The other SAE grammar test

This is an alternative to the original SAE grammar test. It covers most of the same territory, but it is largely based on information from World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS). Instead of mainly measuring SAE features, it looks at what most SAE languages have in common and how much of this a grammar shares. The intent is to provide a more comprehensive view of what goes into a (non-)European grammar.

To learn more about the features described here, click on the links.

Section 1: Non-distinguishing features

These features are common both in SAE languages and elsewhere. They are worth one point each.

1. Case, tense, aspect and mood not productively marked with particles, tones or ablaut
2. Verbs inflect for 2-5 categories (tense, aspect, etc.)
3. Strong preference for suffixes over other types of affix (suffixing index more than 80% of the affixing index)
4. Masculine/feminine-based gender system with two or three genders
5. Obligatory plural for all nouns
6. Distinction between "we" and "I", but no distinction between "inclusive we" (speaker, addressee and possibly others) and "exclusive we" (speaker and others but not addressee)
7. Two-way distance contrast in demonstratives, or no distance contrast at all
8. No distinction between pronominal and adnominal demonstratives (I don't like this vs. this book)
9. Differentiation between reflexive pronouns and intensifiers (e.g. German sich vs. selbst)
10. Person marking on verbs but not on adpositions (not counting languages with no adpositions at all)
11. No numeral classifiers for countable nouns (words like one glass of water)
12. No pronominal possessive affixes on nouns
13. No possessive classification (e.g. alienable vs. inalienable)
14. Genitives, adjectives and relative clauses highly differentiated
15. Separate words for "and" and "with"
16. Same conjunction used for noun phrases, verb phrases and clauses
17. Past tense with no remoteness distinctions
18. No optative inflection, but verbs inflect for other moods
19. Situational possibility marked with verbal constructions (e.g. I can open this door)
20. No markers of direct evidentiality
21. Number is marked on verbs, but no suppletion of verb forms according to number
22. Prepositions (adpositions precede noun phrases)
23. Demonstrative precedes noun
24. Numeral precedes noun
25. Degree word precedes adjective (e.g. very good)
26. Nominative-accusative morphosyntactic alignment
27. Person is marked on verbs, but third person is never zero-marked
28. "Give" verb always takes a direct object and an indirect object
29. No applicative construction
30. Negation with a negative particle
31. Negative statements constructed the same way as affirmative statements except for the negative marker (symmetric negation)
32. Desire expressed with a "want" verb, not a desiderative affix or particle

Section 2: Distinguishing features

These features are common in SAE but significantly rarer elsewhere. They are worth two points each.

1. No productive use of full-word reduplication
2. No associative plural
3. Both definite and indefinite articles, with definite article distinct from demonstrative
4. "T-V" politeness distinction in second person pronouns: plural is used as a polite singular (e.g. French tu vs. vous)
5. Syncretism of comitative and instrumental (with my friends vs. with a knife)
6. Distributive numerals (words with meaning like John and Bill carried three suitcases each) either marked by preceding word or completely absent
7. Periphrastic perfect formed with "have" verb
8. Prohibitive constructed like the imperative with a normal negative marker (Work! vs. Don't work!)
9. Epistemic possibility marked with verbal constructions (e.g. John may have arrived)
10. No distinction between situational and epistemic modality (You may go home now vs. You may be mistaken; You must go home now vs. You must be from Northumberland)
11. Suppletion of verb forms according to both tense and aspect (e.g. go vs. went)
12. SVO (subject-verb-object) as one of the dominant word orders
13. Interrogative phrases placed at the front of content questions ("wh-fronting"; e.g. Where is the cat?)
14. Pronominal subjects normally expressed with both subject pronouns and verbal affixes
15. Subject/agent marked on the verb, but object/patient not marked when the object/patient is a noun phrase
16. Both reflexive and non-reflexive reciprocal constructions
17. Passive voice construction formed with a participle and a copula-like verb (e.g. I am known)
18. Negative indefinites that preclude verbal negation (e.g. Nobody listened instead of *Nobody didn't listen)
19. Polar (yes-no) questions marked with different word order
20. Possession expressed with a "have" verb
21. Predicative adjectives distinct from verbs (e.g. John is tall instead of *John talls)
22. Nominal and locational predication expressed the same way (John is a tailor vs. John is in Paris)
23. Particle (word equivalent to "than") in comparisons of inequality (e.g. bigger than an elephant)
24. Relative clauses constructed with inflected relative pronouns (e.g. the man who washed my car)

Calculate score

Score:

What does the score mean?

This is what your score probably means based on results from natural languages:

• >90%: Your grammar is very SAE-like, resembling English, French and German.
• 70-90%: Your grammar is SAE but has some notable differences from the norm, like Spanish or Russian.
• 50-69%: Your grammar is probably non-SAE but still shares a lot of traits. It may resemble other European languages.
• 40-49%: Your grammar is well outside SAE. Some European languages are in this range.
• <40%: Your grammar is non-European.

It should be possible to get a score of 0, but I don't know of any language that does.

Sample results from natural languages

These are mainly based on data provided by WALS, which is not always complete.

• German: 100% (80/80)
• French: 97.5% (78/80)
• English: 92.5% (74/80)
• Spanish: 86.25% (69/80)
• Modern Greek: 83.75% (67/80)
• Russian: 82.5% (66/80)
• Latvian: 75-78.75% (60-63/80)
• Finnish: 62.5% (50/80)
• Welsh: 57.5% (45/80)
• Modern Hebrew: 55% (44/80)
• Hungarian: 51.25-53.75% (41-43/80)
• Persian: 48.75% (39/80)
• Georgian: 43.75% (35/80)
• Turkish: 42.5% (34/80)
• Mandarin Chinese: 30% (24/80)
• Japanese: 18.75% (15/80)