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article
40: Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection
39.50% No inclusive/exclusive opposition
35.00% No person marking at all
49: Number of Cases
38.31% No morphological case-marking
14.18% 6-7 case categories
9.20% 10 or more case categories
9.20% Exclusively borderline morphological case-marking
37: Definite Articles
34.81% Definite word distinct from demonstrative
33.22% Neither definite nor indefinite article
50: Asymmetrical Case-Marking
31.03% No morphological case-marking
30.27% Symmetrical case-marking
20.31% Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking _________________ "We're the healthiest horse in the glue factory" - Erskine Bowles, Co-Chairman of the deficit reduction commission |
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eldin raigmore Admin
Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 1621 Location: SouthEast Michigan
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Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:26 pm Post subject: Phonology |
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And maybe I will put in one about Phonology one day. Maybe soon!. (Maybe not soon. ) _________________ "We're the healthiest horse in the glue factory" - Erskine Bowles, Co-Chairman of the deficit reduction commission |
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Tolkien_Freak
Joined: 26 Jul 2007 Posts: 1231 Location: in front of my computer. always.
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Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:47 pm Post subject: |
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Ooh, wow. Looks nice - I'll definitely remember to check against this when I finally get around to doing my next lang.
(Phonology would be nice to have!) |
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