Motu

WALS coordinates: 9° 20′ S, 147° E

Alternative Names

Feature	Value	References
Morphology
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Weakly suffixing
Nominal Categories
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural prefix
Definite Articles	Definite word distinct from demonstrative
Indefinite Articles	Indefinite word same as 'one'
Position of Case Affixes	No case affixes or adpositional clitics
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive suffixes
Nominal Syntax
Noun Phrase Conjunction	'And' identical to 'with'
Verbal Categories
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking
The Past Tense	No past tense
The Future Tense	No inflectional future
The Perfect	Other perfect
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	No tense-aspect inflection
Word Order
Order of Subject, Object and Verb	SOV
Order of Subject and Verb	SV
Order of Object and Verb	OV
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Postpositions
Order of Genitive and Noun	Genitive-Noun
Order of Adjective and Noun	Noun-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	OV and Postpositions
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun	OV and NAdj
Simple Clauses
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle
Polar Questions	Question particle
Predicative Possession	Conjunctional
Predicative Adjectives	Mixed
Nominal and Locational Predication	Different
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Impossible
Comparative Constructions	Conjoined