Language structures

Compounding and word formation

How freely a language builds new words by joining existing ones.

forces 2 techniquesHighly productive compoundingRestricted compoundingPhrasal strategies dominant

Morphological type

How much grammatical work a single word is expected to do.

forces 3 techniquesIsolatingAgglutinativeFusional

Writing systems and orthography

Which unit of language a script writes down, and what it leaves unwritten.

forces 1 techniqueAlphabeticAbjadAbugida

Basic word order

The default sequence of subject, object and verb in a plain declarative clause.

forces 2 techniquesSOVSVOVSO

Case marking

How much grammatical relation a noun carries in its own ending.

forces 2 techniquesRich case systemReduced case systemNo case marking on nouns

Head directionality

Whether a phrase puts its core element before or after what modifies it.

forces 2 techniquesHead-initialHead-finalMixed

Morphosyntactic alignment

Which arguments a language treats alike, and which one it singles out.

forces 2 techniquesNominative-accusativeErgative-absolutiveSplit ergative

Relative clauses

Where a modifying clause sits relative to its noun, and how the link is marked.

forces 2 techniquesPostnominal with relativizerPrenominalCorrelative

Subordination strategies

Whether a dependent clause keeps a finite verb or is reduced to a non-finite form.

forces 3 techniquesFinite subordinate clausesNominalized clausesConverbs

Definiteness

Whether the grammar makes you say if a noun is already known to the reader.

forces 2 techniquesDefinite and indefinite articlesDefinite article onlyAffixal article

Gender and noun class

Whether nouns are sorted into agreement classes, and how many there are.

forces 2 techniquesNo genderTwo gendersThree genders

Number and classifiers

Whether the grammar makes you commit to how many, and how counting works.

forces 2 techniquesObligatory number markingOptional number markingNumeral classifiers

Possession

How a language says that something belongs to someone.

forces 2 techniquesHave-verbBelong or exist constructionPossessive affixes

Evidentiality

Whether the grammar makes you state how you know what you are asserting.

forces 2 techniquesGrammaticalized evidentialityLexical evidential strategiesHearsay particle only

Negation

How a clause is negated, and whether two negatives add up or cancel out.

forces 1 techniqueNegative particleNegative affixNegative verb

Null arguments and agreement

Whether the subject can go unsaid because the verb already says who.

forces 2 techniquesConsistent null subjectPartial null subjectNo null subject

Tense and aspect

Whether the verb must locate an event in time, and how it views its shape.

forces 2 techniquesTense-prominentAspect-prominentBoth grammaticalized

Voice and valency

Which participant the verb puts in subject position, and how many it needs.

forces 2 techniquesPassiveImpersonalAntipassive

Information structure

How a language signals what is already known and what is being asserted.

forces 1 techniqueSubject-prominentTopic-prominentFree order with pragmatic function

Motion and framing

Whether the path of a movement is carried by the verb or by something else.

forces 2 techniquesSatellite-framedVerb-framedEquipollently framed

Politeness and address

How a language encodes the relationship between speaker and addressee.

forces 1 techniqueT/V distinctionNo grammatical distinctionMulti-level honorifics