Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
789 entries · page 12 of 16
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1311 | IF there are postpositions, THEN tense affixes on verbs are suffixed with overwhelmingly greater than chance frequency. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, postposition, verb, tense, affix-order, suffix |
| 1312 | IF basic order is SOV, THEN tense affixes on verbs are suffixed with greater than chance frequency. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, SOV, verb, tense, affix-order, suffix |
| 1313 | IF there are postpositions, THEN aspect affixes on verbs are suffixed with more than chance frequency. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, postposition, verb, aspect, affix-order, suffix |
| 1314 | IF there are any valence affixes on verb, THEN these will be suffixed with more than chance frequency. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | verb, valence, affix-order, affix-order, suffix |
| 1315 | IF basic order is SOV, THEN causative affixes on verbs are suffixed with more than chance frequency. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, SOV, verb, causative, affix-order, suffix |
| 1318 | The various classes of adverbs (AdvPs) enter a rigidly ordered sequence, which is the same across languages. And if one sets aside agreement and negation, the order of the head morphemes encoding the different types of functional notions in the clause (mood, modality, tense, aspect, and voice) is also rigidly fixed, and apparently invariant across languages. The two hierarchies (that of AdvPs, and that of functional heads) match systematically, from left to right. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, adverb, functional morpheme |
| 1345 | IF there is a verbal reciprocal/reflexive, THEN there must be verb agreement at least with subject. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb, reciprocal, reflexive, agreement, subject |
| 1353 | IF plural is weakly developed, THEN there are numeral classifiers. | syntax, inflection | implication | number, plural, numeral classifier |
| 1371 | If grammatical number (singular, dual, paucal, plural) is marked at all on classifier constructions, it is usually marked on or by the classifier, not on the noun, which has the characteristic of a mass, collective, or uncountable noun. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | classifier, number, noun |
| 1375 | IF a classifier language has no inflectional plural, THEN neither counters nor measures take plural markers. IF a classifier language has no inflectional plural, THEN classifiers themselves never vary lexically for number |
inflection, syntax | implication | classifier, number |
| 1387 | IF the finite verb agrees with a subject, THEN the auxiliary agrees with a subject. [??? ] |
inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, auxiliary, verb |
| 1388 | No language with a traditional auxiliary verb will exist in which the auxiliary does not take what is usually verbal inflection. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | auxiliary, inflection, verb |
| 1391 | IF future tense markers are morphologically bound, THEN past and/or present tense markers are also bound or indeed more closely bound. |
inflection, syntax | implication | tense, past, future, auxiliary |
| 1392 | When the future is periphrastic, the auxiliary will always be a present tense or unmarked form. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | tense, present, future, auxiliary |
| 1393 | Retrospective languages tend toward finer temporal gradation in the past than in the future and prospective languages tend toward no or equal gradation of past and future tenses. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | tense, past, future |
| 1394 | In retrospective languages, IF there is past tense, THEN there will be future tense. In prospective languages, IF there is future tense, THEN there will be past tense. |
inflection, syntax | implication | tense, past, future |
| 1395 | IF past-nonpast contrast is neutralized in a subjunctive or semantically comparable category, THEN future-nonfuture contrast is neutralized as well. | inflection | implication | tense, past, nonpast, future, nonfuture |
| 1396 | IF there is deletion of past tenses in non-initial (or non-final) verbs of conjunctive series, THEN there is deletion of future tenses in the same environment. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, tense, past, future, conjunctive |
| 1397 | IF there is a future participle, THEN there is a past participle and a present participle. | inflection, syntax | implication | participle, tense, future, present, past |
| 1401 | Adverbial case affixes are always suffixes. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | adverbial, case, affix, prefix, suffix |
| 1402 | No language has adverbial predicates which are expressed as argument-internal clitics that are postposed to the constituents that they are bound to. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | adverbial, clitic, order |
| 1406 | IF there are adverbial predicates which are analyzable into a noun and a case affix, THEN any postposed arguments of such predicates will always include case affixes on their head nouns. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | adverbial, case, affix, order |
| 1407 | IF transitive verbs have suffixes agreeing in definiteness or in person-gender-number with their direct objects, THEN prepositions also have suffixes that agree with their complements in the same categories. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, verb, object, preposition, definiteness, person, gender, number |
| 1408 | When there is a general number not specifying any particular number term, it will be expressed, either solely or as the normal case, through the maximally unmarked form, that is, the inflectional root. | inflection | unconditional | number, markedness |
| 1409 | IF there is a dual for 2nd person pronoun, THEN there is a dual for either 1st or a 3rd person or both. There will be never a dual limited to 2nd person. | inflection | implication | pronoun, number, dual, person, 1, 2, 3, inclusive, exclusive |
