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Universal 41:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 41:

Original
If a nominal has two or more affixes at one time and at an earlier time one of those was not present, it is the outermost one that was missing.
Standardized
IF an attributive nominal has two or more affixes at one time and at an earlier time one of those was not present, THEN it is the outermost one that was missing.
Keywords
case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, attributive, affix, order
Domain
inflection
Type
no genuine implication; rather: provided that
Status
diachronic
Quality
absolute
Basis
languages in Evans 1995
Source
Evans 1995, Moravcsik 1995: 478, G24
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    In other words: Outer affixes have been grammaticalized (“univerbated”) later than inner affixes. Relative order of affixes mirrors the relative chronology of their grammaticalization. Cf. #7 and no doubt others.

    1. May 2020

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