Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
789 entries · page 15 of 16
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1683 | Progressives (which develop from locative, postural or movement verb constructions) tend to develop into imperfectives or occasionally presents. | inflection | target < source | aspect, progressive, imperfective, tense, present |
| 1684 | Anteriors (or perfects, which develop from stative auxiliaries plus a past participle, or from dynamic verbs such as ‘finish’ or ‘come from’) develop into perfectives or general past tenses. | inflection | target < source | aspect, anterior, perfective, tense, past |
| 1685 | Habitual grams tend to come from verbs meaning ‘live’, ‘know’ or ‘be used to’. | inflection | target < source | aspect, habitual |
| 1686 | In agreement conflicts due to conjuncts of different number and/or gender, IF there is number resolution, THEN there is also gender resolution, and vice versa. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication | number, gender, agreement, coordination |
| 1734 | The phonological body of the definite article is never more substantial in adnominal use than in pronominal use. | inflection, syntax | implication | definite article, pronoun |
| 1735 | The phonological body of any noun phrase constituent is never more substantial in adnominal use than in pronominal use. | inflection, syntax | implication | NP, pronoun |
| 1736 | IF a noun phrase constituent has special adnominal and nominal forms for any of its more marked members, THEN it tends to have such forms for some or all of its less marked members. | inflection, syntax | implication | NP, noun, pronoun, markedness |
| 1737 | IF the definite article carries any gender, number, and/or case inflection in adnominal use, THEN it carries at least the same inflection in pronominal use. | inflection, syntax | implication | definite article, gender, number, case, pronoun, determiner |
| 1738 | IF a noun phrase constituent carries any gender, number, and/or case inflection in adnominal use, THEN it carries at least the same inflection in pronominal use. | inflection, syntax | implication | NP, gender, number, case, pronoun, determiner |
| 1740 | IF an article is the sole carrier of gender and/or number and/or case, THEN it will co-occur with definite and generic nouns. | inflection, syntax | implication | article, case, number, gender, noun, definiteness, generic |
| 1741 | IF a less peripherally ordered noun phrase constituent marks gender, number, and/or case redundantly, THEN all more peripherally ordered constituents can mark these categories redundantly. | inflection, syntax | implication | NP, order, case, number, gender, agreement |
| 1747 | When there are any person affixes on the verb marking direct object, these will be prefixed with more than chance frequency. |
inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | person, direct object, verb, affix-order, prefix |
| 1748 | IF there are no overt articles, THEN non-specific direct objects fail to be accusative-marked. IF there are no overt articles, THEN non-specific direct objects fail to be marked in the same way as specific direct objects. |
inflection, syntax | implication | article, direct object, case, accusative, specificity |
| 1759 | IF person and/or number is marked on non-finite forms, THEN person and/or number is also marked on finite forms. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb, finite, non-finite, agreement, person, number |
| 1760 | IF the subject of a non-finite form is nominative, THEN the subject of (at least some) finite forms will also be nominative. | inflection, syntax | implication | finite, non-finite, subject, nominative case |
| 1761 | IF tense is marked on non-finite forms, THEN tense is also marked on finite forms. | inflection | implication | verb, finite, non-finite, tense |
| 1870 | Baby talk has shorter sentences, fewer subordinate clauses, fewer grammatical relations, more repetitions than normal adult-to-adult speech, often omits inflections and function words, and the copula. | inflection, syntax, discourse | unconditional | baby talk, complexity, subordination, copula |
| 1877 | Pronouns for 1st person inclusive plural may consist of 1st person plus 2nd person [singular] forms, but pronouns for 1st person inclusive dual may not. |
inflection | unconditional | inclusive, person, 1, 2, number, dual, plural |
| 1878 | In the coding of subordination vis-a-vis that of non-subordinate clauses: (a) If there is elimination of Aspect, then there is elimination of Tense and Mood. (b) If there is elimination of agreement, then there is elimination of Tense, Aspect, or Mood. (c) If there is case/adposition marking, then there is elimination of Tense, Aspect, or Mood. (d) If there is possessor/oblique coding, the there is elimination of Tense, Aspect, Mood or Agreement. |
