Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
543 entries · page 1 of 11
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 124 | IF there are aspirated stops (especially voiceless labial and alveolar), THEN there is /h/. | phonology | implication | aspiration, stop |
| 187 | IF there are /t/, /d/, and the voiced aspirate /dh/, THEN there must already be the voiceless aspirate /th/. | phonology | implication | aspirate, voice |
| 196 | IF basic order is OV, THEN syllable structure is simple (tending towards CV). | phonology, syntax | implication | order, OV, syllable, complexity |
| 207 | IF basic order is VO, THEN syllable structure is complex (permitting initial and final consonant clusters). | phonology, syntax | implication | order, VO, syllable, complexity |
| 208 | IF basic order is OV, THEN there will be pitch accent. IF basic order is VO, THEN there will be stress accent, accompanied by reduction of unstressed vowels. |
phonology, syntax | implication | order, VO, OV, pitch accent, stress, vowel reduction |
| 209 | IF there is an opposition of two vowels of the same aperture, THEN there is a corresponding vocalic opposition of a narrower degree of aperture. | phonology | implication | vowel, degree of aperture, narrow |
| 210 | IF there is no differentiation of unrounded vowels according to degree of aperture, THEN there is no such a difference for the rounded vowels. | phonology | implication | rounded, unrounded, vowel, degree of aperture |
| 212 | IF there is a vocalic opposition, THEN there is a consonantal opposition. | phonology | implication | vocalic, consonantal, opposition |
| 218 | IF there are mellow fricatives, THEN there are corresponding strident fricatives. | phonology | implication | mellow, strident, fricative |
| 219 | Provided there are non-root as well as root morphemes, non-root morphemes have a more limited inventory of phonemes than root-morphemes and are on average shorter than root-morphemes. | phonology, morphology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | morpheme, root, non-root, phoneme inventory, length |
| 221 | Every free root morpheme (in contrast to non-root morphemes) is expressed with more than one consonant phoneme. | phonology, morphology | unconditional | root, non-root, phoneme, consonant |
| 223 | IF there are phonemic alternations in root morphemes, THEN there are [the same?] phonemic alternations in non-root morphemes as well. | phonology, morphology | implication | root, non-root, alternation |
| 224 | IF there is an opposition labials vs. dentals, THEN there is an opposition of nasal vs. oral stops as well. | phonology | implication | labials, dentals, nasal, oral, stop |
| 258 | IF alignment is predominantly ergative, THEN (i) subject is initial and verb final, (ii) subject and predicate are separated intonationally, (iii) object tends to be morphologically unmarked, and (iv) subject has a special morphological marker. |
phonology, morphology, syntax | implication | alignment, ergative, order, subject, direct object, intonation |
| 284 | IF there are palatoalveolar consonants, THEN there are dental consonants. | phonology | implication | consonant, palatoalveolar, dental |
| 290 | IF there is postconsonantal aspiration, THEN there is prevocalic aspiration. | phonology | implication | /h/, aspiration, consonant, vowel |
| 319 | IF there are n backness distinctions, THEN there are at least n height distinctions. | phonology | implication | vowel, height, backness |
| 361 | IF word order is free, THEN the words tend to be longer than one syllable. IF basic word order is SVO, THEN the words tend to be monosyllabic. |
phonology, syntax | implication | word length, syllable, order, SVO |
| 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 |
| 363 | (a)The utterance of the consonants with strong pressure of breath from the chest (as in aspirates, affricates, or in guttural consonants) corresponds to strength of purpose in the language community. (b) The tense and full utterance of consonants corresponds to laborious and active habits respectively, with easy life and indolence producing softly and imperfectly uttered consonants instead. (c) The unrestricted concurrence of consonants in consonant clusters corresponds to versatility, the restricted variety in their concurrence to tenacity. (d) The predominance of consonants (more adapted for the transmission of that representation to the sense of the hearer) corresponds to thoughtfulness, while the predominance of vowels over consonants corresponds to thoughtfulness and talkativeness. | phonology, culture/mind | mutual implication | consonant, vowel, consonant clusters, aspiration |
| 364 | IF morphology is flexive or introflexive, THEN word forms tend to be two or three syllables long. IF morphology is agglutinative or incorporating, THEN word forms tend to be longer. IF bound morphology is lacking (i.e. a language is isolating), THEN word forms tend to be shorter. |
phonology, morphology, lexicon | mutual implication | flexion, introflexion, agglutination, incorporation, isolation, word length, syllable |
| 367 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN derivational affixes tend to have more complex syllabic structure. IF morphology is flexive, THEN derivational affixes tend to have less complex syllabic structure. |
phonology, morphology | mutual implication | affix, syllable, agglutination, flexion |
| 368 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN the phonological structure of affixes tends to be very similar to that of stems. IF morphology is flexive, THEN affixes tend to be shorter, structurally simpler, and more uniform in their phonemic make-up than stems. |
phonology, morphology | mutual implication | phonology, affix, stem, agglutination, flexion |
| 369 | IF there is vowel harmony, THEN morphology tends to be agglutinative. | phonology, morphology | mutual implication | agglutination, vowel harmony |
| 370 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN casual/fast speech shows less phonological reduction than if morphology is flexive. | phonology, morphology, syntax | implication | agglutination, flexion, fast speech, agreement |
