Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
789 entries · page 11 of 16
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1145 | IF there is a passive construction, THEN most commonly it will be expressed with a stem affix. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | diathesis, voice |
| 1147 | A causative can become a passive, but a passive cannot become a causative. | inflection, syntax | target < source | passive, causative |
| 1151 | If there are two or more coexisting basic passives they are likely to differ semantically with respect to the aspect ranges they cover. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | diathesis, passive, aspect |
| 1152 | IF there is a basic passive, THEN ditransitive verbs (e.g. ‘give’, ‘show’) are passivized in such a way that the derived subject is the Patient of the active verb. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | diathesis, passive, ditransitive verb, patient |
| 1156 | For any given noun phrase, IF it is numerable THEN it is definitizable, and IF it is definitizable THEN it is pronominalizable. | inflection, syntax | implication | number, plural, definite, pronoun |
| 1160 | If the definiteness of the head determines the shape of the relative pronoun, the pronoun co-occurring with the definite head will be “longer“, i.e. it will contain some additional morphological element. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | relative clause, pronoun |
| 1161 | IF a head noun and its relative clause agree in definiteness, THEN head nouns and attributive adjectives also agree in definiteness. |
inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, definiteness, relative clause, adjective, attribution |
| 1165 | IF an overt indefinite article is used with mass nouns, THEN it is also used with plural nouns. | inflection, syntax | implication | indefinite article, number, plural, mass noun |
| 1166 | IF an overt indefinite article is used with plural nouns, THEN it is also used with singular nouns. | inflection, syntax | implication | indefinite article, number, plural, singular noun |
| 1168 | Vocative nouns (or NPs) take no article or only the definite article, never the indefinite article. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | vocative, definite article |
| 1192 | IF there is a logophoric form for 1st and/or 2nd person pronouns, THEN also for the 3rd person pronoun. | inflection, syntax | implication | pronoun, logophoric, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 1193 | IF there is reciprocal marking for 1st person, THEN also for 2nd person. IF there is reciprocal marking for 2nd person, THEN also for 3rd person. |
inflection, syntax | implication | pronoun, reciprocal, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 1198 | IF there is inflectional tense or aspect , THEN there will be a past or perfective gram. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | verb, inflection, tense, aspect, past, perfective |
| 1199 | IF there is no inflectional tense or aspect, THEN there will be an anterior or completive gram or both. | inflection | implication | verb, inflection, aspect, tense |
| 1208 | IF there are person distinctions within possessive pronouns and possessive affixes, THEN there are at least as many person distinctions within personal pronouns. | inflection | implication | personal pronoun, possessive, affix, person |
| 1215 | IF there are predominantly prepositions rather than postpositions, THEN there will not be an extensive system of local cases. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, local, preposition, postposition |
| 1216 | IF an affix expresses a local case, THEN it will preferably be a suffix and never an infix. | inflection | unconditional | case, local, affix, infix, prefix |
| 1217 | IF there is an extensive system of local cases, THEN there will very likely also be numerous local postpositions. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, local, postpositions |
| 1218 | IF there are local cases, THEN basic word order tends to be SVO or SOV. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, local, word order, SOV, SVO |
| 1220 | IF there are (local) postpositions, THEN there will also be nominal case inflection. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, local, noun, postposition |
| 1221 | IF postpositions inflect for case, THEN nouns will also inflect for case. | inflection | implication | case, noun, postposition |
| 1222 | IF there are no local cases but non-local (grammatical, abstract) cases, THEN localization will preferably be expressed by adpositions plus non-local cases rather than by localizing nouns in construction with localized nouns. | inflection | implication | case, local case, adposition |
| 1223 | IF a case is governed by a local postposition, THEN this case will preferably also be used to express possession. | inflection | implication | case, local, postposition, possession |
| 1224 | IF localization is expressed by adpositions, THEN there will also be nominal combinations for purposes of localization. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, local case, adposition |
| 1225 | IF there is a locative case, THEN there will be an allative, and vice versa. IF there is a locative case, THEN there will be an ablative, and vice versa. IF there is an allative case, THEN there will be an ablative, and vice versa. |
inflection | mutual implication | case system, local case, locative, ablative, allative |
| 1226 | IF there are local cases, THEN there are other expressions for localization, viz. local adpositions, specialized local verbs, and/or localizing nouns. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, local |
