Relative prevalence of agreeing adpositions

Agreeing adpositions

Adpositions are syntactic heads that express a semantic or grammatical relation between their complement and some other referent.

Defining adpositions for cross-linguistic comparison

Maps

Map 2.1 Distribution

Map 2.2 Relative prevalence

Relative prevalence

Given that agreeing adpositions are widely distributed across the world’s languages (see Bakker 2013), our starting point for investigating the relative prevalence of agreeing adpositions is not a stratified sample of the world’s languages, but a sample containing languages known to show agreement on at least one non-verbal agreement target.

Map 2.2 shows the distribution of languages with adposition agreement within a convenience sample of 73 languages used in Bond et al. (2022). The sample was constructed for the purpose of exploring dependencies between target types in languages exhibiting evidence for at least one non-verbal agreement target belonging to the categories adverb, adposition, complementizer, noun or pronoun. The goal of the sample was to explore whether the presence of one type of non-verbal agreeing target is a good predictor or prerequisite of another.

The sample is highly biased in terms of areal coverage and the genetic affiliation of the languages included, and cannot be used to accurately quantify the prevalence of adposition agreement in general terms. However, the raw numbers show that, within the sample, adverb agreement (35 out of 73 varieties) is about as common as adposition agreement (42 out of 73 varieties) in systems characterised by the presence of agreement on non-verbal agreement targets.

Map 2.2 Languages with adposition agreement within a convenience sample of 73 languages exhibiting evidence for at least one non-verbal agreement target belonging to the categories adverb, adposition, complementizer, noun or pronoun, based on Bond et al. (2022).

