Situational Possibility
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence · one world map for each value
WALS codes 234 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Verbal constructions”, covers 158 of them (68%); the least frequent, “Other kinds of markers”, covers 13.
That value is most frequent in Africa (84% of the 43 languages coded there) and least frequent in North America (45% of 33).
All 15 Afro-Asiatic languages coded have “Verbal constructions”.
Sino-Tibetan is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 4 of 10.
Affixes on verbs63 languages · 27%
Verbal constructions158 languages · 68%
Other kinds of markers13 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Affixes on verbs | 6 | 15 | 18 | 5 | 14 | 5 |
| Verbal constructions | 36 | 75 | 17 | 2 | 15 | 13 |
| Other kinds of markers | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| All values | 43 | 95 | 36 | 9 | 33 | 18 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indo-European | 33 | Verbal constructions | 97% |
| Austronesian | 23 | Verbal constructions | 74% |
| Niger-Congo | 18 | Verbal constructions | 72% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 15 | Verbal constructions | 100% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 10 | Verbal constructions | 40% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 10 | Affixes on verbs | 80% |
| Altaic | 8 | Affixes on verbs | 50% |
| Dravidian | 8 | Verbal constructions | 62% |