The habitual expresses a situation (an event or state of affairs)that can be viewed as characteristic of an extended period of time (Comrie 1976: 27-28). This question asks whether a language has means other than lexical ones to express habituality. In Tundra Nenets, there is an morphological marker for conveying habituality (1), whereas in Meadow Mari a periphrastic device (a compound past tense) is used (2).

(1) Tunda Nenets

mənc°ras´ətid°m
mənc°ra-s´əti-d°m
work-HAB-1SG
‘I usually work’
(Nikolaeva 2014:84)

(2) Meadow Mari

Йыван ончыч тамак-ым ок шупш ыле**
jəvɑn ont͡ɕət͡ɕ tɑmɑk-əm ok ʃupʃ əʎe
Yyvan before tobacco-ACC NEG.3SG smoke.CNG be.PST1.3SG
'Yyvan didn’t use to smoke'
(Riese et al. 2019:224)

Coding

The value is '1' if the expression of habituality can be clearly attributed to a grammatical device.