Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence · one world map for each value
WALS codes 207 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “No overlap”, covers 105 of them (51%); the least frequent, “Overlap for both possibility and necessity”, covers 36.
That value is most frequent in South America (81% of the 16 languages coded there) and least frequent in Eurasia (32% of 88).
Among families with at least eight coded languages, Trans-New Guinea is the most uniform: 8 of 9 have “No overlap”.
Afro-Asiatic is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 5 of 13.
Overlap for both possibility and necessity36 languages · 17%
Overlap for either possibility or necessity66 languages · 32%
No overlap105 languages · 51%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overlap for both possibility and necessity | 2 | 32 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Overlap for either possibility or necessity | 17 | 28 | 8 | 2 | 8 | 3 |
| No overlap | 12 | 28 | 24 | 6 | 22 | 13 |
| All values | 31 | 88 | 34 | 8 | 30 | 16 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indo-European | 32 | Overlap for both possibility and necessity | 66% |
| Austronesian | 23 | No overlap | 61% |
| Niger-Congo | 15 | Overlap for either possibility or necessity | 60% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 13 | Overlap for either possibility or necessity | 38% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 10 | No overlap | 50% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 9 | No overlap | 89% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.