syntax, inflection | implication | clause combining, subordination, tense, aspect, mood, agreement, case, adposition, possessor, oblique |
| 1879 | In the coding of subordination vis-a-vis that of non-subordinate clauses: (a) Case/adposition & agreement eliminated >> case/adposition marking & agreement maintained. (b) Arguments omitted & tense/aspect/mood eliminated >> arguments omitted & tense/aspect/mood maintained. (c) Arguments maintained & tense/aspect/mood eliminated >> arguments omitted & agreement maintained. (d) Arguments maintained & agreement maintained >> arguments omitted & agreement maintained. (where ‘>>’ means ‘is crosslinguistically more frequent than’) |
syntax, inflection | unconditional | clause combining, subordination, tense, aspect, mood, agreement, case, adposition |
| 1880 | Frequency hierarchy for the coding of subordination vis-a-vis that of non-subordinate clauses: elimination of tense/aspect/mood >> elimination of agreement distinctions, omission of verb arguments >> case/adposition marking on the verb >> coding of verb arguments as possessor or obliques. |
inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | clause combining, subordination, tense, aspect, mood, agreement, case, adposition, possessor, oblique |
| 1881 | In the coding of subordination vis-a-vis that of non-subordinate clauses, IF there is loss of subject-verb agreement and non-direct (but possessive/oblique) case marking of the subordinate subject, THEN there is loss of tense/aspect/mood, but not vice versa |
syntax, inflection | implication | clause combining, subordination, tense, aspect, mood, agreement, case, adposition, possessor, oblique |
| 1882 | Polarity [in gender/number systems] is never complete (i.e., polarity is never the sole configuration of gender/number markers under all circumstances in a given language). | inflection, syntax | unconditional | gender, number, polarity |
| 1883 | IF a verbal form inflects for tense-aspect-modality (TAM) like a predicated verb, THEN it will take subject and object dependents like a predicated verb. IF a verbal form takes a subject dependent like a predicated verb, THEN it will take an object dependent like a predicated verb. |
inflection, syntax | implication | deverbalization hierarchy, predicated verb, tense, aspect, mood, sunject, object |
| 1885 | When there are different tense categories and there is a split between 1st versus 2nd/3rd person in one of these categories, IF such a split occurs in tenses other than future, THEN it will also occur in the future. | inflection, syntax | implication | person, 1, 2, 3, split, tense, future, present, past |
| 1886 | IF there is a split between 1st versus 2nd/3rd person in the past, THEN there is such a split this split in the future too. | inflection, syntax | implication | person, 1, 2, 3, split, tense, future, past |
| 1887 | IF there is a split between 1st versus 2nd/3rd person marking in modal categories, THEN it is more likely to occur in: (a) optative than in indicative; (b) irrealis than realis; (c) volitional than involitional modality . |
inflection, syntax | implication | person, 1, 2, 3, split, mood, optative, indicative, irrealis, relais, volitional, involitional |
| 1888 | IF there is a split between 1st and 2nd person versus 3rd person marking, THEN it is more likely with a verb marked for direct or sensory evidence than verbs marked for indirect evidence, e.g. the widespread hearsay category. | inflection, syntax | implication | person, 1, 2, 3, split, evidentiality |
| 1889 | IF there is a split between 1st and 2nd person versus 3rd person marking, THEN this split is more likely with the verbal category assertive than with the category non-assertive. | inflection, syntax | implication | person, 1, 2, 3, split, assertive |
| 1901 | When at least some words of a particular word class are uninflected, words of that some word class that are borrowed must include ones which are equally uninflected. |
inflection | unconditional | language contact, borrowing |
| 1902 | IF respect or social distance is distinguished for speaker (1st person) or other (3rd person) pronouns, THEN it is also distinguished for addressee (2nd person) pronouns. | inflection, syntax, discourse | implication | speaker, addressee, social distance, respect, honorific |
| 1903 | Processess of variation of the type of pronoun used in reference for showing degrees of respect or social distance are more common in address than in reference to the speaker or to someone other than the speaker or addressee. | inflection, syntax, discourse | implication | pronoun, personal pronoun, speaker, addressee, non-locutor, social distance, respect, personal pronoun, honorific |
