| Phonology |
|---|
|
Consonant Inventories
|
Moderately large |
|
|
Vowel Quality Inventories
|
Average (5-6) |
|
|
Consonant-Vowel Ratio
|
Average |
|
|
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives
|
In fricatives alone |
|
|
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems
|
Other |
|
|
Uvular Consonants
|
Uvular continuants only |
|
|
Glottalized Consonants
|
No glottalized consonants |
|
|
Lateral Consonants
|
/l/, no obstruent laterals |
|
|
The Velar Nasal
|
No initial velar nasal |
|
|
Vowel Nasalization
|
Contrast absent |
|
|
Front Rounded Vowels
|
High only |
|
|
Syllable Structure
|
Moderately complex |
|
|
Tone
|
Complex tone system |
|
|
Fixed Stress Locations
|
No fixed stress |
|
|
Weight-Sensitive Stress
|
Not predictable |
|
|
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems
|
Lexical stress |
|
|
Absence of Common Consonants
|
All present |
|
|
Presence of Uncommon Consonants
|
None |
|
| Morphology |
|---|
|
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives
|
Isolating/concatenative |
|
|
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives
|
Monoexponential case |
|
|
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb
|
0-1 category per word |
|
|
Locus of Marking in the Clause
|
Dependent marking |
|
|
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases
|
Dependent marking |
|
|
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology
|
Dependent-marking |
|
|
Reduplication
|
Productive full and partial reduplication |
|
|
Case Syncretism
|
No case marking |
|
|
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking
|
No subject person/number marking |
|
| Nominal Categories |
|---|
|
Number of Genders
|
None |
|
|
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems
|
No gender |
|
|
Systems of Gender Assignment
|
No gender |
|
|
Coding of Nominal Plurality
|
Plural suffix |
|
|
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality
|
Only human nouns, optional |
|
|
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns
|
Person stem + nominal plural affix |
|
|
The Associative Plural
|
Unique periphrastic associative plural |
|
|
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns
|
Inclusive/exclusive |
|
|
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection
|
No person marking |
|
|
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives
|
Two-way contrast |
|
|
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives
|
Identical |
|
|
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives
|
Related for non-human reference |
|
|
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns
|
3rd person singular only |
|
|
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns
|
Binary politeness distinction |
|
|
Indefinite Pronouns
|
Mixed |
|
|
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns
|
Identical |
|
|
Person Marking on Adpositions
|
No person marking |
|
|
Number of Cases
|
No morphological case-marking |
|
|
Asymmetrical Case-Marking
|
No case-marking |
|
|
Comitatives and Instrumentals
|
Differentiation |
|
|
Ordinal Numerals
|
One-th, two-th, three-th |
|
|
Distributive Numerals
|
No distributive numerals |
|
|
Numeral Classifiers
|
Obligatory |
|
|
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers
|
Formally similar, with interrogative |
|
| Nominal Syntax |
|---|
|
Obligatory Possessive Inflection
|
Absent |
|
|
Possessive Classification
|
No possessive classification |
|
|
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses
|
Weakly differentiated |
|
|
Adjectives without Nouns
|
Marked by following word |
|
|
Action Nominal Constructions
|
No action nominals |
|
|
Noun Phrase Conjunction
|
'And' identical to 'with' |
|
|
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction
|
Differentiation |
|
| Verbal Categories |
|---|
|
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect
|
Grammatical marking |
|
|
The Past Tense
|
No past tense |
|
|
The Future Tense
|
No inflectional future |
|
|
The Perfect
|
No perfect |
|
|
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes
|
Tense-aspect suffixes |
|
|
The Morphological Imperative
|
No second-person imperatives |
|
|
The Prohibitive
|
Normal imperative + special negative |
|
|
Imperative-Hortative Systems
|
Neither type of system |
|
|
The Optative
|
Inflectional optative absent |
|
|
Situational Possibility
|
Verbal constructions |
|
|
Epistemic Possibility
|
Verbal constructions |
|
|
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking
|
Overlap for both possibility and necessity |
|
|
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality
|
No grammatical evidentials |
|
|
Coding of Evidentiality
|
No grammatical evidentials |
|
|
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect
|
None |
|
|
Verbal Number and Suppletion
|
None |
|
| Word Order |
|---|
|
Order of Subject, Object and Verb
|
SVO |
|
|
Order of Subject and Verb
|
SV |
|
|
Order of Object and Verb
|
VO |
|
|
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb
|
XVO |
|
|
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase
|
Prepositions |
|
|
Order of Genitive and Noun
|
Genitive-Noun |
|
|
Order of Adjective and Noun
|
Adjective-Noun |
|
|
Order of Demonstrative and Noun
|
Demonstrative-Noun |
|
|
Order of Numeral and Noun
|
Numeral-Noun |
|
|
Order of Relative Clause and Noun
|
Relative clause-Noun |
|
|
Order of Degree Word and Adjective
|
Degree word-Adjective |
|
|
Position of Polar Question Particles
|
Final |
|
|
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions
|
Not initial interrogative phrase |
|
|
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase
|
VO and Prepositions |
|
|
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun
|
VO and RelN |
|
|
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun
|
VO and AdjN |
|
| Simple Clauses |
|---|
|
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases
|
Neutral |
|
|
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns
|
Neutral |
|
|
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking
|
Neutral |
|
|
Expression of Pronominal Subjects
|
Optional pronouns in subject position |
|
|
Verbal Person Marking
|
No person marking |
|
|
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking
|
No person marking |
|
|
Order of Person Markers on the Verb
|
A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb |
|
|
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'
|
Mixed |
|
|
Reciprocal Constructions
|
Distinct from reflexive |
|
|
Passive Constructions
|
Present |
|
|
Antipassive Constructions
|
No antipassive |
|
|
Applicative Constructions
|
No applicative construction |
|
|
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions
|
Compound but no morphological |
|
|
Negative Morphemes
|
Negative particle |
|
|
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation
|
Both |
|
|
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation
|
A/Fin |
|
|
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation
|
Predicate negation also present |
|
|
Polar Questions
|
Question particle |
|
|
Predicative Possession
|
Topic |
|
|
Predicative Adjectives
|
Verbal encoding |
|
|
Nominal and Locational Predication
|
Different |
|
|
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals
|
Impossible |
|
|
Comparative Constructions
|
Exceed |
|
| Complex Sentences |
|---|
|
Relativization on Subjects
|
Gap |
|
|
Relativization on Obliques
|
Gap |
|
|
'Want' Complement Subjects
|
Subject is left implicit |
|
|
Purpose Clauses
|
Balanced |
|
|
'When' Clauses
|
Balanced |
|
|
Reason Clauses
|
Balanced |
|
|
Utterance Complement Clauses
|
Balanced |
|
| Lexicon |
|---|
|
Hand and Arm
|
Different |
|
|
Finger and Hand
|
Different |
|
|
Numeral Bases
|
Decimal |
|
|
Number of Non-Derived Basic Colour Categories
|
6 |
|
|
Number of Basic Colour Categories
|
8-8.5 |
|
|
Green and Blue
|
Green vs. blue |
|
|
Red and Yellow
|
Red vs. yellow |
|
|
M-T Pronouns
|
No M-T pronouns |
|
|
N-M Pronouns
|
No N-M pronouns |
|
|
Tea
|
Words derived from Sinitic cha |
|
