Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
543 entries · page 6 of 11
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 950 | IF either inflectional morphology or derivational morphology is served by prosodic rules of stress shift, then typically either new phonological rules emerge or old phonological rules are put to new uses, or both. | phonology, word formation, inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | stress |
| 951 | When there is phonemic stress, the number of phonemic contrasts in stressed syllables will be greater than or equal to the number of phonemic contrasts in unstressed syllables. | phonology | unconditional | stress, phoneme, syllable |
| 958 | IF there are both dissolvable and non-dissolvable medial clusters, THEN the former will be significantly more frequent than the latter. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | phonotactics, consonant cluster |
| 959 | The presence of C1C2- makes -C2C1 as likely as or more likely than -C1C2. | phonology | unconditional | phonotactics, consonant cluster |
| 960 | When there is phonemic stress, IF there are n unstressed syllables flanking a stressed syllable, THEN there are n -1 unstressed syllables. | prosodic phonology | implication | stress, syllable |
| 962 | IF there is vowel harmony, THEN there is typically no vowel reduction, and vice versa. | phonology | mutual implication | vowel harmony, vowel reduction |
| 1002 | IF a back nasal vowel is lowered, THEN the corresponding front nasal vowel is lowered as well. | phonology | implication | nasal, vowel, back, front, low |
| 1003 | IF the illocutionary force is finality and assertion, THEN terminal intonation is low or falling. IF the illocutionary force is non-finality or non-assertion, THEN terminal intonation is high or rising. |
phonology, semantics | implication | intonation, illocutionary force |
| 1004 | Vowel ablaut is the commonest iconic means (especially for expressing distance). | phonology, semantics | unconditional | iconicity, ablaut |
| 1005 | Front vowels predominantly correspond to diminutive and associated categories. | phonology, semantics | unconditional | iconicity |
| 1006 | If a metathesis is synchronically regular, THEN it is not phonologically conditioned. | phonology, morphology | implication | metathesis |
| 1007 | Resonance Hierarchy: vowel > semivowel > liquid > spirant > sibilant > nasal > stop. The more resonant a sound, the more susceptible it is to metathesis given the necessary conditions therefore. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | metathesis, sonority hierarchy |
| 1008 | IF a phoneme cannot occur at a word boundary, THEN it cannot occur at an utterance boundary either. | phonology | implication | word boundary |
| 1009 | IF dentals are spirantized, THEN labials and velars are most likely spirantized as well. | phonology | implication | spirantization |
| 1010 | No matter which direction the process ( d⇔ð, t⇔† ) is going, the stop outcome is favoured by word-initial, post-nasal or post-liquid stressed positions. The spirant outcome is favoured by post-vocalic positions, including intervocalic, pre-consonantal and pre-junctural. | phonology | unconditional | spirantization |
| 1011 | Pidginization processes tend to replace fricatives other than s by stops. | phonology | unconditional | spirantization, pidginization |
| 1013 | IF accent is on the third syllable from the left edge, THEN the system is not quantity-insensitive bound. OR, BY CONTRAPOSITION: IF the system is quantity-insensitive bound, THEN accent is not on the third syllable from the left edge. |
prosodic phonology | implication | accent, stress, quantity, syllable |
| 1014 | IF there are n labials or velars, THEN there will be at least n dentals. |
phonology | implication | consonant, dental, labial, velar |
| 1015 | IF there are peripheral affricates, THEN there are medial affricates. | phonology | implication | affricate, peripheral, medial |
| 1016 | IF there are diffuse medial affricates and compact medial fricatives, THEN there are compact medial affricates. | phonology | implication | affricate, fricative, diffuse, compact, medial |
| 1017 | IF there is a compact nasal consonant, THEN there are two diffuse consonants, one acute and the other grave. | phonology | implication | consonant, nasal, compact, diffuse, acute, grave |
| 1033 | It is these three features – stress, tone and length (with the possible addition of glottalization) – which function accentually and no others. | prosodic phonology | unconditional | stress, tone, length, accent, glottalization |
| 1034 | Only the intense pole – loud stress, high pitch and length – ever has the accentual property. There is no language in which there is one and just one weakest stress or one lowest pitch (or shortest segment) in a phonological word. | prosodic phonology | unconditional | stress, pitch, length, accent |
| 1035 | The climactic poles of the three accentual features tend to correlate with each other. Thus, e.g., where stress is predictable from vowel length, it is always the long degree which attracts stress. | prosodic phonology | mutual implication | stress, vowel, length, accent |
| 1036 | Morphemically simple phonological words never have more than one main stress. | phonology, morphology | unconditional | stress, accent |
| 1037 | When stress is phonologically predictable and automatic (i.e., always on the same syllable), it may only fall on initial, final, or penultimate syllables. | prosodic phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | stress, syllable, accent |
| 1038 | Morphemically simple words must have one main stress. | prosodic phonology | unconditional | stress, accent |
| 1039 | When stress is phonologically predictable and limited to certain syllables (i.e., does not always fall on the same syllable), the potentially stressable syllables form a sequence without gaps and are reckoned either initially forward or from the ultima backwards, with the relevant syllables being identified in terms of only three properties: (i) heaviness (vowel length and/or a complex nucleus of unlike vowels (diphthong) and/or syllable-final consonant(s), as opposed to lightness, (ii) open or peripheral vowel quality, as opposed to central vowel, or (iii) high tone, as opposed to low tone. | prosodic phonology | unconditional | stress, syllable, accent, tone, weight, vowel quality |
