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Universal 589:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 589:

Original
All languages include utterance pairs where inclusion relations between semantic representations are paralleled by corresponding inclusion relations in morpheme structure; but in no language are all meaning inclusion relations so paralleled (e. g. no language has a fully iconic numeral system where all numerals are expressed by the repetition of the morpheme ‘one’).
Standardized
All languages include utterance pairs where inclusion relations between semantic representations are paralleled by corresponding inclusion relations in morpheme structure; but in no language are all meaning inclusion relations so paralleled (e. g. no language has a fully iconic numeral system where all numerals are expressed by the repetition of the morpheme ‘one’).
Keywords
morpheme, complexity, iconicity, numeral
Domain
morphology, syntax, semantics
Type
unconditional
Status
achronic
Quality
absolute
Basis
unspecified
Source
Moravcsik 1980: 27
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    Cf. Mel’cuk 1973, Greenberg 1966, 1978.

    1. May 2020

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