Values

0 no 22
1 yes 12
? missing value 0

Is there a grammatical device for habituality?

Uralic Areal Typology feature UT016

Is there a grammatical device for habituality?

The habitual expresses an event or state as characteristic of a period of time. This question investigates whether a language has other than lexical means to express habituality. In Tundra Nenets, there is an inflectional marker to convey habituality (1), whereas in Mari a periphrastic device (compound past tense) is used (2).

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

(2) Meadow Mari (Riese et al. 2019:224)
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

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

References
Nikolaeva, Irina. 2014. A Grammar of Tundra Nenets. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110320640.
Riese, Timothy, Jeremy Bradley, Monika Schötschel & Tatiana Yefremova. 2019. Mari (марий йылме) – An Essential Grammar for International Learners. Release 0.1 – draft version. Vienna: University of Vienna. grammar.mari-language.com (18 November, 2020).

Language Value Comment Example Id

Values for this feature plotted on the phylogenetic tree