| 1904 | IF respect or social distance is distinguished for plural pronouns, THEN it is also distinguished for singular pronouns. |
inflection, syntax, discourse | implication | pronoun, personal pronoun, social distance, respect, honorific, number, singular, plural |
| 1905 | A pronominal form used for showing greater respect or social distance is never eliminated from the system of reference in favour of one for showing less respect or social distance. | inflection, syntax, discourse | unconditional | pronoun, personal pronoun, social distance, respect, honorific |
| 1907 | IF a language is pivotless, THEN there will be isolating morphology and free word order. | inflection, syntax | implication | semantic role, information flow, deixis, isolating, free word order, NP encoding |
| 1908 | IF a language is of the pure or the mixed separatist type of relational clause structuring, THEN there will be agglutinative morphology and free word order. | inflection, syntax | implication | semantic role, information flow, deixis, agglutination, free word order |
| 1909 | IF a language is of the cumulative mixed type, THEN there will be fusional morphology or rigid word order. | inflection, syntax | implication | semantic role, information flow, deixis, fusional, rigid word order, NP encoding |
| 1910 | IF there are syntactic relations, THEN there are diathesis changes (voices). IF there are no syntactic relations, THEN there are no voices. |
inflection, syntax | implication | syntactic relation, voice, diathesis |
| 1911 | When comitative and instrumental are kept formally distinct and if one of the two forms part of the mode of expression of predicative possession, there is a 3:1 probability that it is the comitative that belongs to this pattern. | inflection, sysntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | case, comitative, instrumental, predicative possession |
| 1912 | When the marker for instrumental forms part of the mode of expression of predicative possession, there is a 50% probability that comitative and instrumental are not distinguished by formal means. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | case, comitative, instrumental, predicative possession |
| 1913 | IF the grammatical expression of predicative possession requires the use of the marker of either comitative or instrumental, THEN in four out of five cases the comitative is involved. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, comitative, instrumental, predicative possession |
| 1914 | IF the marker of predicative possession is allowed to be part of the range of functions covered by the marker of instrumental, THEN at least one additional function that is not equivalent to the comitative is involved in the combination. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, comitative, instrumental, predicative possession |
| 1916 | IF there is an optative mood, THEN there is subjunctive or an imperative mood | inflection, syntax | implication | mood, optative, subjunctive, imperative |
| 1918 | IF Dative/Benefative objects can be promoted to direct object, THEN other object cases lower on the topicality hierarchy may also be "promoted" to direct object — but always with obligatory verb-coding of the semantic role of the "promoted" object. | inflection, syntax | implication | direct object, dative-shift, promotion |
| 1919 | IF basic order is VO, THEN the "promoted" direct object tends to be unmarked. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, VO, direct object, dative-shift, markedness |
| 1920 | IF basic order is OV, THEN the "promoted" direct object tends to be marked. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, OV, direct object, dative-shift, markedness |
| 1921 | IF there is polysynthesis, THEN there are no semantically significant determiners. | inflection, syntax | implication | polysynthesis, determiner |
| 1922 | IF there is polysynthesis, THEN no more than a two-way contrast in definiteness, indefiniteness, genericity, and referentiality is conveyed by the bound pronominal affixes of agreement morphology alone. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | polysynthesis, pronoun, agreement, definite, indefinite, generic, referential |
| 1925 | IF the verb in main clauses is inflected for subject or object agreement, THEN the verb in any sentence-like complement type will also be inflected for subject or object agreement. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject, object, complementation |
| 1926 | IF verbs are inflected for tense and/or aspect, THEN there is an indicative-subjunctive distinction in complementation, and vice versa. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication | tense, aspect, mood, indicative, subjunctive, complementation |