Other Roles of Applied Objects
Simple clauses · one world map for each value
WALS codes 183 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “No applicative construction”, covers 100 of them (55%); the least frequent, “Instrument and locative”, covers 12.
That value is most frequent in Eurasia (84% of the 56 languages coded there) and least frequent in Papunesia (31% of 29).
All 16 Indo-European languages coded have “No applicative construction”.
Austronesian is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 5 of 14.
Instrument17 languages · 9%
Locative18 languages · 10%
Instrument and locative12 languages · 7%
No other roles (= Only benefactive)36 languages · 20%
No applicative construction100 languages · 55%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instrument | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
| Locative | 7 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Instrument and locative | 4 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| No other roles (= Only benefactive) | 5 | 3 | 12 | 3 | 9 | 4 |
| No applicative construction | 11 | 47 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 15 |
| All values | 31 | 56 | 29 | 15 | 31 | 21 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indo-European | 16 | No applicative construction | 100% |
| Austronesian | 14 | No applicative construction | 36% |
| Niger-Congo | 14 | No applicative construction | 36% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 8 | No applicative construction | 62% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 8 | No other roles (= Only benefactive) | 50% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- Instrument: Abkhaz, Greenlandic (West), Zulu, Maybrat, Tiwi, Jakaltek
- Locative: Georgian, Hausa, Swahili, Fijian, Lango, Krongo
- Instrument and locative: Tagalog, Malagasy, Tukang Besi, Ainu, Yagua, Oneida
- No other roles (= Only benefactive): Indonesian, Amele, Kannada, Burushaski, Chamorro, Yaqui
- No applicative construction: English, French, Russian, Finnish, Spanish, Turkish
From the same chapter
- Applicative Constructions 183 languages