Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals
Simple clauses · one world map for each value
WALS codes 386 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Zero copula is impossible”, covers 211 of them (55%); the least frequent, “Zero copula is possible”, covers 175.
That value is most frequent in North America (84% of the 67 languages coded there) and least frequent in Australia (5% of 20).
Among families with at least eight coded languages, Pama-Nyungan is the most uniform: 10 of 11 have “Zero copula is possible”.
Altaic is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 5 of 10.
Zero copula is impossible211 languages · 55%
Zero copula is possible175 languages · 45%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zero copula is impossible | 53 | 70 | 22 | 1 | 56 | 9 |
| Zero copula is possible | 34 | 41 | 50 | 19 | 11 | 20 |
| All values | 87 | 111 | 72 | 20 | 67 | 29 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austronesian | 49 | Zero copula is possible | 63% |
| Niger-Congo | 30 | Zero copula is impossible | 80% |
| Indo-European | 29 | Zero copula is impossible | 76% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 25 | Zero copula is possible | 64% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 15 | Zero copula is possible | 87% |
| Eastern Sudanic | 13 | Zero copula is impossible | 54% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 13 | Zero copula is impossible | 62% |
| Austro-Asiatic | 12 | Zero copula is possible | 67% |
| Pama-Nyungan | 11 | Zero copula is possible | 91% |
| Uralic | 11 | Zero copula is possible | 64% |
| Altaic | 10 | Zero copula is impossible | 50% |
| Uto-Aztecan | 8 | Zero copula is impossible | 50% |