| 1040 | When stress is phonologically predictable and unlimited, the relevant syllables may only be identified in terms of heaviness or open/peripheral vowel quality, with the ‘residual’ rule, applying if the word lacks a syllable of the kind required to attract stress, almost always selecting the initial syllable. | prosodic phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | stress, syllable, accent |
| 1041 | When stress is not phonologically predictable (i.e., when it is phonemic, fulfilling grammatical or lexical functions) and limited to certain syllables (i.e. does not always fall on the same syllable), the potentially stressable syllables form a sequence without gaps and are almost always reckoned from the ultima backwards, with the maximum for end reckoning apparently being four, and with penultimate syllables being preferred. | prosodic phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | stress, syllable, accent |
| 1042 | IF secondary stress is phonological, THEN it most frequently involves alternations of weak stress (unstressed?) with secondary stress (so the favorite position of secondary stress is two syllables before or after the main stress); when there are deviations, a factor of syllabic weight is probably always involved. | prosodic phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | stress, syllable, accent |
| 1043 | Root accent is systematically favoured over inflectional accent. | phonology, morphology | unconditional | root, affix, accent |
| 1044 | Concerning the relation of word prosody to phrase prosody: Word accent of the final syllable is lost unless phrase final, whereas internal word accent is retained. | prosodic phonology | unconditional | prosody, word, accent |
| 1045 | IF stress is phonologically predictable and automatic (i.e., always on the same syllable), THEN there are phonemic distinctions of vowel quantity. | prosodic phonology | implication | stress, vowel, quantity, accent |
| 1046 | When length distinctions are limited to certain positions in the word, these always include or are even confined to the stressed syllable. | prosodic phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | stress, length, word, syllable, accent |
| 1047 | When there are limitations regarding the number of long vowels in a word, they invariably involve end and/or initial reckoning. | prosodic phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | vowel, length, accent |
| 1048 | IF syllable closure is counted as an extra mora, THEN vowel length is present and likewise counts as two mora(s), but not necessarily vice versa. | phonology | implication | vowel, syllable, length |
| 1049 | IF tonal contrasts are neutralized in certain syllables, THEN it occurs in unstressed syllables. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | tone, stress, syllable |
| 1050 | The number of tones on a long vowel seems never to be fewer than on a short vowel. | phonology | implication | vowel, tone, length |
| 1051 | IF there is tonal ascent, THEN there is also tonal descent. | phonology | implication | tone, contour |
| 1053 | We would expect that a system which stresses the initial syllable as the elsewhere case (i.e., if words lack a long vowel, full vowel, or heavy syllable that would attract stress) would be more common than a system which places stress on the final syllable in the elsewhere case, regardless of whether stress on strong syllables is determined from the left or from the right. | prosodic phonology | unconditional | stress, syllable |
| 1067 | Provided stress is phonologically predictable (i.e., demarcative), it will most likely fall on initial syllables, somewhat less commonly on final syllables or on penultimate syllables, rarely on second syllables, and never on others. | prosodic phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | stress, syllable |
| 1068 | Synchronic stress shifts may be from final to other (often penultimate) syllables or from second to other (often initial) syllables, but never the other ways around. | prosodic phonology | unconditional | stress, syllable |
| 1069 | IF there is a rule placing stress on antepenultimate syllables, THEN there is stress on words consisting of only one or two syllables. | prosodic phonology | implication | stress, syllable |
| 1070 | IF syllables tend to weaken before stress, THEN they also weaken after stress. | prosodic phonology | implication | stress, syllable |
| 1071 | IF there is a contrast between light and heavy syllables, THEN there is a contrast of vowel length. | prosodic phonology | implication | syllable, vowel, vowel quantity, syllable weight |
| 1072 | IF there is a contrast between light and heavy syllables, THEN there is a contrast of consonant length. | prosodic phonology | implication | syllable, consonant, consonant quantity, syllable weight |
| 1073 | Provided stress is sensitive to syllable weight, IF stress can be passed onto neighboring syllables by syllables of any other structure THEN it can be passed on by syllables consisting of a short vowel in open syllable position. | prosodic phonology | implication | stress, syllable, vowel, vowel quantity, syllable weight |
| 1074 | Provided both stress and quantity are distinctive, either stress distinctions will be limited in terms of quantity (to either long or short vowels) or quantity distinctions will be limited in terms of stress (to stressed syllables only). | prosodic phonology | mutual limitation | stress, syllable, quantity |
| 1075 | While a tone can be restricted in occurrence by an adjacent voiced vs. voiceless consonant, no stress language assigns stress on such a basis. Stress will generally be assigned without reference to segmentals except in two potential situations: (i) there is severe articulatory conflict, and (ii) there is perceptual conflict from within the phonological system. | prosodic phonology | unconditional | stress, tone, consonant |