Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
142 entries · page 2 of 3
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 650 | In a language in which categories of proximity are employed to show degrees of respect or social distance, the one used to indicate greater physical distance within discourse is also used to indicate greater respect or social distance. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, proximity, respect, social distance |
| 651 | In a language in which categories of definiteness are employed to show degrees of respect or social distance, the one used as indefinite or least definite is also used to indicate greater respect or social distance. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, definite, indefinite, respect, social distance |
| 652 | Of (i) reflexive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, and pronominalized nouns or pronominalized nominal expressions used in reference and (ii) personal pronouns of the same number, the former (i) usually indicate greater respect or social distance than the latter (ii). | syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, reflexive pronoun, demonstrative pronoun, number, respect, social distance |
| 657 | IF there are pejorative pronominal affixes, THEN there are honorific ones. | inflection, semantics | implication | pronoun, affix, pejorative, honorific |
| 658 | In languages in which categories of proximity, inclusiveness and definiteness are employed to convey social meaning, non-proximate, exclusive, and indefinite or impersonal usually indicate greater respect or social distance than do the opposing ones; inanimate and non-human typically indicate less respect than do their counterparts, when used with social meaning. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | proximity, inclusiveness, definiteness, social distance, respect |
| 696 | The two intonation shapes that are found everywhere are fall and rise, with their targets, low and high. The meanings are as uniform as the shapes: falls for ‘being through’, rises for ‘not being through’. Spreading from each is a net of metaphor. ‘Not being through’ is akin to ‘being aroused’, and since we are most aroused by what is most important, a high pitch becomes the normal sign of importance. | phonology, semantics | unconditional | intonation |
| 733 | Whenever there is person agreement in intransitive main clauses, IF intransitive predicates other than those denoting events agree in person, THEN those denoting events will also agree in person. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | agreement, person, transitivity, event predicate |
| 734 | IF predicates are encoded independently, i.e., without the support of a copula, substantive verb, or locative verb, THEN this encoding will always comprise event predicates. | inflection, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | copula, zero, event predicate |
| 735 | IF predication can be encoded through zero or nonverbal copula, THEN this encoding will be used for identity statements. | syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | copula, zero, identity statement |
| 736 | IF there is zero or nonverbal copula encoding for sentence types other than identity statements, THEN there is zero or nonverbal copula encoding for predicate nominal sentences. | syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | copula, zero, identity statement, predicate nominal |
| 740 | IF there is a nominal-verbal split in encoding property concepts, THEN Human Propensity predicates will be encoded by the verbal strategy. | inflection, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | word class, adjective, verb, noun, property concepts, human propensity |
| 741 | Hierarchy of Property Concepts: Human Propensity > Physical Property > Dimension / Colour > Value / Age / Form > Material / Gender When languages encode these types of property concepts by different word classes, wherever the cut-off point, IF a concept type is encoded nominally, THEN all concept types lower on the hierarchy are also encoded nominally; and IF a concept type is encoded verbally, THEN all concept types higher on the hierarchy are also encoded verbally; IF any concept types are encoded through a distinct word class of adjectives, THEN this will include those from the middle of the hierarchy. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implicational hierarchy | word class, verb, noun, adjective, property concepts |
| 742 | IF there is a nominal-verbal split in encoding property concepts, THEN items which belong to the adjectival categories of Material and Gender will be be encoded by the non-verbal strategy. | inflection, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | word class, adjective, property concepts, material, gender |
| 743 | IF there is verbal-nominal switching for adjectives, THEN the nominal option will always encode the more time-stable reading. | inflection, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | word class, time stability, adjective, verb, noun |
| 744 | IF there is nominal-locational switching for adjectives, THEN the nominal option will encode the more time-stable reading. | inflection, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | word class, time stability, adjective, noun, locational |
| 745 | IF the nominal strategy partakes in an Adjective-switch, and IF that switch is monitored by Time Stability, THEN the nominal strategy will encode the more time-stable option. | inflection, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | word class, time stability, adjective, noun |
| 746 | IF there is nominal/locational switching for predicate nominals, THEN there is either nominal/locational switching for predicate adjectives, or complete locational take-over for predicate adjectives. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | word class, predicate nominal, predicate adjective, locational |
| 957 | IF verbs of material transfer (giving and taking) and/or verbs of commanding exhibit anomalies with respect to the syntagmatic differentiation of objects, THEN verbs of information (telling and asking) will also be anomalous in this respect, but not vice versa. IF verbs of information are anomalous in this respect, THEN verbs of teaching and examining will also be anomalous, but not vice versa. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | grammatical relations, object, ditransitive |
| 982 | When there are plural allomorphs conditioned by semantically transparent classes of nouns, these classes will typically be defined along the Split Plural Hierarchy. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | allomorphy, number, plural, animacy |
| 983 | IF nouns low on the split plurality hierarchy have irregular plurals, THEN nouns high on the split plurality hierarchy also have irregular plurals. | inflection, semantics | implication | number, plural, animacy |
| 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 |
| 1066 | Whenever predicates agree with subjects in number and there is a politeness contrast for pronouns of address, with plural forms serving as polite singulars, the more verb-like a predicate the likelier it is to agree according to surface features of the subject (i.e., to be plural), and the more noun-like a predicate the likelier it is to agree according to the referential semantics of the subject (i.e., to be singular). | inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | agreement, number, politeness |
