The World Atlas of Language Structures is a structured collection of documented properties of languages, covering phonology, grammar and lexical organization. Its online presentation connects feature values, explanatory chapters, maps and references. The first book version appeared in 2005, followed by an online version in 2008.[ref]
One chapter classifies the relative order of subject, object and verb. It distinguishes six dominant orders and a category for languages lacking a dominant order. The author also explains the operational meanings used for the participant labels, which need not match every grammatical framework.[ref]
This makes the resource useful as inspectable scientific data, rather than merely a colored map. A blank entry does not establish that a feature is absent, and a category assignment depends on its chapter's definitions. Reproducible analysis records the feature, dataset version and selection rule; the provider requests citations to the specific chapters supplying data.[ref]

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