Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
789 entries · page 5 of 16
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 314 | Indefinitiveness* tends to be expressed by zero. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | indefinitive, zero |
| 315 | IF any nominal forms function as direct objects, THEN they may also function as adverbial modifiers, especially adverbial modifiers of time. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, direct object, adverb |
| 316 | IF there is a syntactic form of the subjective* of nouns, THEN there will be a syntactic form of the accusative*, and vice versa. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication | case, subjective, accusative |
| 317 | IF the indefinite direct object is marked with a syntactic form of accusative*, THEN the definite direct object is marked with the same syntactic form. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, accusative, direct object, definiteness |
| 318 | IF inanimate nominals have the opposition of the syntactic form of the nominative and the accusative, THEN animate nominals also have this opposition. | inflection | implication | animacy, case, nominative, accusative |
| 320 | IF there is the syntactic form of an absolutive, THEN there will also be the syntactic form of an ergative. | inflection | implication | case, absolutive, ergative |
| 321 | IF personal pronouns have an opposition of the syntactic forms of nominative and accusative, THEN nouns have this opposition as well. | inflection | implication | pronoun, personal pronoun, noun, case, nominative, accusative |
| 322 | IF nouns have a syntactic form of the accusative, THEN at least some of its allomorphs are non-zero. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | noun, case, accusative, allomorphy, zero |
| 323 | IF nouns have a syntactic form of the ergative, THEN at least some of its allomorphs are non-zero. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | noun, case, ergative, allomorphy, zero |
| 324 | Whenever the verb agrees with subject and object, IF the agreement affixes can occur in the orders s-o-V and o-V-s, THEN they can also occur in the order s-V-o. |
inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject, object, person, affix-order |
| 325 | Whenever the verb agrees with subject and object, IF the agreement affixes can occur in the orders s-o-V and s-V-o, THEN they can also occur in the order o-V-s. |
inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject, object, person, affix-order |
| 326 | Whenever the verb agrees with subject and object, IF the agreement affixes can occur in the orders s-o-V and V-s-o, THEN they can also occur in the order o-V-s. |
inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject, object, person, affix-order |
| 327 | IF the transitive verb agrees in person with the direct object, THEN at least some transitive verb forms agree in person with the subject of a transitive verb. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject, direct object, transitivity, person |
| 328 | IF transitive verbs agree with their subjects in some grammatical feature, THEN intransitive verbs will agree with their subjects in each of these features. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject, transitivity |
| 329 | IF a verb agrees with the subject by a prefix, THEN verbs have affixes or clitics which agree with the direct object. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject, direct object, affix-order, prefix, clitic |
| 330 | IF transitive verbs agree with subjects in person by means of suffixes, THEN at least some intransitive verbs also agree with their subjects by suffixes. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject, person, transitivity, affix-order, suffix |
| 331 | IF intransitive verbs agree with subjects in person by means of prefixes, THEN transitive verbs also agree with their subjects by prefixes. |
inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject, person, transitive verb, intransitive verb, affix-order, prefix |
| 332 | IF in verb agreement with subjects agreement affixes can only be prefixes, THEN in verb agreement with objects agreement affixes are also prefixes in all or at least some verb forms. |
inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject, object, affix-order, prefix |
| 333 | IF in verb agreement with objects agreement affixes can only be suffixes, THEN in verb agreement with subjects agreement affixes are also suffixes in all or at least some verb forms. |
inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject, object, affix-order, suffix |
| 334 | IF subject or object agreement or cross-reference markers on verb are postverbal, but under certain conditions can appear in preverbal positions, THEN one of these licensing conditions is the presence of preverbal negation. |
inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | verb agreement, cross-reference, subject, object, affix-order, clitic, negation |
| 335 | IF object agreement is by means of a confix, THEN subject agreement can also be by confix in the same or other verb forms. |
inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, object, subject, affix-order, confix |
| 336 | IF subject agreement with a transitive verb is by means of a confix, THEN the prefixal and/or suffixal part of that confix will be used for subject agreement on intransitive verbs. |
inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | verb agreement, subject, transitivity, affix-order, confix |
| 337 | IF subject agreement with an intransitive verb is by means of a confix, THEN the prefixal and/or suffixal part of that confix will be used for subject agreement on transitive verbs. |
inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | verb agreement, subject, transitivity, affix-order, confix |
| 338 | Whenever the verb agrees with subject and object, IF there are confix forms such as s-V-s-o, THEN there is also non-confixal subject agreement in the order s-V-o. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject, direct object, person, affix-order, prefix, suffix, confix |
| 339 | Whenever the verb agrees with subject and object, IF there are confix forms such as o-V-s-o, THEN there is also non-confixal object agreement in the order o-V-s. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject, object, person, affix-order, confix, prefix, suffix |
