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Universal 361:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 361:

Original
The extent of “material“ articulation, pertaining in particular to (a) the elaboration of sound systems, (b) the complexity of syllable structures, (c) word length, (d) accentual differentiation (as opposed to not-so-articulated tonal modification), correlates with the extent of “formal“ articulation, pertaining in particular to (a) the differentiation of parts of speech, (b) the elaboration of inflectional and derivational systems, (c) analytic syntax (as opposed to not-so-articulated polysynthesis).
Standardized
The extent of “material“ articulation, pertaining in particular to (a) the elaboration of sound systems, (b) the complexity of syllable structures, (c) word length, (d) accentual differentiation (as opposed to not-so-articulated tonal modification), correlates with the extent of “formal“ articulation, pertaining in particular to (a) the differentiation of parts of speech, (b) the elaboration of inflectional and derivational systems, (c) analytic syntax (as opposed to not-so-articulated polysynthesis).
Keywords
phoneme system, syllable, word length, accent, tone, word class, polysynthesis
Domain
prosodic phonology, inflection, word formation, syntax, lexicon
Type
mutual implication
Status
achronic but presumably diachronically motivated
Quality
statistical
Basis
sample of more than 50 languages in Burnett 1773-92 and Burnett 1779-99
Source
summarized from Burnett 1773-92, Burnett 1779-99: Plank 1996, Plank 1998
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP
    1. May 2020

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