| 1227 | IF there is a local case other than locative, THEN there will also be a locative. | inflection | implication | case, local case, locative, ablative, allative |
| 1228 | IF there is syncretism of locative and ablative or of allative and ablative, THEN there is syncretism of locative and allative. | inflection | imlication | syncretism, case, local case, locative, ablative, allative |
| 1229 | IF there is a terminative (‘up to where’) or a prosecutive (‘where to’), THEN there will be an allative. | inflection | implication | case, local case, terminative, prosecutive, allative |
| 1230 | IF there are cases differentiating where to relations other than terminative or prosecutive, THEN there will very likely be a terminative or a prosecutive as well. | inflection | implication | case, local, terminative, prosecutive, allative |
| 1231 | IF there are exterior local cases, THEN there will also be interior local cases. | inflection | implication | case, local, exterior, interior |
| 1232 | IF there are superior and/or inferior local cases, THEN there will also be exterior local cases. | inflection | implication | case, local, exterior, inferior, superior |
| 1233 | IF there are posterior local cases, THEN there will also be both superior and inferior local cases. | inflection | implication | case, local case, posterior, inferior, superior |
| 1234 | Diachronically, an undifferentiated locative (expressing where, whereto, wherefrom) retains the meaning of a where case when ‘whereto’ and ‘wherefrom’ cases are being formally distinguished. | inflection | implication | case, local case, locative |
| 1235 | Diachronically, when an allative loses its local meaning (or acquires additional, non-local meanings), it will become a dative (expressing beneficiary and/or indirect object); when a locative loses its local meaning (or acquires additional, non-local meanings), it will become an accusative or ergative; when an ablative loses its local meaning (or acquires additional, non-local meaning)s, it will become a (partitive) genitive or ergative or (passive) agentive. | inflection | implication | case, local case, allative |
| 1236 | Diachronically, local cases tend to acquire temporal meanings; in particular, a terminative local case is predestined to acquire temporal meaning. | inflection | target < source | case, local case, terminative |
| 1271 | IF basic order is SVO, THEN alignment is not ergative; IF alignment is ergative, THEN basic order is not SVO. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, ergative language |
| 1274 | IF there is one or more distinctions or remoteness in a tense-aspect system, and reference can be made to objective time measures, THEN one of the distinctions will be between ‘more than one day away’ and ‘not more than one day away’. |
inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | tense, aspect, time measures |
| 1275 | IF categories can be used as a ‘perfect of result’ (i.e. to say that something has happened that has a result at the moment of speech), THEN they tend to be nondistinct from hodiernal pasts. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | tense, aspect, past |
| 1276 | IF categories are used like the English pluperfect, THEN they will tend to be nondistinct from remote past. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | tense, aspect, remote past |
| 1277 | IF narrative and non-narrative contexts differ with respect to the marking of temporal distance, THEN it will be the non-narrative contexts that exhibit the largest number of distinctions. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | tense, aspect, context, narrative, temporal distance |
| 1302 | IF there are postpositions, THEN indefiniteness affixes on nouns are suffixed. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, postposition, noun, indefinite, affix-order, suffix |
| 1303 | If basic order is SOV, THEN indefiniteness affixes on nouns (if any) are suffixed. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, SOV, noun, indefinite, affix-order, suffix |
| 1304 | IF there are postpositions, THEN nominalizing affixes on nouns are suffixed with considerably greater than chance frequency. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, postposition, noun, nominalization, affix-order, suffix |
| 1305 | If basic order is SOV, THEN nominalizing affixes on nouns (if any) are suffixed with considerably greater than chance frequency. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, SOV, noun, nominalization, affix-order, suffix |
| 1306 | IF basic order is SOV, THEN definiteness affixes on nouns are suffixed with greater than chance frequency. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, SOV, noun, definite, affix-order, suffix |
| 1307 | IF there are postpositions, THEN plural affixes on nouns are suffixed with considerably greater than chance frequency. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, postposition, noun, number, plural, affix-order, suffix |
| 1308 | IF basic order is SOV, THEN plural affixes on nouns are suffixed with overwhelmingly greater than chance frequency. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, SOV, noun, number, plural, affix-order, suffix |
| 1309 | IF there are postpositions, THEN mood affixes on verbs are suffixed. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, postposition, verb, mood, affix-order, suffix |
| 1310 | IF basic order is SOV, THEN mood affixes on verbs are suffixed with greater than chance frequency. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, order, verb, mood, affix-order, suffix |