| 1410 | IF in the dual there is only an inclusive pronoun and no exclusive one, THEN in the plural both forms will be present. | inflection | implication | pronoun, number, dual, plural, inclusive, exclusive |
| 1419 | IF heads of possessive constructions (=possessees) agree with their possessors, THEN verbs agree with subjects. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, verb, subject, attribution, possession |
| 1421 | IF there are separate forms for narrative and non-narrative past contexts, the non-narrative forms tend to be more highly marked than the narrative ones. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | tense, past, context, narrative, markedness |
| 1422 | It is almost always possible to use the least marked indicative verb from in a narrative context. | inflection | unconditional | tense, mood, indicative, context, narrative, markedness |
| 1431 | If there are no prefixes, THEN there are no prepositions. OR, BY CONTRAPOSITION: If there are prepositions, THEN there will be prefixes. |
inflection, syntax | implication | prefix, preposition, local case |
| 1433 | IF there is no gender, THEN hydronyms always contain formatives classifying them as such. | inflection, lexicon | implication | gender, hydronym, agglutination |
| 1434 | IF there are possessive suffixes on nouns, THEN will be no overt copula form (of 'to be') in the present tense. | inflection, syntax | implication | noun, possessive, affix-order, suffix, copula, tense, present |
| 1435 | IF there is a highly developed case system, THEN the system of verbal tenses will be less developed, and vice versa. or IF there are many cases, THEN there are few tense oppositions. IF there are few cases, THEN there are many tense oppositions. |
inflection | implication | case system, tense |
| 1436 | IF there is no auxiliary verb in the perfect, THEN the auxiliary verb does not have present tense form. |
inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | verb, auxiliary, tense, present, perfect |
| 1437 | IF there is perfect, THEN there will be pluperfect. | inflection | implication | tense, perfect, pluperfect |
| 1438 | IF there are many tense oppositions, THEN there is no aspect differentiation. | inflection | implication | tense, aspect |
| 1439 | IF there is no aspect differentiation, THEN there are continuous tenses. | inflection | mutual implication | aspect, tense, continuous |
| 1440 | IF the adjective follows the noun, THEN there is an overt copula form (of 'to be') in the present tense form. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, noun, adjective, copula, tense, present |
| 1441 | IF plural inflection is differentiated as to genders, THEN singular inflection is also differentiated as to (the same?) genders. | inflection | unconditional | number, plural, singular, gender |
| 1443 | Every one of the seven metapersons, i.e. 'speaker', 'hearer', 'non-participant', 'speaker + hearer(s)', 'speaker + non-participant(s)', 'hearer(s) + non-participant(s)', 'speaker + hearer(s) + non-participant(s)', is expressed in the pronominal system of every language. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | pronoun, personal pronoun, person |
| 1444 | In no language are there pronominal forms differentiating the number of elements within a metaperson, e.g. special forms for 'hearer + hearer + ... + non-participant' and 'hearer + non-participant + ... + non-participant'. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | pronoun, personal pronoun, person, number |
| 1445 | In an overwhelming majority of languages, there is a special form to denote the metaperson 'speaker'. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | pronoun, personal pronoun, person, 1st |
| 1446 | IF a form denotes the metaperson 'speaker', THEN it cannot include among its meanings the following metapersons: (a) 'hearer'; (b) 'non-participant' , (c) 'hearer(s) + non-participant(s)'. |
inflection, syntax, lexicon | implication | personal pronoun, person, speaker, hearer, non-participant |
| 1447 | IF some form denotes the metaperson 'speaker', THEN it cannot include among its meanings the following metapersons: (a) 'speaker+hearer(s)' and/or 'speaker + non-participant(s)', (b) 'speaker+hearer(s) + non-participant(s)'. |
inflection, syntax, lexicon | implication | personal pronoun, speaker, hearer, non-participant |
| 1448 | IF the metaperson 'speaker' is not the only meaning denoted by a pronominal form, THEN among its meanings are the metapersons 'speaker + hearer(s)' (and, consequently, 'speaker + hearer(s) + non-participant(s)'), and/or 'speaker + non-participant(s)'. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | implication | personal pronoun, person, number, speaker, hearer, non-participant |
| 1449 | In an overwhelming majority of languages, there is a special form to denote the metaperson 'hearer' in the singular. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | personal pronoun, person, 2nd, hearer, number, singular |
| 1450 | IF some form denotes the metaperson 'hearer' in the singular, THEN it cannot denote the metaperson 'speaker'. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | implication | personal pronoun, person, 1st, 2nd, speaker, hearer, number, singular |
| 1451 | IF a pronominal form denotes the metaperson 'hearer' in the singular, it cannot include among its meanings the following metapersons: (a) 'speaker + hearer(s)' and/or 'speaker + non-participant(s)', (b) 'speaker + hearer(s) + non-participant(s)', (c) 'non-participant' |
inflection, syntax, lexicon | implication | personal pronoun, person, 2nd, hearer, number, singular, speaker, non-participant |
| 1452 | IF the metaperson 'hearer' in the singular is not the only meaning expressed by a pronominal form, THEN this form includes among its meanings the metapersons: a) 'hearer' in the non-singular; b) 'hearer(s) + non-participant(s)' |
inflection, syntax, lexicon | implication | personal pronoun, person, 2nd, hearer, number, singular, non-singular, non-participant |
| 1453 | In no language is there a special form to denote the metaperson 'hearer' in the non-singular. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | personal pronoun, person, 2nd, hearer, number, non-singular, inclusive, exclusive |