Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
157 entries · page 3 of 4
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1492 | In ditransitive constructions, the theme/direct object may incorporate, but the goal/indirect object may not (per movement in syntax, as opposed to lexical compound formation). | morphology, syntax | unconditional | incorporation, theme, goal, indirect object, direct object |
| 1495 | IF a noun is incorporated (because it is generic), THEN it cannot trigger transformations' which imply specific reference: conjuction deletion, Equi-NP-deletion, passivization, relativization, and topicalization. | morphology, syntax | implication | incorporation, conjunction deletion, diathesis, passivization, relativization, topicalization, Equi-NP-deletion, generic, specific reference |
| 1496 | IF basic word order is verb-initial, THEN nouns attach to the right of the verb stem when incorporated. |
morphology, syntax | implication | incorporation, order, verb-initial |
| 1497 | IF basic word order is not-verb-initial (i.e. verb-medial or verb-final), THEN nouns attach to the left of the verb stem when incorporated. | morphology, syntax | implication | incorporation, order, verb-medial, verb-final |
| 1498 | IF syntax is non-configurational, THEN morphology is agglutinative, but not vice versa. | morphology, syntax | implication | non-configurational, agglutination |
| 1502 | IF a de-verbal morpheme is used as a comparative marker, THEN it is also used as a conjunction with conditional clause. IF a de-verbal morpheme is used as a conjunction with conditional clause, THEN it is also used as a complementizer with embedded question. IF a de-verbal morpheme is used as a complementizer with embedded question, THEN it is also used as a marker with question word. IF a de-verbal morpheme is used as a marker with question word, THEN it is also used as a conjunction with reason clause. IF a de-verbal morpheme is used as a conjunction with reason clause, THEN it is also used as a conjunction with purpose clause. IF a de-verbal morpheme is used as a conjunction with purpose clause, THEN it is also used as a quotative/complementizer with ‘hope’. IF a de-verbal morpheme is used as a quotative/complementizer with ‘hope’, THEN it is also used as a quotative/complementizer with ‘believe’. IF a de-verbal morpheme is used as a quotative/complementizer with ‘believe’, THEN it is also use as a quotative/complementizer with ‘know’. IF a de-verbal morpheme is used as a quotative/complementizer with ‘know’, THEN it is also used as a quotative/complementizer with ‘say’. IF a de-verbal morpheme is used as a quotative/complementizer with ‘say’, THEN it is also used as a quotative particle. |
morphology | implicational hierarchy | grammaticalization, verb, complementizer, adverbial conjunction |
| 1503 | IF there are serial verb constructions, THEN there will be VO ordering with verb serialization, one object per verb, isolating morphology, simple syllable structure, and lexical/or grammatical tone distinctions. | prosodic phonology, morphology, syntax | implication | serial verb, order, isolating, syllable, tone |
| 1506 | IF there are regular violations of the tonal pattern in imperative or vocative forms, THEN there is a special redistribution of tones in questions, commands, addresses, emphatic utterances. | phonology, morphology | implication | tone, imperative mood, vocative, interrogative sentence, emphasis, anomaly |
| 1531 | IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN a causative element precedes the root of the causativized verb. |
morphology, syntax | implication | order, subject, object, causative |
| 1535 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN there is significant prefixing [more than with other basic orders?], though normally there is some suffixing as well; and there is a possibility of ambi-fixing (discontinuous affixes), and a somewhat greater than chance tendency for discontinuous demonstratives. | morphology, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, affix-order, prefix, demonstrative |
| 1536 | IF basic order is verb-initial, THEN the morphology may be agglutinative or polysynthetic . | morphology, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, agglutination, poysynthesis |
| 1578 | IF there are any reflexive verbs formed by adding a reflexive marker and an affix (or a predicative adjective, etc.), THEN some of these are derived from intransitives. | morphology, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive verb, reflexive marker, intransitive |
| 1579 | IF there are any reflexive verbs derived from intransitives by adding reflexive marker and an affix (or a predicative adjective, etc.), THEN a great number of them are likely to imply intensity of action and resultant state. | morphology, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive verb, reflexive marker, intransitive, intensity of action, resultant state |
| 1580 | IF there is a complex system both of reflexive and causative constructions (with lexical or analytical causatives), THEN the reflexive construction tends to include a greater number of figurative and set phrases than the causative construction. | morphology, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive construction, causative construction |
