Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
142 entries · page 1 of 3
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 122 | IF the same verbal meaning is expressible either through a construction where a complement of the verb is in the Accusative or through a construction where the same complement is in an adverbial case and there is a meaning difference between two constructions, THEN this semantic contrast will be either a contrast between a definite and an indefinite object, or a contrast between an object that is fully involved in the event and one that is partially involved, or a contrast between affected and non-affected participant. | inflection, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | object, case, accusative, adverbial, definite, indefinite, involvement, affectedness |
| 123 | Objects of transitive or subjects of intransitive sentences (absolutives) may be alternatively marked by an accusative-nominative or by a partitive, and this marking difference does not correlate with any difference in semantic case function, but with one or more of the following semantic properties of the verbs or nouns involved: a. the definiteness-indefiniteness of the noun phrase; b. the extent to which the object is involved in the event; c. the completedness vs. non-completedness of the event; d. whether the sentence is affirmative or negative. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | direct object, subject, case, accusative, nominative, partitive, definiteness, involvement, completedness, affirmation, negation |
| 136 | IF one of the relations of (i) alienability, (ii) inalienability, and (iii) classification is realized formally by a certain construction, THEN no relations below it on the hierarchy may be realized by a different construction used for relations higher on the hierarchy. LIKEWISE: IF a particular construction encodes a semantic relation of a certain type, THEN no construction for a relation below it will encode a semantic relation higher on the scale. |
morphology, syntax, semantics | implicational hierarchy | possession, alienable, inalienable, classification, compound, head-marking, dependent-marking<br> |
| 139 | IF a property is expressed alternatively by a noun and an adjective and there is an associated difference between temporary versus permanent property, THEN it is the noun which will express permanent property and the adjective which will express temporary property. | syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | word class, noun, adjective, time-stability |
| 140 | IF a property is expressed alternatively by a noun and an adjective and there is also an associated difference between that property associated with other properties in one expression but not in the other, THEN it is the noun which will express the cluster of properties and the adjective the single property. | syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | word class, noun, adjective, property |
| 141 | IF the property concept of shape is expressed through adjectives, THEN those of colour and size are also expressed through adjectives. | syntax, semantics | implication | word class, adjective, property concept |
| 167 | IF there is a distinct case marker to express “direction from”, THEN there will be a distinct case marker to express “direction to”. IF there is a distinct case marker to express “direction to”, THEN there will be a distinct case marker to express “location”. |
inflection, semantics | implication | case, semantics |
| 168 | The morphological complexity of a case marker to signal “direction to” is never less than that of a case marker to express “location”; the morphological complexity of a case marker to signal “direction from” is never less than that of a case to express “location”. |
inflection, semantics | implication | case, morpheme, complexity |
| 189 | IF there are around seven cases or more, THEN locational relations with be expressed by case forms; but not vice versa. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | case system, local case |
| 220 | IF there are converbs with the fundamental meaning of succession, THEN there are converbs with the fundamental meaning of precedence. IF there are converbs with the fundamental meaning of precedence, THEN there are converbs with the fundamental meaning of simultaneity. |
syntax, semantics | implication | converb |
| 227 | If there are only affixes which derive causatives form intransitive verbs, THEN these affixes will not have a permissive meaning. | morphology, semantics | implication | causative, transitivity, permissive |
| 268 | IF any other meanings are expresssed by productive reduplication, THEN the meaning ‘change of degree or quantity’ is also expressed thus. | morphology, semantics | implication | reduplication |
| 275 | IF a decrease of quantity or degree can be expressed by means of reduplication, THEN an increase of quantity or degree can also be expressed by reduplication. | morphology, semantics | implication | reduplication |
| 286 | IF there are tri-valent causatives derived from bi-valent non-causative verbs, THEN there must also be bi-valent causatives derived from uni-valent non-causatives. | morphology, semantics | implication | verb, causative, valency |
| 287 | IF a causative morpheme is unproductive in relation to transitives, forming from them a relatively small (closed) group of trivalent causatives, THEN verbs denoting abstract action and verbs of concrete action denoting the consumption of food will usually be among these transitive bases. |