| 1139 | IF the dual extends to all number-inflecting personal pronouns and nouns, THEN it will be conceived of as a duo-paucal rather than as an ambal. | inflection, semantics | implication | number, dual, paucal, ambal, pronoun, noun |
| 1140 | IF the dual is conceived of as a paucal limited to two referents, THEN it will extend to all persons of the pronoun and all classes of nouns inflecting for number. | inflection, semantics | implication | number, dual, paucal, pronoun, person, noun |
| 1148 | IF there are passives of stative verbs, THEN there are passives of activity verbs. | syntax, semantics | implication | diathesis, passive, verb, stative, active |
| 1150 | IF there are passives covering imperfective meanings, THEN there are passives covering the perfective range of meaning. | syntax, semantics | implication | diathesis, passive, perfective, imperfective |
| 1200 | IF any other semantic types are expressed by words of the word class of adjectives, THEN members of the semantic types AGE, DIMENSION, VALUE and COLOR are likely also to be expressed by adjectives. | syntax, semantics | implication | word classes, adjective |
| 1203 | Every natural language has syntactic constituents (called noun-phrases) whose semantic function is to express generalized quantifiers over the domain of discourse. |
syntax, semantics | unconditional | quantification, generalized quantifier, NP |
| 1205 | Determiner universal: Every natural language contains basic expressions (called determiners) whose semantic function is to assign to common count noun denotations (i.e., sets) A a quantifier that lives on A. |
syntax, semantics | unconditional | quantification, determiner, quantifier, count noun |
| 1206 | Monotonicity correspondence universal: There is a simple NP which expresses the monotone decreasing quantifier ~Q if and only if there is a simple NP with a weak non-cardinal determiner which expresses the monotone increasing quantifier Q. |
syntax, semantics | mutual implication | quantification, monotonicity, determiner, negation |
| 1207 | Monotonicity constraint: The simple NPs of any natural language express monotone quantifiers or conjunctions of monotone quantifiers. |
syntax, semantics | unconditional | quantification, monotonicity, NP |
| 1209 | Persistent determiner constraint: Every persistent determiner of human language is monotone ¡ncreasing and weak. |
syntax, semantics | unconditional | quantification, monotonicity, persistence, determiner |
| 1210 | Constraint on negating self-dual and monotone decreasing quantifiers: IF there is a syntactic construction whose semantic function is to negate a quantifier, THEN this construction will not be used with NPs expressing monotone decreasing or self-dual quantifiers. |
semantics, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | quantification, monotonicity, negation, NP |
| 1211 | Dual quantifier universal: IF there is a basic determiner for each of D and d, THEN these are semantically equivalent to ‘some’ and ‘every’. |
syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | quantification, basic determiner |
| 1238 | IF there are intransitive verbs that take patients as their theme, THEN these will normally be used for the description of spontaneous events. IF there are no such intransitive verbs, THEN agent-defocusing forms will be used for this purpose. |
syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | defocusing, intransitive verb, patient, agent |
| 1272 | Hierarchy of quantifiers: each > every > all > most > many > several > some (+NPPl) > a few (‘>’ means ‘greater tendency toward higher scope’) |
semantics | implicational hierarchy | quantifier, scope |
| 1273 | Hierarchy of grammatical functions for purposes of quantifier scope: topic > deep and surface subject > deep or surface subject > indirect object > prepositional object > direct object (‘>’ means ‘greater tendency toward higher scope’) |
semantics | implicational hierarchy | quantifier, scope |
| 1293 | IF non-necessity is expressed by an auxiliary, THEN so is impossibility; IF impossibility is expressed by an auxiliary, THEN so is necessity; IF necessity is expressed by an auxiliary, THEN so is possibility. |
syntax, semantics, lexicon | implication | modality, auxiliary |
| 1300 | In languages where both resultatives proper and derived statives have the same form, the probability for a resultative to have stative meaning increases from right to left: unobservable > irreversible observable > monovalent reversible > bivalent locational |
syntax, semantics | implicational hierarchy | diathesis, resultative |
| 1343 | IF an element serves as a semantic link between two other elements, THEN it is likely to occur in linear order between them. | syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | order, iconicity |
| 1372 | No language contrasts a 'round' classifier with a 'polyhedral' classifier, unless the latter is the classifier for buildings, or some similar material classifier. | syntax, semantics | implication | classifier |
| 1373 | The smaller the number of classifiers in a language, the more likely they are to be configurational rather than material. | syntax, semantics | implication | classifier |
| 1374 | IF there are intra-locative classifiers, THEN there are no quanta classifiers. | syntax, semantics | implication | classifier, locative |
| 1381 | Bridging Verb Hierarchy: IF a bridging verb or verb complex V of semantic specificity n is grammatical in an FGD, THEN all verbs or verb complexes V´ with less semantic specificity than V will also grammatical. |
syntax, semantics | implication | filler, gap, bridging verb, specificity |
| 1382 | Head Noun Phrase Hierarchy: IF an NP with head noun (phrase) N of semantic specificity n on the path from filler to gap is grammatical, THEN all head noun (phrases) N´ with less semantic specificity than N will also be grammatical. |
syntax, semantics | implication | filler, gap, NP, specificity |
| 1493 | Incorporation is favoured with the verbs denoting permanent and general activity (also typical or characteristic activity) whereas "accidental" or indifferent activities take autonomous direct object. | inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | incorporation, verb |
| 1494 | When there is a choice between independence from and incorporation into the verb, objects tend to be incorporated when they are generic, non-referential, indefinite, inanimate/non-human, semantically dependent, pragmatically non-prominent, and to be independent when they are specific, referential, definite, animate/human, semantically independent, pragmatically prominent. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | incorporation, object, definiteness, specific reference, animacy, human, |
| 1505 | IF there are anomalous allophones of any phonemes in onomatopoetic and expressive forms of a language, THEN allophones of this type are also present in other elements in emphatic speech. | phonology, semantics | implication | allophone, emphasis, expressive, onomatopoeia |