Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation
Simple clauses · one world map for each value
WALS codes 206 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation”, covers 170 of them (83%); the least frequent, “Negative indefinites preclude predicate negation”, covers 11.
That value is most frequent in South America (90% of the 20 languages coded there) and least frequent in Papunesia (65% of 23).
All 13 Sino-Tibetan languages coded have “Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation”.
Austronesian is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 11 of 19.
Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation170 languages · 83%
Negative indefinites preclude predicate negation11 languages · 5%
Negative indefinites show mixed behaviour13 languages · 6%
Negative existential construction12 languages · 6%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 32 | 80 | 15 | 7 | 18 | 18 |
| Negative indefinites preclude predicate negation | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| Negative indefinites show mixed behaviour | 1 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Negative existential construction | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| All values | 36 | 92 | 23 | 9 | 26 | 20 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indo-European | 28 | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 64% |
| Austronesian | 19 | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 58% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 16 | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 81% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 13 | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 100% |
| Niger-Congo | 12 | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 92% |
| Altaic | 9 | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 100% |
| Uralic | 9 | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 100% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation: Russian, Finnish, Turkish, Indonesian, Mandarin, Hungarian
- Negative indefinites preclude predicate negation: German, Chamorro, Tiwi, Mangarrayi, Mixtec (Chalcatongo), Nahuatl (Tetelcingo)
- Negative indefinites show mixed behaviour: English, French, Spanish, Georgian, Yaqui, Taba
- Negative existential construction: Lango, Barasano, Iraqw, Nkore-Kiga, Tuvaluan, Tahitian