Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
789 entries · page 3 of 16
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 163 | Overt marking of dative or spatial functions does not alternate depending on the polarity (positive/negative) of the clause. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | indirect object, spatial complement, affirmation, negation |
| 164 | Overt marking of dative or spatial functions (allative, locative) does not alternate depending on aspect (completive/incompletive). | inflection, syntax | unconditional | indirect object, allative, locative, aspect, completive, incompletive |
| 166 | IF a verb agrees with the direct object by prefix, THEN at least some verbs agree with the subject. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, verb, subject, direct object, prefix |
| 167 | IF there is a distinct case marker to express “direction from”, THEN there will be a distinct case marker to express “direction to”. IF there is a distinct case marker to express “direction to”, THEN there will be a distinct case marker to express “location”. |
inflection, semantics | implication | case, semantics |
| 168 | The morphological complexity of a case marker to signal “direction to” is never less than that of a case marker to express “location”; the morphological complexity of a case marker to signal “direction from” is never less than that of a case to express “location”. |
inflection, semantics | implication | case, morpheme, complexity |
| 169 | When an adposition and a case affix are involved in a government relation, it is always the adposition that governs the affix rather than in reverse. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | adposition, case, affix, government |
| 170 | IF there are case affixes on nouns, THEN they are almost always suffixed. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | case, noun, affix-order, suffix |
| 171 | IF a noun phrase constituent carries case and number inflection when co-occurring with a noun, THEN it can also fill a nominal slot by itself and carry the same inflection. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | NP, case, number, noun, inflection |
| 172 | When alignment is ergative/absolutive, IF the verb agrees with the ergative, THEN it agrees with the absolutive. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, verb, alignment, ergative, absolutive |
| 179 | IF a target agrees in Case, THEN it also agrees in Number and Gender. IF a target agrees in Gender, THEN it also agrees in Number. |
inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | agreement, number, case, gender, target |
| 180 | IF there is case marking for subject vs. object, THEN basic order is SOV. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, SOV, case, subject, direct object |
| 182 | IF adnominal genitival complements are neither marked by case nor by coreference on the head-NP, THEN basic order tends to be SVO. | inflection, syntax | implication | attributive, case, genitive, NP, order, head-marking, agreement, SVO |
| 183 | IF there is case inflection on nouns, THEN there is also case inflection on some pronouns. | inflection | implication | case, noun, pronoun, inflection |
| 184 | IF the accusative case marker in (3rd person) pronouns and indefinite nouns is the same, THEN it will also be the same in definite nouns. | inflection | implication | case, accusative, pronoun, person, 3, noun, definiteness |
| 185 | When there are analogical changes in the inflectional paradigms of place names, non-local cases (including the nominative) are generally reformed after local cases (such as the dative), rather than the other way round. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | place name, nominative case, local case, non-local case, analogical change |
| 186 | IF there are declension classes (i.e., variance with respect to case and number), THEN case and number will be cumulated. IF case and number are not cumulated (but expressed separately), then will be no declension classes. |
inflection | implication | case, number, cumulation, declension class, noun |
| 189 | IF there are around seven cases or more, THEN locational relations with be expressed by case forms; but not vice versa. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | case system, local case |
| 190 | IF there is a prolative case, THEN there will be an ablative case. IF there is an ablative case, THEN there will be an allative case. IF there is an allative case, THEN there will be a locative case. |
inflection | implication | case system, local case, locative, allative, ablative, prolative |
| 191 | IF there are syncretisms involving local cases other than those mentioned in the implicatum, THEN there will be syncretisms of ablative and prolative, locative and allative, and/or ablative and partitive. | inflection | implication | case, local case, ablative, prolative, locative, allative, ablative, partitive, syncretism |
| 192 | A relation that is higher on the hierarchy of centrality (subject-object > local relations; locative > ablative; ...) than another one will not be expressed lower down on the grammatical-to-lexical hierarchy of expression (word order > verbal coding > case > adpositions > ...). | inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | grammatical relations, local relations, word order, case, adposition |
| 193 | IF verbs assign morphological case, THEN adpositions assign morphological case. IF adpositions assign morphological case, THEN verbs assign morphological case. |
inflection, syntax | implication | verb, case, adposition |
| 194 | IF numerals are case-assigners, THEN so are verbs and/or adpositions. | inflection, syntax | implication | numeral, case, verb, adposition |
| 195 | IF adjectives can assign morphological cases other than genitive to their complements, they will also assign genitive. | inflection, syntax | implication | adjective, case, genitive |
| 197 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) precedes the head noun, THEN it will not participate in agreement. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) participates in agreement, THEN it will not precede the head noun. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, prefix, preposition, order, agreement |
| 198 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) precedes the head noun, THEN it will not be inseparable from it. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is inseparable from the head noun, THEN it will not precede it. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, head noun |
| 199 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) participates in agreement, THEN it will not be separable from the head noun. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is separable from the head noun, THEN it will not participate in agreement. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, agreement |
| 200 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) participates in agreement, THEN it will not be an independent morpheme. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is an independent morpheme, THEN it will not participate in agreement. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, affix, agreement |
| 201 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is an independent morpheme, THEN it will not be inseparable from the head noun. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is inseparable from the head noun, THEN it is an independent morpheme. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, head noun |