| 371 | IF there is vowel harmony and perhaps other progressive phonological modifications, THEN basic word order is OV, but not vice versa; IF there is umlaut and perhaps other regressive/anticipatory phonological modifications, THEN basic word order is VO, but not vice versa. |
phonology, syntax | implication | vowel harmony, assimilation, order, object, verb, umlaut |
| 372 | IF basic order is VO, THEN main stress in a Verb Phrase is to the right of Verb. IF basic order is OV, THEN main stress in a Verb Phrase is to the left of Verb. |
prosodic phonology, syntax | implication | stress, VP, verb, order, object |
| 373 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN syllabic structure is simple (syllables are short), and vice versa. IF morphology is flexive, THEN syllabic structure is complex (syllables are long), and vice versa. |
phonology, morphology | mutual implication | agglutination, flexion, syllable structure |
| 374 | IF there are high syllable-per-sentence and high syllable-per-word ratios & simple syllables & agglutinative morphology, THEN basic word order will be (S)OV. IF there are low syllable-per-sentence and low syllable-per-word ratios & complex syllables & flexive [or no] morphology, THEN basic word order will be (S)V(S)O. |
phonology, morphology, syntax | implication | agglutination, flexion, syllable, order, complexity |
| 385 | IF topic-comment structure is coded by intonation, THEN primary stress always falls inside the focus. | syntax, prosodic phonology | implication | topic, comment, intonation, focus |
| 388 | IF /h/ precedes a high vowel, THEN it also precedes a low vowel. |
phonology | implication | /h/, vowel, aspiration, high, low |
| 390 | IF aspirated consonants occur in absolute final position, THEN they also occur preconsonantally; IF they occur preconsonantally, THEN they also occur postvocalically; IF they occur postvocalically, THEN they also occur prevocalically. |
phonology | implication | /h/, consonant, aspiration, preconsonantal, prevocalic, absolute, final position |
| 391 | IF an aspirated consonant occurs preceding an unstressed vowel, THEN it also occurs preceding a secondary stressed vowel. IF an aspirated consonant occurs preceding a secondary stressed vowel, THEN it also occurs preceding a primary stressed one. |
prosodic phonology | implication | /h/, consonant, vowel, aspiration, primary, stress, secondary, unstressed |
| 405 | IF there are aspirated continuous obstruents, THEN there are also aspirated non-continuous obstruents. | phonology | implication | /h/, obstruent, continuous, non-continuous, aspiration |
| 412 | IF there are aspirated voiced consonants (especially sonorants), THEN there are also aspirated voiceless consonants (especially obstruents). | phonology | implication | /h/, consonant, voice, aspiration |
| 453 | IF there are pre-aspirated consonants, THEN there are also postaspirated ones. | phonology | implication | /h/, consonant, aspiration, postaspirated, pre-aspirated |
| 457 | IF /h/ occurs in syllable-initial position, THEN it also occurs in relative initial position. IF /h/ occurs in relative initial position, THEN it occurs in absolute initial position. |
phonology | implication | /h/, aspiration, syllable |
| 458 | IF /h/ precedes a palatal vowel, THEN it also precedes a velar vowel. | phonology | implication | /h/, vowel, aspiration, velar, palatal |
| 459 | IF there are long consonants after long vowels, THEN there are long consonants after short vowels. | phonology | implication | phonotactics, geminate, vowel, long, short |
| 471 | IF long consonants occur in non-intervocalic position, THEN they will occur in intervocalic position. | phonology | implication | phonotactics, geminate, intervocalic position |
| 489 | If there are long affricates, THEN there are long stops. IF there are long affricates and long stops, THEN there are long fricatives. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | geminate, affricate, stop, fricative |
| 494 | When a yes-no question is differentiated from the corresponding assertion by an intonational pattern, the distinctive intonational features of each of these patterns are reckoned from the end of the sentence rather than from the beginning. | syntax, prosodic phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | sentence type, interrogative, yes-no question, intonation |
| 586 | IF morphemes are semantically less complex than others, THEN they will not systematically be more complex in phonetic form than these. | phonology, morphology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | morpheme, complexity, semantics, iconicity |
| 587 | Where phonetic complexity is systematically correlated with semantic complexity, the former will be measured in terms of segments rather than features; therefore, semantically more complex morphemes may be longer than semantically simpler ones but they will not systematically contain more complex sound types. | phonology, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | morpheme, complexity |
| 588 | IF the volume of sound is increased, THEN so will be the emphasis. | phonology | mutual implication | emphasis |
| 617 | When becoming a nasal or determining the place of articulation of adjacent nasals by assimilation, labial velars behave primarily like velars. | phonology | unconditional | labial, velar, nasal |
| 629 | Sonority Hierarchy: vowels > liquids > glides > nasals > fricatives > stops | phonology | implicational hierarchy | sonority hierarchy |
| 654 | IF there is unlimited consonant clustering, THEN basic order is VS, and vice versa. IF there are limitations on consonant clustering, THEN basic order is SV, and vice versa. |
phonology, syntax | mutual implication | order, subject, verb, SV, VS, consonant cluster |
| 655 | IF there is polysynthesis, THEN the consonant-vowel ratio is comparatively high. | phonology, morphology, syntax | mutual implication | consonant, vowel, ratio, polysynthesis |
| 656 | IF the phoneme inventory is large, THEN morpheme length is short. IF the phoneme inventory is small, THEN morphemes length is long. |
phonology | implication | phoneme, morpheme length |