Antipassive Constructions
Simple clauses · one world map for each value
WALS codes 194 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “No antipassive”, covers 146 of them (75%); the least frequent, “Antipassive with patient-like argument left implicit”, covers 18.
That value is most frequent in South America (90% of the 20 languages coded there) and least frequent in Australia (47% of 17).
All 16 Indo-European languages coded have “No antipassive”.
Nakh-Daghestanian is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 5 of 9.
Antipassive with patient-like argument left implicit18 languages · 9%
Oblique patient30 languages · 15%
No antipassive146 languages · 75%
One map per value; each dot is a language WALS codes with that value.
By macro-area
| Value | Africa | Eurasia | Papunesia | Australia | North America | South America |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antipassive with patient-like argument left implicit | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 0 |
| Oblique patient | 1 | 10 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 2 |
| No antipassive | 28 | 46 | 29 | 8 | 17 | 18 |
| All values | 32 | 58 | 34 | 17 | 33 | 20 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austronesian | 18 | No antipassive | 78% |
| Indo-European | 16 | No antipassive | 100% |
| Niger-Congo | 14 | No antipassive | 100% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 9 | No antipassive | 100% |
| Nakh-Daghestanian | 9 | Oblique patient | 56% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 9 | No antipassive | 100% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- Antipassive with patient-like argument left implicit: Lango, Krongo, Mangarrayi, Jakaltek, Lavukaleve, Kiowa
- Oblique patient: Basque, Greenlandic (West), Chamorro, Chukchi, Gooniyandi, Canela
- No antipassive: English, French, Russian, Finnish, Spanish, Turkish
From the same chapter
- Productivity of the Antipassive Construction 186 languages