| 340 | IF number is expressed in a prefixal part of a confix in verb agreement, THEN it is also expressed in its suffixal part. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, number, confix, prefix, suffix |
| 341 | IF confixes are used in verbal inflection, THEN the function of at least some of them is to agree with or cross-reference plural or dual subjects and/or objects. |
inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | verb agreement, number, plural, dual, confix |
| 342 | IF the dominant position of the subject with respect to the verb depends on their morphological properties, THEN the dominant order will be Verb-Object. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb, subject, object, order |
| 343 | IF the dominant position of the object with respect to the verb depends on morphological properties of the object, THEN the dominant order is SV. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb, subject, object, order |
| 355 | Whenever there is verb agreement with subject and object, IF the orderings of agreement markers on verbs include s-V-o but not o-V-s, THEN basic word order is verb-initial (VSO or VOS). | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, VSO, VOS, verb agreement, subject, object, affix-order |
| 356 | Whenever there is verb agreement with subject and object, IF the orderings of agreement markers on verbs include o-V-s but not s-V-o, THEN basic word order is SOV. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, SOV, verb agreement, subject, object, affix-order |
| 357 | Whenever there is verb agreement with subject and object, IF the orderings of agreement markers on verbs is always V-s, THEN basic word order is SV. |
inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject, affix-order, order, SV |
| 358 | Whenever there is verb agreement with subject and object and basic word order is VS, IF subject agreement markers are always postverbal, THEN object agreement markers are always postverbal too. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, VS, verb agreement, subject, verb, object, affix-order |
| 362 | The extent of “material“ articulation, pertaining in particular to (a) the elaboration of sound systems, (b) the complexity of syllable structures, (c) word length, (d) accentual differentiation (as opposed to not-so-articulated tonal modification), correlates with the extent of “formal“ articulation, pertaining in particular to (a) the differentiation of parts of speech, (b) the elaboration of inflectional and derivational systems, (c) analytic syntax (as opposed to not-so-articulated polysynthesis). | prosodic phonology, inflection, word formation, syntax, lexicon | mutual implication | phoneme system, syllable, word length, accent, tone, word class, polysynthesis |
| 365 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN inflectional affixes tend to be longer. IF morphology is flexive, THEN inflectional affixes tend to be shorter. |
inflection | mutual implication | affix, complexity, agglutination, flexion |
| 366 | Whenever there is verb agreement with subject and object, IF object agreement markers can be preverbal, THEN basic word order is SV. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, order, subject, object, affix-order |
| 375 | IF there is a case exclusively marking noun phrases in construction with adpositions, THEN there will be still further cases in addition to a basic general case. | inflection | implication | case, adpositional case |
| 377 | IF there are specialized topic markers, THEN these will always be postpositional and basic word order will almost always be SOV. | inflection, syntax | implication | topic, order, SOV |
| 387 | IF there is nominal inflection, THEN there will be verbal inflection. | inflection | implication | noun, verb |
| 389 | IF there is no inflectional gender, THEN morphology is agglutinative, and vice versa. | inflection | mutual implication | agglutination, gender |
| 392 | IF there is a associative plural, THEN there is a basic plural as well. | inflection | implication | number, plural, associative |
| 393 | When there is the category of associative plural, it will only be used with singular definite nouns, such as proper names, titles, and names of relatives. | inflection | unconditional | number, plural, associative, noun, definite, proper |
| 394 | IF there is person-number marking on adpositions, THEN there will be the same on nouns as well; IF there is person-number marking on nouns, THEN there will be the same on verbs as well. |
inflection | implication | adposition, noun, verb, person, number |
| 395 | IF there is cross-referential inflection, THEN there will be some self-referencing expression of the same categories (i.e., personal pronouns). | inflection, syntax | implication | cross-reference, pronoun |
| 396 | IF there are morphological means to indicate verbal modification (i.e., participles), THEN there are morphological means to indicate verbal reference (i.e., nominalized verb forms). | inflection, syntax | implication | participle, verb, nominalization |
| 399 | When there are homonymous inflectional affixes that express a single meaning element, IF there is cumulative inflection at all, THEN some of those will also be homonymous. | inflection | implication | homonymy, affix, cumulation |
| 400 | IF number is indicated by inflection in the 1st and/or 2nd person pronouns, THEN it is indicated by inflection in the 3rd person. | inflection | implication | number, personal pronoun, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 401 | IF number in the 1st and/or 2nd person pronoun is indicated by a plural marker also used for nouns, THEN 3rd person uses the same plural marker. | inflection | implication | number, plural, noun, personal pronoun, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 402 | IF any inflectional categories are expressed cumulatively and there is person-number inflection, THEN person-number will be among the cumulatively expressed distinctions. | inflection | implication | cumulation, person, number |
| 403 | IF there is any cumulative expression in a nominal paradigm, THEN there will be cumulative expression in a pronominal paradigm as well. | inflection | implication | cumulation, noun, pronoun |