Universals Archive

A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.

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14 entries
# Standardized / Original Domain Type Keywords
298 Inversion of word order is always available to convey logical or emotional emphasis. syntax, pragmatics unconditional order, inversion
299 IF there is no category of definiteness/indefiniteness, THEN word order is used for distinguishing 'given' (coming closer to the beginning of the sentence) and 'new' information (closer to its end). syntax, pragmatics implication definiteness, order, given, new
376 IF an expression is the topic of a sentence, THEN it is typically definite or generic. syntax, pragmatics implication topic, definiteness, generic
378 IF there are specialized topic markers, THEN there will be high topic prominence (in the sense of Li & Thompson 1976). syntax, pragmatics implication topic
379 Every language has syntactic topic constructions in which an expression which refers to the topic of the sentence is adjoined to the left of a full sentence comment. syntax, pragmatics unconditional topic, order, comment, theme, new information
380 Every language has cleft constructions, either wh-clefts or it-clefts or both. syntax, pragmatics unconditional topic, cleft, wh-cleft, it-cleft
381 Every language has “double-subject”* constructions. syntax, pragmatics unconditional topic, comment
382 All languages have constructions whose function is to place topic, both old and new, before comment. syntax, pragmatics unconditional topic, comment, order, focus
383 The higher the topic-prominence, the less restricted the distribution of zero anaphora. syntax, pragmatics implication topic, anaphora, zero
384 The higher the topic-prominence, the fewer subject-creating constructions. syntax, pragmatics implication topic, subject
386 The most neutral position for focus in a language will be the position normally occupied by the direct object. syntax, pragmatics unconditional focus, direct object
1788 The Length Strategy:
The longer a sentence is, the more likely it is to be classified as belonging to a more formal register.		 syntax, pragmatics implication complexity, length, formality, register
1789 The Particle Strategy:
The more short, particle-like words a sentence contains, the more likely it is to be classified as belonging to a more informal register.		 syntax, pragmatics implication particle, length, formality, register
1869 There is a "tone of voice" appropriate for talking to young children:
(i) overall higher pitch and/or exaggerated intonation contours;
(ii) slower speech tempo.
 phonology, pragmatics unconditional baby talk, pitch, intonation, tempo