Periphrastic Causative Constructions
Simple clauses · one world map for each value
WALS codes 118 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Purposive type but no sequential type”, covers 68 of them (58%); the least frequent, “Both sequential type and purposive type”, covers 15.
That value is most frequent in Eurasia (69% of the 35 languages coded there) and least frequent in Papunesia (30% of 23).
Among families with at least eight coded languages, Indo-European is the most uniform: 8 of 11 have “Purposive type but no sequential type”.
Niger-Congo is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 4 of 11.
Sequential type but no purposive type35 languages · 30%
Purposive type but no sequential type68 languages · 58%
Both sequential type and purposive type15 languages · 13%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sequential type but no purposive type | 8 | 6 | 13 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| Purposive type but no sequential type | 12 | 24 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 6 |
| Both sequential type and purposive type | 6 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| All values | 26 | 35 | 23 | 11 | 14 | 9 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austronesian | 19 | Sequential type but no purposive type | 47% |
| Indo-European | 11 | Purposive type but no sequential type | 73% |
| Niger-Congo | 11 | Sequential type but no purposive type | 36% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.