morphology, semantics | implication | transitivity, causative, valency |
| 288 | IF there is a verb morpheme with the meaning of dativus commodi (applicative), THEN there will be a causative morpheme as well. | morphology, semantics | implication | verb, causative, dative, applicative |
| 289 | IF a causative morpheme can express permissiveness, THEN it can usually also express factitivity. | morphology, semantics | implication | causative, permissive, factitive |
| 416 | Affixes are ordered so that their increasing distance from the stem reflects decreasing semantic relevance to it. | inflection, semantics | mutual implication | affix-order, stem, relevance |
| 417 | The degree of bounding between stem and affix is in proportion to the semantic relevance of the affix to the stem. | inflection, semantics | mutual implication | affix, stem, relevance |
| 428 | Whenever there is gender agreement, IF morphological gender can be overruled by semantics within the noun phrase, THEN it can also be overruled in noun phrase external gender agreement. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | agreement, gender, NP |
| 429 | Whenever predicates agree with subjects in number and there is a politeness contrast for pronouns of address, with plural forms serving as polite singulars, IF any predicate constituents other than verbs are plural in agreement with polite plural (referentially singular) subject pronouns, THEN verbs are also plural; IF any predicate constituents other than nouns are singular, THEN nouns are also singular. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | agreement, politeness, number, plural, singular, personal pronoun, predicate noun, verb |
| 461 | Verb taking an effected or annihilated object (in particular verbs meaning ‘to create’ and ‘to destroy’) are transitive in all relevant morphosyntactic respects. | inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | verb, transitive, effected object |
| 462 | With verbs with the general meaning 'destroy' or 'create', agents will be subject and patients direct object in basic (active) constructions. | inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | verb, transitivity, subject, direct object, agent, patient |
| 463 | The patient of verbs of creating and destroying is the subject in the passive voice, if there is one. | inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | diathesis, passive, transitivity, subject, direct object, agent, patient |
| 464 | When a language has an opposition of intransitive verbs of action and state, all (or almost all) verbs meaning 'to move in a certain way' will belong with the verbs of action in all formal respects. | inflection, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | semantics, verb, transitivity, stative, active |
| 465 | With more than chance frequency, an NP with the semantic role of peregrinator (the one who moves) will be the subject of clauses with verbs meaning 'to move in a certain way'. | inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | subject, verb, transitivity |
| 466 | With more than chance frequency, in predications of class membership, the NP referring to the class member will be the subject and the class the predicate. | inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | subject, predicate |
| 467 | The subjects in predications of class membership are grammatically identical to subjects of intransitive verbs of state. | inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | subject, predication, transitivity, stative |
| 579 | IF personal pronouns can have semantic rather than syntactic agreement in gender or number with a particular noun, THEN relative pronouns, predicative, and attributive constituents can also have semantic agreement with that noun. IF relative pronouns can have semantic agreement in gender or number with a particular noun, THEN predicative, and attributive constituents can also have semantic agreement with that noun. IF predicative constituents can have semantic agreement in gender or number with a particular noun, THEN attributive constituents can also have semantic agreement with that noun. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implicational hierarchy | agreement, gender, number, attributive, predicate, relative pronoun, personal pronoun |
| 581 | IF stacked targets (such as attributive adjective and a determiner) may differ in agreeing on a referential-semantic or a syntactic basis, THEN the target further from the controller is likelier than the one closer to it to agree on a semantic basis. | inflection, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | agreement, attribution, adjective, determiner |
| 582 | IF there is a distinction between count and mass nouns, THEN NPs are configurational. IF NPs are configurational, THEN there is a distinction between count and mass nouns. |
morphology, syntax, semantics | mutual implication | count noun, mass noun, configurational NP |
| 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 |
| 591 | Whenever in a language there are two classes of noun phrases such that members of one class are case-marked ergatively and members of the other class are case-marked accusatively, and there is a semantic difference between the classes related either to activeness of noun phrase referents, or their quantitative properties, or their pragmatic prominence, members of the class that ranks higher on these properties will be marked accusatively and members of the lower-ranking class, ergatively. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implicational hierarchy | case, accusative, ergative, NP, hierarchy, split |
