Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
789 entries · page 14 of 16
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1546 | IF word order is verb-initial and there is affixal case marking, THEN prefixal case marking is more likely than in verb-final languages, but suffixing is still fairly common. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, case-marking, affix-order, prefix |
| 1547 | IF word order is verb-initial and there is case marking, THEN there are prepositions. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, case-marking, affix-order, prefix |
| 1548 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN there is relational marking (agreement, applicative, etc.) associated with the verb. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, verbal case-marking |
| 1550 | The likelihood of attributive adjectives agreeing with nouns, especially in case, is lower if basic order is verb-initial than if it is verb-final. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, verb-final, agreement, adjective, attribution, case |
| 1559 | IF basic order is verb-initial, THEN sentential objects always follow the subject and are very commonly finite. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, sentential object, finiteness, nominalization |
| 1561 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN verbal forms subordinate to the to the “main” verb always follow the main verb, and are commonly finite. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, main verb, subordinate verb, finiteness |
| 1562 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN causativized verbs follow the causativizing verb. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, verb, causative |
| 1563 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN there will be passive voice which is almost always marked in the verbal morphology. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, diathesis, passive |
| 1564 | IF basic order is verb-initial, THEN the verb either agrees with no NPs or with two NPs. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, verb, agreement, subject, object |
| 1572 | IF a language has both (a) a reflexive construction with true passive meaning and (b) special (e.g., analytical participial) forms for the passive voice, THEN constraints concerning the agentive object (if there are any) are likely to affect the passive of type (a) rather than type (b). |
inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, diathesis, passive, agentive object |
| 1573 | IF both perfective and imperfective verbs form the passive with a reflexive marker, THEN constraints on the use of the agentive object are more likely to affect the perfective verb. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, diathesis, passive, perfective verb, imperfective verb |
| 1574 | IF there are (a) passive verb forms with a reflexive marker and (b) special (e.g., participial) verb forms for the passive voice, THEN it is exclusively or chiefly type (a) that occurs in the present tense (or in the imperfective tenses). | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, diathesis, passive, reflexive marker, present tense, imperfective tense |
| 1575 | IF (a) decausative reflexive verbs and (b) reflexive verbs with a passive sense are homonymous, THEN it is type (b) that is more tightly contextually constrained than type (a). | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, verb, decausative, diathesis, passive, homonymy |
| 1576 | IF there are reciprocal and antipassive reflexive verbs and IF there is any overlapping between any groups of reflexive verbs, THEN there is a more massive overlapping between the reciprocals and antipassives than between either of these groups and any others, e.g. true reflexives. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, verb, reciprocal, antipassive |
| 1577 | IF a reflexive verb has an antipassive sense/use, THEN most likely it has a reciprocal sense/use as well. | inflection, syntax | implication | reflexive verb, reciprocal, antipassive |
| 1588 | IF culturally basic possessed items are among ‘inalienables’, THEN part-whole and/or spatial relations are included in the ‘inalienable’ class as well. IF part-whole and/or spatial relations are among ‘inalienables’, THEN kin terms and/or body parts are included in the ‘inalienable’ class as well. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implicational hierarchy | possession, inalienable, alienable, kinship |
| 1589 | Provided there is a split in the marking of possession, inalienable possession tends to be encoded through head-marking and alienable possession through dependent-marking. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | possession, inalienable, alienable, head-marking, dependent-marking |
| 1590 | IF possession is regularly head-marked, THEN there will be an opposition of alienable and inalienable possession. BY CONTRAPOSITION: IF there is no opposition of alienable and inalienable possession, THEN possession is regularly dependent-marked . |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | possession, alienable, inalienable, head-marking, dependent-marking |
| 1591 | IF there is a set of nouns which cannot occur without a possessive marker, THEN there will be head-marked possession. | inflection, syntax | implication | possession, head-marking, bound noun, possessive marker |
| 1592 | IF products are among inalienables, THEN so are pet animals; IF pet animals are among inalienables, THEN so are kin terms; IF kin terms are among inalienables, THEN so are clothing items; IF clothing items are among inalienables, THEN so are inherent attributes; IF inherent attributes are among inalienables, THEN so are body parts. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implicational hierarchy | possession, alienable, inalienable, kinship, animacy |
| 1598 | The linguistic distance between possessor and possessum is never greater for the terms in the left than it is for the terms on the right: kinsmen/body parts > artefacts. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | possession, alienable, inalienable, hierachy |
| 1599 | IF an element has auxiliary function, THEN it will be bound. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | AUX, boundness |
| 1611 | IF the modals/auxiliaries do not inflect for person, THEN there will be no infinitive. | inflection, syntax | implication | modal, auxiliary, person, infinitive |
| 1614 | Whenever there is verb agreement, agreement with the patient NP is likelier if basic order is verb-peripheral (i.e., verb-initial or verb-final) than if it is verb-medial. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, verb-final, verb-medial, agreement, verb, patient |
| 1615 | IF there is verb agreement with patient, THEN there is verb agreement with agent, regardless of alignment type. | syntax, inflection | implication | verb agreement, patient, agent, alignment |
| 1616 | Whenever basic order is SOV, IF the basic order of modifier and noun is reversed to noun-before-modifier, THEN there tends to be agreement between noun and modifier. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, SOV, agreement, NP, attribution, noun, relative clause, adjective, numeral<br> |
| 1617 | Whenever basic order is VO, IF the modifier precedes the noun, THEN there tends to be agreement between noun and modifier. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, VO, agreement, NP, modifier, attribution, relative clause, adjective |
