Lavukaleve

Solomons East Papuan family · Lavukaleve branch · Papunesia

Lavukaleve is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Productivity of the Antipassive Construction, WALS codes Lavukaleve as “not productive”, a value held by 2 of the 186 languages coded, the other being Choctaw.

On Negative Morphemes, WALS codes Lavukaleve as “Variation between negative word and affix”, a value held by 21 of the 1,157 languages coded, Armenian (Eastern) and Paumarí among them.

The closest grammar profile to Lavukaleve in the atlas belongs to Daga, a Trans-New Guinea language: the two agree on 57 of the 89 features both have coded.

The order Lavukaleve uses in 7 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Lavukaleve with Daga or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Lavukaleve, rarest first.

Order of Relative Clause and NounInternally-headed relative clause24 of 824
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive SystemsMissing /g/34 of 567
Person Marking on AdpositionsPerson marking for pronouns and nouns23 of 378
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard NegationA/Fin and A/Cat21 of 297
Antipassive ConstructionsAntipassive with patient-like argument left implicit18 of 194
Order of Object, Oblique, and VerbOblique-object-verb (XOV)48 of 500

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with Lavukaleve; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

Maung Iwaidjan61 of 101
Amele Trans-New Guinea69 of 116
Arapesh (Mountain) Torricelli59 of 98
Fur family of its own45 of 75

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Lavukaleve for 119 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 110 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Lavukaleve shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 18

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Fixed Stress Locations	Initial: stress is on the first syllable	92 of 502
Consonant Inventories	Moderately small	122 of 563
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, also initially	147 of 469
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in plosives alone	189 of 567
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Rhythm Types	Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong	153 of 323
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems	No weight, or weight factor unknown	261 of 500
Weight-Sensitive Stress	Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)	281 of 500
Syllable Structure	Moderately complex syllable structure	274 of 486
Tone	No tones	307 of 527
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 of 567
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels absent	180 of 244
Presence of Uncommon Consonants	None	449 of 567
Uvular Consonants	No uvulars	470 of 567
Absence of Common Consonants	All present	503 of 567
Front Rounded Vowels	None	525 of 562

Word structure 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Moderate preference for suffixing	123 of 969
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Consistently head-marking	47 of 236
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is head-marked	71 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is syncretic	60 of 198
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is head-marked	78 of 236
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	4-5 categories per word	52 of 145
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	No case	75 of 162
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
Reduplication	Productive full and partial reduplication	278 of 368
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Exclusively concatenative	125 of 165
Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection	monoexponential TAM	127 of 160
Zero Marking of A and P Arguments	Non-zero marking	219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 22

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Number of Genders	Three	26 of 257
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	3rd person only, but also non-singular	42 of 378
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	30 of 200
The Associative Plural	Associative plural absent	37 of 236
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Different stems	37 of 201
Indefinite Articles	Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article	112 of 534
Systems of Gender Assignment	Semantic and formal assignment	59 of 257
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Related for all demonstratives	52 of 225
Indefinite Pronouns	Generic-noun-based indefinites	85 of 326
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive prefixes	255 of 902
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	No morphological case-marking	81 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	63 of 200
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	Sex-based gender system	84 of 257
Definite Articles	Definite word distinct from demonstrative	216 of 620
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Three-way contrast	88 of 234
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem	114 of 261
Position of Case Affixes	Case suffixes	452 of 1,031
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural in all nouns, always obligatory	133 of 291
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical	94 of 168
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction	136 of 207

Noun phrases 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	Sentential	25 of 168
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical	161 of 301
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Situational Possibility	Affixes on verbs	63 of 234
The Prohibitive	Special imperative + special negative	146 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Other	91 of 240
The Past Tense	No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction	88 of 222
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
The Future Tense	Inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	110 of 222
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	No overlap	105 of 207
The Perfect	No perfect	114 of 222
The Morphological Imperative	Second singular and second plural	292 of 548
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system	201 of 375
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	121 of 222
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)	153 of 193
Verbal Number and Suppletion	No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples	159 of 193
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 9

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	More than one type of adverbial subordinators with none dominant	93 of 659
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at end of sentence	314 of 884
Order of Object and Verb	Object precedes verb (OV)	712 of 1,518
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Postpositions	577 of 1,184
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral follows noun (NNum)	608 of 1,154
Order of Genitive and Noun	Genitive-noun (GenN)	685 of 1,249
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)	879 of 1,367
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial	615 of 902
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 16

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	P precedes A	57 of 379
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Sequential type but no purposive type	35 of 118
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Neutral	79 of 172
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No zero realization of third person S forms	181 of 380
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Indirect-object construction	189 of 378
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of both the A and P arguments	193 of 378
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Neutral	98 of 190
Applicative Constructions	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
Passive Constructions	There is no passive construction	211 of 373
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs	437 of 711
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions	Morphological type but no compound type	254 of 310
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation	Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation	170 of 206

Complex sentences 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Relativization on Obliques	Non-Reduction Strategy	14 of 112
Relativization on Subjects	Non-reduction	24 of 166
'When' Clauses	Balanced/deranked	39 of 174
Reason Clauses	Deranked	42 of 169
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170

Vocabulary 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
M in Second Person Singular	No m in second person singular	152 of 230
M in First Person Singular	No m in first person singular	177 of 230
N-M Pronouns	No N-M pronouns	194 of 230
M-T Pronouns	No M-T pronouns	200 of 230

Other 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks	Clicks may express affective but not logical meanings	71 of 143