Skip to content

Universal 1174:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1174:

Original
If in a given language a term for a cardinal direction is introduced, then the sun provides the most likely model to be selected.
If new terms for cardinal directions ‘east’ and ‘west’ are acquired, then most likely these terms are derived from expressions relating, respectively, to the rising and setting sun.
Standardized
IF the terms for a cardinal direction are introduced, THEN the sun provides the most likely model to be selected.
IF new terms for cardinal directions ‘east’ and ‘west’ are acquired, THEN most likely these terms are derived from expressions relating, respectively, to the rising and setting sun.
Keywords
spatial orientation
Domain
lexicon
Type
target < source
Status
diachronic
Quality
statistical
Basis
127 languages surveyed in Brown 1983
Source
Brown 1983, Heine 1997: 50 (review)
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    The sun-model has been chosen, respectively, in 84% (59 of 70) and 79% (58 of 73) of all languages considered where a term for ‘west’ or ‘east’ was developed.

    1. May 2020

Comments are closed.