| 1618 | IF person agreement of the verb is of the grammatical type, THEN it is with just the transitive subject. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, person |
| 1619 | IF there is person agreement on the verb of the ambiguous type with the object, THEN there is ambiguous-type person agreement also with the transitive subject. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, person, subject, object |
| 1620 | IF null subjects is permissible (aka subject pro-drop), THEN the inflectional paradigms of verbs are morphologically uniform, and vice versa. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication | subject pro-drop, verb, paradigm |
| 1621 | IF there are numeral classifiers distinguishing anything else, THEN there are numeral classifiers distinguishing animate/human and inanimate/nonhuman. For animate/human class: IF a numeral classifier system distinguishes objects by their sex, THEN it also distinguishes them by social status (including kinship relations). For inanimate/nonhuman class: IF a numeral classifier system distinguishes objects by orientation, THEN it also distinguishes them by shape. IF a numeral classifier system distinguishes objects by their rigidity, THEN it also distinguishes them by shape. IF a numeral classifier system distinguishes objects by their nature/function, THEN it also distinguishes them by shape. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implicational hierarchy | numeral classifier, animacy<br> |
| 1622 | IF there are classifiers for edible possessed items, THEN there are for nonedible ones, and vice versa. For the edible class: IF a possessive classifier system distinguishes objects by state of food, THEN it also distinguishes them by manner of ingestion. For the nonedible class: IF a possessive classifier system distinguishes objects by purpose or function, THEN it also distinguishes them by value. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | possessive classifier<br> |
| 1623 | IF there are predicate classifiers for anything else, THEN there are predicate classifiers distinguishing animate and inanimate. IF for animates there are predicate classifiers for anything other than Posture, THEN there are predicate classifiers for Posture. IF for inanimates there are predicate classifiers in terms of Individuation and/or Rigidity, THEN there are predicate classifiers in terms of Shape/Orientation. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | predicate classifier, animacy<br> |
| 1624 | IF there are noun class distinctions for anything else, THEN there is a noun class distinction in terms of animacy. IF for humans/animates there are distinctions other than for sex gender, THEN there is a distinction in terms of sex gender. IF or nonhumans/inanimates there are distinctions other than Nature or Individuation, THEN there is a distinction in terms of Nature or Individuation. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | noun class, animacy |
| 1643 | Reflexive markers tend to develop into decausative markers, but not the other way round. | inflection, syntax | target < source | reflexive marker, decausative |
| 1645 | The principal functions within the objective recessive diathesis develop in the following succession: decausative > passive > impersonal. Languages with the reflexive impersonal invariably display the other two objective functions of reflexive markers, and languages with the reflexive (personal) passive display decausative reflexive verbs, but not necessarily the reflexive impersonal. The principal functions within the objective recessive diathesis develop in the following succession: decausative > passive > impersonal. Languages with the reflexive impersonal invariably display the other two objective functions of reflexive markers, and languages with the reflexive (personal) passive display decausative reflexive verbs, but not necessarily the reflexive impersonal. |
inflection, syntax | target < source | reflexive, diathesis, passive, impersonal |
| 1646 | IF there are transitive reflexive verbs, THEN there are objective reflexive verbs. IF there are objective reflexive verbs, THEN there are subjective reflexive verbs. |
inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | reflexive |
| 1650 | IF there is major, salient dependent-marking morphology at the clause level, THEN there is dependent marking morphology at the phrase level. | inflection, syntax | implication | head-marking, dependent-marking |
| 1651 | IF there is dependent-marking clause morphology, THEN relativization will be of the same pattern. IF relativization is of head-marking type, THEN the clause uses the same pattern. |
inflection, syntax | implication | head-marking, dependent-marking, relative clause |
| 1652 | IF clause-affecting relativization occurs, THEN it will be of dependent-marking type. | inflection, syntax | implication | head-marking, dependent-marking, relative clause |
| 1653 | IF relative clause formation involves pronominalization, THEN it will be of dependent-marking type. | inflection, syntax | implication | head-marking, dependent-marking, relative clause, pronoun |
| 1656 | IF finite and non-finite (attributive and/or argument) functions of a form appear to be equally marked or equally unmarked, THEN the predicative usage of nominals (nouns and adjectives) will also be unmarked. | inflection, syntax | implication | finiteness, complexity, markedness |
| 1657 | IF finite and non-finite (attributive and/or nominal) functions of converbs are equally marked or equally unmarked, THEN there is non-tensedness. | inflection, syntax | implication | finiteness, complexity, converb, non-tensed |
| 1658 | IF there is non-tensedness, THEN the nominal predicate does not require a copula. | inflection, syntax | implication | tense, nominal predicate, copula |
| 1659 | IF there are evidentials encoding direct evidence, THEN there are evidentials for indirect evidence. IF there is an evidential category for visual evidence, THEN there is evidential category for non-visual evidence. IF there is an evidential category for inferential evidence, THEN there is evidential category for quotative evidence. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implicational hierarchy | evidentiality hierarchy |
| 1668 | IF the same expression is used both as intensifier and reflexive anaphor, THEN this expression is not used as a marker of derived intransitivity. | inflection, syntax | implication | anaphor, intensifier, reflexive, intransitivity |
| 1671 | IF there is an initial marker of subordination, THEN sentential NPs occur in clause-peripheral positions only. IF sentential NPs occur in clause-internal position, THEN there is no initial marker of subordination (i.e. there is no subordination marker at all, or there is a final marker). |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, clause, sentential NP, subordinator |
| 1673 | IF there is plural allomorphy, THEN morphology is flexive. | inflection | implication | flexion, number, plural, declension class |
| 1676 | IF there is stem modification (other than by assimilation and contraction), THEN morphology is flexive. | inflection | implication | flexion, stem modification |
| 1682 | There is a strong tendency for agent-oriented modality to be expressed by verbs, auxiliaries or non-bound particles, whereas speaker-oriented and epistemic modalities are often expressed inflectionally. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | modality, verb, auxiliary, mood |