Data

VarietyAdposition agreementSources
Amur NivkhAdposition agreement Adposition agreementPlanfilov 1965; Gruzdeva 1998; Nedjalkov & Otaina 2013
Aqusha DargwaAdposition agreement Adposition agreementvan den Berg 1999; Ganenkov 2018
ArchiAdposition agreement Adposition agreementKibrik 1977; Bond et al. 2016; Polinsky et al. 2017
ArosiAdposition agreement Adposition agreementCapell 1971; Lynch & Horoi 2002
AuAdposition agreement Adposition agreementScorza 1985
AvarAdposition agreement Adposition agreementAlekseev & Ataev 1998; Rudnev 2020
BagwalalAdposition agreement Adposition agreementKibrik 2001
BezhtaAdposition agreement Adposition agreementComrie, Khalilov & Khalilova 2015
BotlikhAdposition agreement Adposition agreementSaidova & Abusov 2012
Central PashtoAdposition agreement Adposition agreementTegey & Robson 1996; Brugman 2014; David & Goodman 2014; Fox & David 2014
ChamalalAdposition agreement Adposition agreementMagomedova 1999
Coastal MarindAdposition agreement Adposition agreementOlsson 2017; Olsson 2021; Olsson 2023
FinnishAdposition agreement Adposition agreementLehman 1982; Karlsson 2018
Gagatl Andi Adposition agreement Adposition agreementSalimov 2010
GodoberiAdposition agreement Adposition agreementSaidova 1973; Kibrik 1995; Haspelmath 1999; Haspelmath 1996
Gujarati Adposition agreement Adposition agreementHook & Joshi 1991; Cardona & Suthar 2003; Bhatt 2005
HinuqAdposition agreement Adposition agreementForker 2013
HopiAdposition agreement Adposition agreementLangacker 1977; Kalectaca 1978; Masayesva-Jeanne 1978; Bliss 2004
HungarianAdposition agreement Adposition agreementLehman 1982; Kenesei, Vago & Fenyvesi 1998; p.c. Dávid Győrfi
Inkhoqwari KhwarshiAdposition agreement Adposition agreementKhalilova 2009; Chumakina & Lyutikova 2023
IrishAdposition agreement Adposition agreementGreene 1966; Brennan 2008; Stenson 2020
KairiruAdposition agreement Adposition agreementWivell 1981; Ross 2002
KpelleAdposition agreement Adposition agreementIdiatov 2010; Konoshenko 2013; Konoshenko 2015
KwarandzyeyAdposition agreement Adposition agreementSouag 2010; Souag 2015
LakAdposition agreement Adposition agreementKazenin 2013
LakotaAdposition agreement Adposition agreementRood & Taylor 1996; Pustet 2000
LavukaleveAdposition agreement Adposition agreementTerrill 2003
ManoAdposition agreement Adposition agreementIdiatov 2010; Konoshenko 2013; Konoshenko 2015
MawngAdposition agreement Adposition agreementEvans 2000; Singer 2006
Northern AkhwakhAdposition agreement Adposition agreementCreissels 2012; Creissels 2018
RipanoAdposition agreement Adposition agreementPaciaroni & Loporcaro 2018; Lopocaro et al. 2020; Paciaroni 2023; D'Alessandro 2020
Southern AkhvakhAdposition agreement Adposition agreementMuraviev, forthcoming
SuaboAdposition agreement Adposition agreementde Vries 2004
Tanti DargwaAdposition agreement Adposition agreementSumbatova & Lander 2014; Sumbatova 2023; p.c. Nina Sumbatova
TehitAdposition agreement Adposition agreementFlassy 1991; Hesse 2000
TeopAdposition agreement Adposition agreementMosel & Thiesen 2007; Mosel 2010; Mosel n.d.
TindiAdposition agreement Adposition agreementMagomedova 2003
TsakhurAdposition agreement Adposition agreementIbragimov 1990; Kibrik 1999a; Kibrik 1999b; Kazenin & Testelets 1999
Tundra NenetsAdposition agreement Adposition agreementNikolaeva 2014
UdiheAdposition agreement Adposition agreementNikolaeva & Tolskaya 2001
WelshAdposition agreement Adposition agreementBorsley 2009
Zilo Andi Adposition agreement Adposition agreementKaye 2023; Kaye, in press; Kaye et al., in press
BatsNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementHolisky & Gagua 1994; p.c. Jesse Wichers Schreur
BavarianNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementWeise 1907; Weiß 2005; Fuẞ 2014
BukusuNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementDiercks 2010; Carstens & Diercks 2013
ChechenNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementNichols 1994
ChokweNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementMartins 1990; Kawasha 2007; Kawasha 2008
CoahuiltecoNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementTroike 1981; Troike 1996; Branan 2019
CosentinoNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementLedgeway 2009; Ledgeway 2011; Ledgeway 2017
EjaghamNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementWatters 1981; Güldemann 2008
Forest EnetsNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementSiegl 2011; Chumakina 2023; Khanina & Shluinsky 2023
HunzibNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementvan den Berg 1995
IbibioNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementKauffman 1968; Torrence 2016
IkalangaNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementLetsholo 2002; Letsholo & Safir 2019
LimbumNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementFransen 1995
LuchaziNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementFleisch 2000; Kawasha 2007
LundaNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementKawasha 2003; Kawasha 2007
LuvaleNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementHorton 1949; Kawasha 2007
Marathi No adposition agreement No adposition agreementPandharipande 2003; Dhongde & Wali 2009
Marwari No adposition agreement No adposition agreementMagier 1983; Gusain 2004
MoseténNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementSakel 2004
MussomeliNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementLedgeway 2011; Ledgeway 2017
NandeNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementBaker 2008
NantiNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementMichael 2008; Michael 2012
PolishNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementCitko 2018; Swan 2002
Samatiguila JulaNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementBraconnier 1987; Idiatov 2010; Konoshenko 2013
TeiwaNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementKlamer 2010; Sauerland, Hollebrandse & Kratochvíl 2020
Tokita No adposition agreement No adposition agreementMagomedbekova 1971; Magomedova & Khalidova 2001
TsezNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementPolinsky 2015
TuraNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementBearth 1971; Idiatov 2010; Konoshenko 2013
Urdu No adposition agreement No adposition agreementBhatt 2005; Kachru 2006; Shapiro 2013; Butt et al. 2016
West FlemishNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementHaegeman 2000
West FrisianNo adposition agreement No adposition agreementvan der Meer 1991; Zwart 1993

Data sources



References

Bakker, Dik. 2013. ‘Person marking on adpositions’, in Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds), The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Available at: https://wals.info/chapter/48 [Accessed: 03 March 2023]. [First published in Martin Haspelmath, Matthew S. Dryer, David Gil, & Bernard Comrie (eds). 2005. The World Atlas of Language Structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 198–201.]

Bond, Oliver, Steven Kaye & Marina Chumakina. 2022. A typology of agreement targets. Paper given at the 55th Societas Linguistica Europaea meeting (SLE 55), University of Bucharest, August 26, 2022.