| 1581 | IF there is a reflexive verb meaning 'to laugh', THEN it is usually not derived from the transitive base meaning 'to make somebody laugh'. | morphology, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, causative |
| 1582 | IF both reflexive marker and the causative marker are affixes, THEN it is unlikely for the reflexive marker to be a suffix and the causative marker a prefix. The likelihood is that they are both prefixes or both suffixes, or that the reflexive is a prefix and the causative a suffix. | morphology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive marker, causative marker, affix-order, suffix, prefix |
| 1583 | IF there are causative affixes which serve to form causative verbs from transitives, THEN there will be causative affixes which serve to form causative verbs from intransitives. | morphology, syntax | implication | causative, transitivity |
| 1584 | IF there are several causative affixes, THEN the means for deriving causatives from intransitives are more varied than those for forming causatives from transitive verbs. | morphology, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | causative morpheme, causative verb, intransitive verb, transitive verb |
| 1585 | If there are productive complex affixes among the causative affixes, then by means of them causatives can also (or only) be derived from intransitives. | morphology, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | causative, transitivity |
| 1586 | If a language has a causative morpheme which expresses permissiveness, this morpheme usually combines with a larger group of verbal stems in this meaning than in its second meaning, factitivity, which is implied by the first. | morphology, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | causative, permissiveness, factitivity |
| 1587 | The following four causative oppositions: (1) laugh - make laugh, amuse; (2) boil - bring to boil; (3) burn - ignite (of a paper); (4) break, get broken - break in two (of a stick), display varying predispositions to expression by one or another formal opposition. Thus, A. The probability that a formal opposition with a causative morpheme will appear decreases from the first causative opposition to the fourth. B. The probability that a formal opposition with an anticausative morpheme will appear increases from the first causative opposition to the fourth. C. The probability that a conversive formal opposition will appear increases from the second causative opposition to the fourth (it was not not found at all in the first). D. Suppletive formal oppositions are encountered almost exclusively in the second and third causative oppositions, which indicates that there is a greater tendency for the first and fourth semantic oppositions to be expressed by one and the same root morpheme. |
morphology, semantics | implication | causative |
| 1593 | IF basic order is verb-final, THEN there will be a strong tendency to place grammatical morphemes (grams) after the verb, and eventually to suffix them. | morphology, syntax | implication | order, verb-final, verbal morpheme, affix-order, suffix |
| 1594 | IF basic order is verb-medial, THEN there is a strong tendency for preposed grammatical morphemes not to be affixed (i.e., to be free). | morphology, syntax | implication | order, verb-medial, morpheme, affix-order, grammaticalization |
| 1602 | IF there are headless relative clauses, THEN there is a productive pattern of nominalization. | morphology, syntax | implication | relative clause, internal (= replacive, =headless), nominalization |
| 1630 | In languages with double numeral systems: IF the numeral of the A set is used, THEN the item counted or measured tends to be in the singular. |
morphology, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | double numeral system, number, singular |
| 1635 | IF there is polysynthesis, THEN there will be no NP reflexive. | morphology, syntax | implication | polysynthesis, anaphor, pronoun, reflexive |
| 1636 | IF there is polysynthesis, THEN there will be no non-referential quantified NPs (quantifiers serving as NPs on their own). |
morphology, syntax | implication | polysynthesis, quantifier |
| 1637 | IF there is polysynthesis, THEN interrogative phrases are constrained to appear in clause-initial position (through WH-movement). | morphology, syntax | implication | polysynthesis, interrogative, wh-movement |
| 1639 | IF there is polysynthesis, THEN there will be no non-finite verb forms / no non-finite subordinate clauses. | morphology, syntax | implication | polysynthesis, finiteness, verb |
| 1640 | IF there is productive noun incorporation, THEN there will be head-marking. | morphology, syntax | implication | noun incorporation, head-marking |
| 1641 | IF there are relational preverbs owing to preposition incorporation, THEN basic order tends to be verb-final. | morphology, syntax | implication | order, verb-final, preverb, preposition incorporation |
| 1746 | IF there are any prefixes on nouns, THEN there will be prefixes on verbs with considerably more than chance frequency. | morphology | implication | affix-order, prefix, noun, verb |
