Features

A feature is a structural property of language that describes one aspect of cross-linguistic diversity. A WALS feature has between 2 and 28 different values, shown by different colours on the maps. Most features correspond straightforwardly to chapters, but some chapters are about multiple features.

ID Title Authors Area Languages
1A Consonant Inventories Ian Maddieson Phonology 563
2A Vowel Quality Inventories Ian Maddieson Phonology 564
3A Consonant-Vowel Ratio Ian Maddieson Phonology 564
4A Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives Ian Maddieson Phonology 567
5A Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems Ian Maddieson Phonology 567
6A Uvular Consonants Ian Maddieson Phonology 567
7A Glottalized Consonants Ian Maddieson Phonology 567
8A Lateral Consonants Ian Maddieson Phonology 567
9A The Velar Nasal Gregory D.S. Anderson Phonology 469
10A Vowel Nasalization John Hajek Phonology 244
10B Nasal Vowels in West Africa John Hajek Phonology 40
11A Front Rounded Vowels Ian Maddieson Phonology 562
12A Syllable Structure Ian Maddieson Phonology 486
13A Tone Ian Maddieson Phonology 527
14A Fixed Stress Locations Rob Goedemans and Harry van der Hulst Phonology 502
15A Weight-Sensitive Stress Rob Goedemans and Harry van der Hulst Phonology 500
16A Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems Rob Goedemans and Harry van der Hulst Phonology 500
17A Rhythm Types Rob Goedemans and Harry van der Hulst Phonology 323
18A Absence of Common Consonants Ian Maddieson Phonology 567
19A Presence of Uncommon Consonants Ian Maddieson Phonology 567
20A Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives Balthasar Bickel and Johanna Nichols Morphology 165
21A Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives Balthasar Bickel and Johanna Nichols Morphology 162
21B Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection Balthasar Bickel and Johanna Nichols Morphology 160
22A Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb Balthasar Bickel and Johanna Nichols Morphology 145
23A Locus of Marking in the Clause Johanna Nichols and Balthasar Bickel Morphology 236
24A Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases Johanna Nichols and Balthasar Bickel Morphology 236
25A Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology Johanna Nichols and Balthasar Bickel Morphology 236
25B Zero Marking of A and P Arguments Johanna Nichols and Balthasar Bickel Morphology 235
26A Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Matthew S. Dryer Morphology 971
27A Reduplication Carl Rubino Morphology 368
28A Case Syncretism Matthew Baerman and Dunstan Brown Morphology 198
29A Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking Matthew Baerman and Dunstan Brown Morphology 198
30A Number of Genders Greville G. Corbett Nominal Categories 257
31A Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems Greville G. Corbett Nominal Categories 257
32A Systems of Gender Assignment Greville G. Corbett Nominal Categories 257
33A Coding of Nominal Plurality Matthew S. Dryer Nominal Categories 1066
34A Occurrence of Nominal Plurality Martin Haspelmath Nominal Categories 291
35A Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Michael Daniel Nominal Categories 261
36A The Associative Plural Michael Daniel and Edith Moravcsik Nominal Categories 237
37A Definite Articles Matthew S. Dryer Nominal Categories 620
38A Indefinite Articles Matthew S. Dryer Nominal Categories 534
39A Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns Michael Cysouw Nominal Categories 200
39B Inclusive/Exclusive Forms in Pama-Nyungan Michael Cysouw Nominal Categories 71
40A Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection Michael Cysouw Nominal Categories 200
41A Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives Holger Diessel Nominal Categories 234
42A Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives Holger Diessel Nominal Categories 201
43A Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives D.N.S. Bhat Nominal Categories 225
44A Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns Anna Siewierska Nominal Categories 378
45A Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns Johannes Helmbrecht Nominal Categories 207
46A Indefinite Pronouns Martin Haspelmath Nominal Categories 326
47A Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns Ekkehard König and Peter Siemund (with Stephan Töpper ) Nominal Categories 168
48A Person Marking on Adpositions Dik Bakker Nominal Categories 378
49A Number of Cases Oliver A. Iggesen Nominal Categories 261
50A Asymmetrical Case-Marking Oliver A. Iggesen Nominal Categories 261
51A Position of Case Affixes Matthew S. Dryer Nominal Categories 1032
52A Comitatives and Instrumentals Thomas Stolz , Cornelia Stroh and Aina Urdze Nominal Categories 322
53A Ordinal Numerals Thomas Stolz and Ljuba N. Veselinova Nominal Categories 321
54A Distributive Numerals David Gil Nominal Categories 251
55A Numeral Classifiers David Gil Nominal Categories 400
56A Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers David Gil Nominal Categories 116
57A Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes Matthew S. Dryer Nominal Categories 902
58A Obligatory Possessive Inflection Balthasar Bickel and Johanna Nichols Nominal Syntax 244
58B Number of Possessive Nouns Balthasar Bickel and Johanna Nichols Nominal Syntax 243
59A Possessive Classification Johanna Nichols and Balthasar Bickel Nominal Syntax 243
