Raining Constructions (Feature 65)
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Feature Annotation
Here we ask how the situation ‘it is raining’/‘it rained’ is expressed. In many languages, the construction generalizes to other weather phenomena (e.g. snow, hail, etc.), but since this need not be the case, this feature focuses on raining constructions.
By ‘rain’ verb, we mean a verb that exclusively (apart from metaphorical usages) refers to raining situations.
If there are several normal ways of saying ‘it is raining’, you may choose several values.
Additional remarks
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Values
| Value | Value Annotation | |
| 1 | ‘Rain/water’ subject and general verb | Something like “Rain/water is falling/is outside/exists/is precipitating etc.” – Here a verb is used that also occurs in other non-raining situations: Seychelles Creole Lapli pe tombe. ‘The rain is falling’. |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Non-weather subject and ‘rain’ verb | Something like “Sky/God/water is raining” – Here the verb specifically refers to raining, and the subject also occurs in other situations. |
| 3 | ‘Rain’ subject and ‘rain’ verb | Principense Usuva sôvê. ‘rain rained’ (both subject noun and verb have the specific meaning ‘rain’) |
| 4 | Expletive subject and ‘rain’ verb | English It is raining. |
| 5 | No subject and ‘rain’ verb | something like “is raining”: Spanish llueve, Papiamentu ta yobe [prog to.rain] ‘it rains’ |
| 6 | Other | (Please give details in the “General comments” field.) |
WALS No.
(None)