| 202 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is an independent morpheme, THEN it will not express subject-object relations. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) expresses subject-object relations, THEN it will not be an independent morpheme. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | case, adposition, grammatical relations |
| 203 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) participates in agreement, THEN it will not fail to express subject-object relations. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) fails to express subject-object relations, THEN it will not participates in agreement. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | case, adposition, agreement, grammatical relations |
| 204 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is an independent morpheme, THEN it will not fail to express concrete relations. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) fails to express concrete relations, THEN it will not be an independent morpheme. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, local relations |
| 205 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) does not express subject-object relations, THEN it will express local relations. IF it does not express local relations, THEN it will express subject-object relations. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | case, adposition, grammatical relations, local relations |
| 206 | IF alignment is ergative, THEN there will be an opposition of ergative and absolutive series of personal affixes in verb inflection and an opposition of an ergative and an absolutive case in noun inflection, similar to each other in their function. | inflection, syntax | implication | alignment, ergative, case, absolutive, person, verb |
| 211 | IF alignment is accusative, THEN there will be a single “subject” series of personal affixes in verb inflection and an opposition of a nominative and an accusative case in noun inflection. | inflection, syntax | implication | alignment, accusative, verb, person, subject, case, accusative, nominative |
| 213 | IF there is a derived-case comparative, THEN clause-combining is balancing. | inflection, syntax | implication | comparative, case, clause-combining, balancing |
| 214 | IF there is a fixed-case comparative, THEN clause-combining is deranking. | inflection, syntax | implication | comparative, case, clause-combining, deranking |
| 216 | IF alignment is active, THEN there will be an opposition of an active and inactive series of personal affixes in verb inflection and an opposition of an active and an inactive case in noun inflection, similar to each other in their function. | inflection, syntax | implication | alignment, active, verb, person, case, active, inactive |
| 217 | IF one of the elements of the hierarchy takes ergative case-marking, THEN all units to its right also take ergative case-marking as well; and IF one of the units takes accusative case-marking, THEN all units to its left also take accusative case-marking. | inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | alignment, case, ergative, accusative, pronoun, noun, NP hierarchy |
| 225 | IF alignment is active, THEN there is no case inflection. IF alignment is ergative, THEN there are ergative, absolutive, (and locative) cases. IF alignment is accusative, THEN there are nominative, accusative, (genitive, dative, instrumental, and locative) cases. |
inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | alignment, active, ergative, accusative, case, locative, nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental |
| 226 | IF clause structure is of the class type, THEN there is no case inflection. IF alignment is predominantly active, THEN there is either no case inflection or cases encode active and inactive participation rather than subject and object. IF alignment is predominantly ergative, THEN case marking non-distinctively expresses subject and object relations. IF alignment is predominantly nominative [i.e., ergative], THEN cases distinctively express subject and object. |
inflection, syntax | implication | alignment, class, active, ergative, accusative, subject, object, case |
| 228 | IF nouns inflect for case, THEN verbs inflect for some inflectional category. | inflection | implication | noun, case, verb |
| 229 | IF nominals inflect for number, THEN they also inflect for case. | inflection | implication | noun, number, case |
| 230 | IF constituent order is rigid, THEN cases are absent, and vice versa; If cases are absent, THEN the use of prepositions is extensive, and vice versa; IF order is rigid, THEN the use of prepositions is extensive, and vice versa. IF constituent order is flexible, THEN cases are present, and vice versa; IF cases are present, THEN the use of prepositions is sparse, and vice versa; IF order is flexible, THEN the use of prepositions is sparse, and vice versa. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | order, case, preposition |
| 231 | IF constituent order is rigid (or if there is no case inflection), THEN the gradation of adjectives is expressed by function words; IF constituent order is flexible (or if there is case inflection), THEN the gradation of adjectives is expressed inflectionally. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, case, adjective, comparison, inflection, function word |
| 232 | IF constituent order is rigid and there is no case inflection, THEN there is a definite article, but not vice versa. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, case, definite article |
| 234 | In times of inflectional expansion, IF there is number inflection, THEN there is also case inflection; and IF there is case inflection, THEN there is also gender inflection. In times of inflectional reduction, IF there is gender inflection, THEN there is also case inflection; and IF there is gender inflection, THEN there is also number inflection. |
inflection | implication | number, case, gender |
| 236 | During inflectional expansion, IF there are cases marking subject, object, and attribute, THEN there are also local and other adverbial cases. During inflectional reduction, IF there are local and other adverbial cases, THEN there are also subject, object, and attributive cases. |
inflection | implication | case, subject, object, attributive, local, adverbial |
| 237 | IF adjectives inflect for any category, THEN nouns inflect for this category as well. | inflection | implication | adjective, noun, inflection |
| 239 | IF constituent order is free, THEN all potentially declinable kinds of nominal words in relationships of determination — nouns, pronouns, adjectives (including articles) — are declined at least for case, the cardinal relational category, but presumably for number and gender as well. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, noun, pronoun, adjective, article, case, number, gender |
| 240 | IF there is ergative case marking, THEN with far more than chance frequency there is divergent ordering of genitive and adjective attributes, with genitives preceding and with adjectives following their head nouns; IF there is divergent genitive and adjective ordering, THEN supposedly with somewhat lower frequency, there is ergative case marking. |
inflection, syntax | implication | ergative case, order, attributive, adjective, noun |