Locus of Marking in the Clause
Word structure · one world map for each value
WALS codes 236 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “P is head-marked”, covers 71 of them (30%); the least frequent, “Other types”, covers 2.
That value is most frequent in North America (55% of the 51 languages coded there) and least frequent in Eurasia (8% of 48).
Among families with at least eight coded languages, Pama-Nyungan is the most uniform: 8 of 10 have “P is dependent-marked”.
Austronesian is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 4 of 12.
P is head-marked71 languages · 30%
P is dependent-marked63 languages · 27%
P is double-marked58 languages · 25%
P has no marking42 languages · 18%
Other types2 languages · 1%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P is head-marked | 5 | 4 | 19 | 7 | 28 | 8 |
| P is dependent-marked | 13 | 24 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 7 |
| P is double-marked | 3 | 14 | 9 | 9 | 15 | 8 |
| P has no marking | 13 | 6 | 13 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Other types | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| All values | 34 | 48 | 47 | 27 | 51 | 29 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trans-New Guinea | 15 | P is head-marked | 47% |
| Austronesian | 12 | P has no marking | 33% |
| Indo-European | 11 | P is dependent-marked | 55% |
| Pama-Nyungan | 10 | P is dependent-marked | 80% |
| Niger-Congo | 9 | P has no marking | 44% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- P is head-marked: Amele, Abkhaz, Hixkaryana, Swahili, Slave, Fijian
- P is dependent-marked: English, Russian, Finnish, Turkish, Mandarin, Hungarian
- P is double-marked: Spanish, Georgian, Basque, Greek (Modern), Persian, Hausa
- P has no marking: French, Indonesian, Supyire, Arabic (Egyptian), Vietnamese, Tukang Besi
- Other types: Yagua, Malakmalak