Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection
Word structure · one world map for each value
WALS codes 160 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “monoexponential TAM”, covers 127 of them (79%); the least frequent, “TAM+agreement+construct”, is recorded for a single language.
That value is most frequent in North America (90% of the 29 languages coded there) and least frequent in Papunesia (71% of 24).
Among families with at least eight coded languages, Sino-Tibetan is the most uniform: 8 of 9 have “monoexponential TAM”.
Indo-European is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 4 of 8.
monoexponential TAM127 languages · 79%
TAM+agreement19 languages · 12%
TAM+agreement+diathesis4 languages · 2%
TAM+agreement+construct1 language · 1%
TAM+polarity5 languages · 3%
no TAM4 languages · 2%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| monoexponential TAM | 21 | 35 | 17 | 10 | 26 | 18 |
| TAM+agreement | 1 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| TAM+agreement+diathesis | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TAM+agreement+construct | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TAM+polarity | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| no TAM | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| All values | 27 | 45 | 24 | 13 | 29 | 22 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austronesian | 10 | monoexponential TAM | 80% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 9 | monoexponential TAM | 89% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 8 | monoexponential TAM | 75% |
| Indo-European | 8 | monoexponential TAM | 50% |
| Niger-Congo | 8 | monoexponential TAM | 88% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- monoexponential TAM: English, Russian, Finnish, Turkish, Indonesian, Mandarin
- TAM+agreement: French, Spanish, Georgian, Hindi, Tukang Besi, Chamorro
- TAM+agreement+diathesis: Greek (Modern), Arabic (Egyptian), Hebrew (Modern), Kewa
- TAM+agreement+construct: Lango
- TAM+polarity: Kayardild, Mangarrayi, Hunzib, Koyra Chiini, Maasai
- no TAM: Maybrat, Tiwi, Sango, Bororo
From the same chapter
- Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives 162 languages