60A Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses David Gil Nominal Syntax 138
61A Adjectives without Nouns David Gil Nominal Syntax 124
62A Action Nominal Constructions Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm Nominal Syntax 168
63A Noun Phrase Conjunction Leon Stassen Nominal Syntax 234
64A Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Martin Haspelmath Nominal Syntax 301
65A Perfective/Imperfective Aspect Östen Dahl and Viveka Velupillai Verbal Categories 222
66A The Past Tense Östen Dahl and Viveka Velupillai Verbal Categories 222
67A The Future Tense Östen Dahl and Viveka Velupillai Verbal Categories 222
68A The Perfect Östen Dahl and Viveka Velupillai Verbal Categories 222
69A Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Matthew S. Dryer Verbal Categories 1132
70A The Morphological Imperative Johan van der Auwera and Ludo Lejeune (with Umarani Pappuswamy and Valentin Goussev ) Verbal Categories 547
71A The Prohibitive Johan van der Auwera and Ludo Lejeune (with Valentin Goussev ) Verbal Categories 495
72A Imperative-Hortative Systems Johan van der Auwera , Nina Dobrushina and Valentin Goussev Verbal Categories 375
73A The Optative Nina Dobrushina , Johan van der Auwera and Valentin Goussev Verbal Categories 319
74A Situational Possibility Johan van der Auwera and Andreas Ammann Verbal Categories 234
75A Epistemic Possibility Johan van der Auwera and Andreas Ammann Verbal Categories 240
76A Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking Johan van der Auwera and Andreas Ammann Verbal Categories 207
77A Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality Ferdinand de Haan Verbal Categories 418
78A Coding of Evidentiality Ferdinand de Haan Verbal Categories 418
79A Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect Ljuba N. Veselinova Verbal Categories 193
79B Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives Ljuba N. Veselinova Verbal Categories 193
80A Verbal Number and Suppletion Ljuba N. Veselinova Verbal Categories 193
81A Order of Subject, Object and Verb Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 1377
81B Languages with two Dominant Orders of Subject, Object, and Verb Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 67
82A Order of Subject and Verb Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 1498
83A Order of Object and Verb Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 1519
84A Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb Matthew S. Dryer (with Orin D. Gensler ) Word Order 500
85A Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 1185
86A Order of Genitive and Noun Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 1248
87A Order of Adjective and Noun Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 1366
88A Order of Demonstrative and Noun Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 1223
89A Order of Numeral and Noun Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 1154
90A Order of Relative Clause and Noun Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 825
90B Prenominal relative clauses Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 191
90C Postnominal relative clauses Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 621
90D Internally-headed relative clauses Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 63
90E Correlative relative clauses Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 23
90F Adjoined relative clauses Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 10
90G Double-headed relative clauses Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 5
91A Order of Degree Word and Adjective Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 481
92A Position of Polar Question Particles Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 883
93A Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 901
94A Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 660
95A Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 1142
96A Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 879
97A Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 1316
98A Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases Bernard Comrie Simple Clauses 190
99A Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns Bernard Comrie Simple Clauses 172
100A Alignment of Verbal Person Marking Anna Siewierska Simple Clauses 380
101A Expression of Pronominal Subjects Matthew S. Dryer Simple Clauses 711
102A Verbal Person Marking Anna Siewierska Simple Clauses 378
103A Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking Anna Siewierska Simple Clauses 380
104A Order of Person Markers on the Verb Anna Siewierska Simple Clauses 379
105A Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' Martin Haspelmath Simple Clauses 378
106A Reciprocal Constructions Elena Maslova and Vladimir P. Nedjalkov Simple Clauses 175
107A Passive Constructions Anna Siewierska Simple Clauses 373
108A Antipassive Constructions Maria Polinsky Simple Clauses 194
108B Productivity of the Antipassive Construction Maria Polinsky Simple Clauses 186
109A Applicative Constructions Maria Polinsky Simple Clauses 183
109B Other Roles of Applied Objects Maria Polinsky Simple Clauses 183
110A Periphrastic Causative Constructions Jae Jung Song Simple Clauses 118
111A Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Jae Jung Song Simple Clauses 310
112A Negative Morphemes Matthew S. Dryer Simple Clauses 1159