| 592 | All languages include utterance pairs where inclusion relations between semantic representations are paralleled by corresponding inclusion relations in morpheme structure; but in no language are all meaning inclusion relations so paralleled (e. g. no language has a fully iconic numeral system where all numerals are expressed by the repetition of the morpheme ‘one’). | morphology, syntax, semantics | unconditional | morpheme, complexity, iconicity, numeral |
| 593 | All languages include some utterances where the grouping of some semantic features in syntactic surface structure is identical to their grouping in semantic representations; but in no language are such groupings always congruent on the two levels. | syntax, semantics | unconditional | order |
| 594 | The repetition of syntactic constituents is used in all languages to express continuity of action (e.g. 'he walked and walked') and/or emphasis (e. g. 'very, very bright'). | morphology, syntax, semantics | unconditional | repetition, emphasis, iterative |
| 595 | There are some instances of adjacency relations among syntactic constituents which symbolize semantic relatedness between the corresponding meanings; but in all languages there are some utterances with semantically related but non-adjacent constituents. Cf. Behaghel's First Law. | syntax, semantics | unconditional | order |
| 596 | There are some utterances where simultaneity of morphemes symbolizes semantic relatedness. (Cf. the placement of meaning-bearing suprasegmental features). | morphology, semantics | unconditional | morpheme, suprasegmental |
| 624 | Distributive-key quantifier words are at least as closely bound to their head nouns as their ordinary counterparts. | syntax, semantics | unconditional | quantifier, distributive, head noun, boundedness |
| 626 | IF there are distributive-share quantifier words, THEN NPs are non-configurational, and nouns of low and high countability preference are indistinguishable. | syntax, semantics | implication | quantifier word, distributive, non-configurational NP |
| 639 | If any pronominal category is used to show degrees of respect or social distance, THEN most commonly it is the category of number. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, number, respect, social distance |
| 640 | IF there is any variation in number to show degrees of respect or social distance, THEN it is used in pronominal reference only to individuals, never to groups. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, number, respect, social distance |
| 641 | IF there is any variation of number in pronominal reference showing different degrees of respect or social distance, THEN the non-singular typically indicates a higher degree of respect toward the referent, or greater social distance between him and other participants in the speech act, than does the singular. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, non-singular number, singular number, respect, social distance |
| 642 | IF a repluralized or a double plural pronominal form as well as an original, archaic or simple plural are found in alternation showing different degrees of respect or social distance, THEN the former indicates greater respect or social distance than the latter. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, plural number, double plural, respect, social distance |
| 643 | Variation of more than one pronominal category may occur in the same language in reference showing different degrees of respect. | inflection, semantics | unconditional | personal pronoun, respect, social distance |
| 644 | IF there is variation of the category of person in personal pronouns so as to show degrees of respect or social distance, THEN there is variation of number for the same purpose. | inflection, semantics | implication | personal pronoun, person, number, respect, social distance |
| 645 | In languages in which variation of person in pronominal reference is used to show degrees of respect or social distance, the 3rd person indicates greater social distance when used in reference to either the addressee or the speaker than do the pronouns of the 2nd and 1st person, respectively. | inflection, semantics | unconditional | personal pronoun, 3 person, 2 person, 1 person, respect, social distance, addressee, speaker |
| 646 | Variation of person in pronominal reference indicates greater difference in degree of respect or social distance than does variation of number. | inflection, semantics | implication | personal pronoun, person, number, respect, social distance |
| 647 | IF 3rd person personal pronoun is used to show greater respect or social distance than the 2nd person pronoun in reference to the addressee, THEN this use is usually introduced by substitution of nouns or nominal expressions used in respectful address. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, person, number, respect, social distance, addressee |
| 649 | Variation of gender so as to employ one which does not correspond to the notional category of the sex of the referent is not used for showing greater respect than reference with the usual gender. | inflection, semantics | unconditional | personal pronoun, gender, noun, honorific |