Passive Constructions
Simple clauses · one world map for each value
WALS codes 373 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “There is no passive construction”, covers 211 of them (57%); the least frequent, “There is a passive construction”, covers 162.
That value is most frequent in Papunesia (85% of the 78 languages coded there) and least frequent in Eurasia (38% of 77).
All 19 Indo-European languages coded have “There is a passive construction”.
Niger-Congo is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 12 of 23.
There is a passive construction162 languages · 43%
There is no passive construction211 languages · 57%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| There is a passive construction | 43 | 48 | 12 | 4 | 34 | 21 |
| There is no passive construction | 28 | 29 | 66 | 22 | 37 | 29 |
| All values | 71 | 77 | 78 | 26 | 71 | 50 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austronesian | 41 | There is no passive construction | 68% |
| Niger-Congo | 23 | There is a passive construction | 52% |
| Indo-European | 19 | There is a passive construction | 100% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 18 | There is a passive construction | 67% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 18 | There is no passive construction | 100% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 14 | There is no passive construction | 79% |
| Austro-Asiatic | 10 | There is no passive construction | 70% |
| Pama-Nyungan | 10 | There is no passive construction | 80% |
| Eastern Sudanic | 9 | There is a passive construction | 78% |
| Uto-Aztecan | 8 | There is a passive construction | 88% |