113A Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Matti Miestamo Simple Clauses 297
114A Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation Matti Miestamo Simple Clauses 297
115A Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Martin Haspelmath Simple Clauses 206
116A Polar Questions Matthew S. Dryer Simple Clauses 954
117A Predicative Possession Leon Stassen Simple Clauses 240
118A Predicative Adjectives Leon Stassen Simple Clauses 386
119A Nominal and Locational Predication Leon Stassen Simple Clauses 386
120A Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Leon Stassen Simple Clauses 386
121A Comparative Constructions Leon Stassen Simple Clauses 167
122A Relativization on Subjects Bernard Comrie and Tania Kuteva Complex Sentences 166
123A Relativization on Obliques Bernard Comrie and Tania Kuteva Complex Sentences 112
124A 'Want' Complement Subjects Martin Haspelmath Complex Sentences 283
125A Purpose Clauses Sonia Cristofaro Complex Sentences 170
126A 'When' Clauses Sonia Cristofaro Complex Sentences 174
127A Reason Clauses Sonia Cristofaro Complex Sentences 169
128A Utterance Complement Clauses Sonia Cristofaro Complex Sentences 143
129A Hand and Arm Cecil H. Brown Lexicon 617
130A Finger and Hand Cecil H. Brown Lexicon 593
130B Cultural Categories of Languages with Identity of 'Finger' and 'Hand' Cecil H. Brown Lexicon 72
131A Numeral Bases Bernard Comrie Lexicon 196
132A Number of Non-Derived Basic Colour Categories Paul Kay and Luisa Maffi Lexicon 119
133A Number of Basic Colour Categories Paul Kay and Luisa Maffi Lexicon 119
134A Green and Blue Paul Kay and Luisa Maffi Lexicon 120
135A Red and Yellow Paul Kay and Luisa Maffi Lexicon 120
136A M-T Pronouns Johanna Nichols and David A. Peterson Lexicon 230
136B M in First Person Singular Johanna Nichols and David A. Peterson Lexicon 230
137A N-M Pronouns Johanna Nichols and David A. Peterson Lexicon 230
137B M in Second Person Singular Johanna Nichols and David A. Peterson Lexicon 230
138A Tea Östen Dahl Lexicon 230
139A Irregular Negatives in Sign Languages Ulrike Zeshan Sign Languages 35
140A Question Particles in Sign Languages Ulrike Zeshan Sign Languages 38
141A Writing Systems Bernard Comrie Other 6
142A Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks David Gil Other 143
143A Order of Negative Morpheme and Verb Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 1326
143B Obligatory Double Negation Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 120
143C Optional Double Negation Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 81
143D Optional Triple Negation Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 6
143E Preverbal Negative Morphemes Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 1326
143F Postverbal Negative Morphemes Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 1326
143G Minor morphological means of signaling negation Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 1326
144A Position of Negative Word With Respect to Subject, Object, and Verb Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 1191
144B Position of negative words relative to beginning and end of clause and with respect to adjacency to verb Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 609
144C Languages with different word order in negative clauses Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 28
144D The Position of Negative Morphemes in SVO Languages Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 465
144E Multiple Negative Constructions in SVO Languages Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 48
144F Obligatory Double Negation in SVO languages Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 57
144G Optional Double Negation in SVO languages Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 35
144H NegSVO Order Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 421
144I SNegVO Order Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 422
144J SVNegO Order Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 447
144K SVONeg Order Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 447
144L The Position of Negative Morphemes in SOV Languages Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 572
144M Multiple Negative Constructions in SOV Languages Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 54
144N Obligatory Double Negation in SOV languages Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 45
144O Optional Double Negation in SOV languages Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 31
144P NegSOV Order Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 408
144Q SNegOV Order Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 408
144R SONegV Order Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 411
144S SOVNeg Order Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 489
144T The Position of Negative Morphemes in Verb-Initial Languages Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 152
144U Double negation in verb-initial languages Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 17
144V Verb-Initial with Preverbal Negative Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 152
144W Verb-Initial with Negative that is Immediately Postverbal or between Subject and Object Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 151
144X Verb-Initial with Clause-Final Negative Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 151
144Y The Position of Negative Morphemes in Object-Initial Languages Matthew S. Dryer Word Order 16