| 1790 | The shorter a linguistic expression is, the more likely it is will be associated with familiarity and high frequency of occurrence. The longer a linguistic expression is, the more likely it is will be associated with unfamiliarity and low frequency of occurrence. |
morphology, syntax, semantics | implication | iconicity, complexity, length, formality, register, frequency |
| 1876 | IF there is a 1st person exclusive dual, THEN there is also a 1st person inclusive dual. | morphology | implication | inclusive, exclusive, person, 1, number, dual |
| 1896 | IF there are borrowed bound morphemes, such as clitics, affixes and parts of compound stems, THEN there are borrowed free forms which these bound morphemes are proper parts of. IF there are borrowed phonetic segments or features, THEN there are borrowed accentuated lexemes which these segments or features are proper parts of. |
morphology | implication | language contact, borrowing, accent, affix, clitic |
| 1899 | IF there ais a borrowed inflectional affix, THEN there is a borrowed derivational affix. | morphology | implication | language contact, borrowing, affix |
| 1929 | If a language has two near-synonymous constructions which differ structurally in linguistic distance, they will differ semantically in (among other things) conceptual distance in a parallel fashion. | morphology, syntax, semantics | unconditional | linguistic distance, conceptual distance |
| 1930 | If a language has two modifier constructions that differ in linear order and in linguistic distance, the construction with a prenominal modifier will display the shorter linguistic distance. | morphology, syntax | unconditional | order, noun, modifier, linguistic distance |
| 1931 | If a language has two modifier constructions that differ in linear order and in linguistic distance, the construction with a prenominal modifier will display the closer conceptual distance. | morphology, syntax | unconditional | order, noun, modifier, conceptual distance |
| 1934 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of a negative determiner, THEN there is a word-form borrowing of a specific determiner, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, indefinite pronoun, negative determiner, specific determiner |
| 1935 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of a free-choice indefinite, THEN there is a word-form borrowing of other than free-choice indefinite of the same ontological category, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, indefinite pronoun, free-choice indefinite |
| 1936 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of a personal indefinite, THEN there is a word-form borrowing of an impersonal indefinite of the same indefiniteness function, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, indefinite pronoun, personal indefinte, impersonal indefinite |
| 1937 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of a local indefinite, THEN there is a word-form borrowing of a temporal indefinite of the same indefiniteness function, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, indefinite pronoun, local indefinite, temporal indefinite |
| 1938 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of other than negative indefinite (excluding determiners), THEN it is likely that there will be a word-form borrowing of a negative indefinite of the same ontological category, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, indefinite pronoun, negative indefinite |
| 1939 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of an impersonal indefinite, THEN it is likely that there will be a word-form borrowing of a temporal indefinite of the same indefiniteness function, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, indefinite pronoun, impersonal indefinite, temporal indefinite |
| 1940 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of a local indefinite, THEN it is likely that there will be a word-form borrowing of an impersonal indefinite of the same indefiniteness function, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, indefinite pronoun, impersonal indefinite, local indefinite |
| 1941 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of a local interrogative, THEN there is a word-form borrowing of a temporal interrogative, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, local interrogative, temporal interrogative |
| 1942 | Indefinite word forms which synchronically contain an indefiniteness marker that already exists in the potential recipient language are more likely to be borrowed (and to be kept after they had been borrowed) than forms of the same function that do not contain such a marker. | lexicon, morphology | unconditional | borrowing, indefinite pronoun |
| 1943 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of a personal indefinite in a language, THEN there is a word-form borrowing of an temporal indefinite of the same indefiniteness function, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, pronoun, definiteness |
| 1946 | IF there is internal stem modification or suprasegmental modification or subtraction or conversion or suppletion in derivation or inflection, THEN there is affixation. |
morphology | implication | internal modification, suprasegmental modification, subtraction, conversion, suppletion, reduplication, affixation |