Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
1,130 entries · page 1 of 23
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IF alignment is ergative for some rule(s), THEN alignment tends to be accusative for other rules, or also for the same rule(s) in other contexts. | morphology, syntax | implication | alignment, ergative-absolutive, nominative-accusative, split |
| 3 | IF adpositions precede their NPs (i. e. they are prepositions), THEN head nouns almost always precede their attributive nouns (genitives). | syntax | implication | order, preposition, attributive, genitive |
| 4 | IF adpositions follow their NPs (i.e. they are postpositions), THEN head nouns almost always follow their attributive nouns (genitives). | syntax | implication | order, postposition, attributive, genitive |
| 5 | IF basic order is SOV and attributive nouns (genitive) follow the head noun, THEN attributive adjectives likewise follow the noun. | syntax | implication | order, SOV, attributive, genitive, adjective |
| 8 | IF basic order for nominal arguments is verb-final (i.e. SOV or OSV), THEN there is almost always a case system. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-final, case system |
| 9 | IF in apposition the proper noun usually precedes the common noun, THEN the head noun precedes the attributive noun. IF in apposition the common noun usually precedes the proper noun, THEN, with much better than chance frequency, the attributive noun precedes the head noun. |
syntax | implication | order, apposition, proper name, attributive, genitive |
| 10 | IF in apposition the common noun usually precedes the proper noun, THEN, with much better than chance frequency, the attributive noun precedes its head noun. DELETE: is part of #9 |
syntax | implication | order, apposition, attributive, genitive |
| 11 | IF basic order is consistently OV, THEN the morphology tends to be agglutinative. | morphology, syntax | implication | order, OV, agglutination |
| 12 | IF direct objects may control verb agreement (or take case marking) without doing so obligatorily, THEN it will be the more definite and/or the more animate direct objects which are agreed with (or case marked) obligatorily. |
inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | agreement, case, direct object, definite, animate |
| 13 | IF basic order is consistently VO, THEN the morphology tends to be flexive. | morphology, syntax | implication | order, VO, flexion |
| 14 | IF verbs agree with objects when they are not marked for case, THEN they will also agree with the same objects when they are marked for case. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, case, direct object |
| 15 | IF basic order is OV, THEN verbal modifiers like those for negation, causation, and reflexive or reciprocal are placed after verb roots. IF basic order is VO, THEN verbal modifiers like those for negation, causation, and reflexive or reciprocal are placed before verb roots. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, OV, VO, negation, causation, reflexive, reciprocal |
| 17 | IF Suffixaufnahme occurs with the head present, THEN it also occurs with the head missing. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, attribution, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, head, ellipsis |
| 18 | IF Suffixaufnahme occurs in multi-level (i.e. recursive) possessive constructions, THEN it also occurs in single-level ones. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, attribution, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, recursion |
| 19 | IF Suffixaufnahme occurs with nominal possessors, THEN it also occurs with pronominal ones. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, attribution, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, noun, pronoun |
| 20 | IF a nominal possessor carries external case, THEN so does the pronominal one. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, attribution, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, noun, pronoun |
| 21 | IF the internal case involved in Suffixaufnahme is a case other than that of the possessor, THEN the case of the possessor (typically genitive) is almost always also involved in Suffixaufnahme. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, attribution, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, possessive, genitive |
| 22 | IF Suffixaufnahme occurs when the adnominal case is the same as the head case, THEN it also occurs when the two are distinct. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, attribution, agreement, Suffixaufnahme<br> |
| 23 | IF a case is utilized for purposes of Suffixaufnahme, THEN it will also be used otherwise. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, attribution, agreement, Suffixaufnahme<br> |
| 24 | IF Suffixaufnahme occurs with continuous NPs, THEN it also occurs with discontinuous ones, if such exist. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, attribution, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, discontinuous constituents<br> |
| 25 | IF an adnominal nominal preceding the head shows Suffixaufnahme, THEN so does an adnominal nominal of the same type following it, if that order is possible. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, attribution, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, order |
| 26 | IF prenominal constituents are marked for inflectional categories such as number, gender, or case, THEN constituents of the same class will also carry such marking when in postnominal position. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, agreement, NP, number, gender, case |
| 29 | IF Suffixaufnahme occurs without a pause between the head and the attributive nominal, THEN it also occurs with one. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, phonological phrasing<br> |
| 30 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme, THEN there will be NP-internal attributive constituents outside this construction. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, attribution<br> |
| 31 | IF nominals show agreement by Suffixaufnahme, THEN there will also be other NP-internal attributive constituents showing agreement with their head in the same categories. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, attribution |
| 32 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme, THEN there will also be the internal case occurring without the external case. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme <br> |
| 34 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme, THEN there are also affix sequences outside this attributive construction. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, affix <br> |
| 35 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme, THEN adjectives agree with their heads in the same category. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, adjective, attribution |
| 36 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme, THEN there is also at least one of the following NP-internal case marking patterns: complete marking, free marking (only if Suffixaufnahme is optional), final marking (only if the attributive nominal is the head). | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, marking |
| 37 | IF Suffixaufnahme is historically preceded by a different construction, THEN one possibility for that construction is to involve a pronoun-like constituent. This constituent may be an indefinite pronoun 'one' which is coreferential with the head and which serves as the immediate head for the attributive nominal; or it may be the definite article of the head. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, indefinite pronoun, definite article |
| 38 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme both in headed and headless NPs at one time and at some later time there is Suffixaufnahme in only one of the two contexts, THEN that context is headless NPs. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | case, attribution, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, head, ellipsis |
| 39 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme with both preposed and postposed attributives at one time and at some earlier time only one of the two contexts, THEN that context will be postposed attributives. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, attributive, order |
| 40 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme both in NPs where the attributive and the head are prosodically separated and in NPs where two are prosodically unified, and at some earlier time it had only one of the two contexts, THEN that context is NPs with prosodic separation. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, prosodic phrasing<br> |
| 42 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme at one time and at some later point there is not, THEN one possible successor construction is the possessive adjective. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, adjective, possessive |
| 43 | Case affixes can be grammaticalized from adpositions only if the noun is not separated from the adposition in the unmarked word order in the NP; i.e., if the unmarked order is either (a) (Modifiers and/or Numerals) N Postposition, or (b) Preposition N (Modifiers and/or Numerals). | inflection, syntax | target < source | case, adposition, preposition, postposition, NP, noun, modifier, numeral, order, grammaticalization |
| 44 | Assuming that grammatical relations are ordered from left to right according to their decreasing semantic concreteness and correspondingly increasing grammaticalization as in the diagram (where arrows indicate attested diachronic grammaticalization), then IF there is noun-phrase external agreement with a relation of any column of this diagram, THEN there will be noun-phrase external agreement with the relations of all columns to its right. IF there is overt case marking for a given column, THEN there will be overt case marking for all columns to its left. |
inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | NP, adjunct, direct object, indirect object, subject, attributive, locative, instrumental, comitative, directional, ergative, case, agreement<br> |
| 45 | IF the verb agrees with Attributive, THEN it also agrees with Oblique Object. IF the verb agrees with Oblique Object, THEN it also agrees with Indirect Object. IF the verb agrees with Indirect Object, THEN it also agrees with Direct Object. IF the verb agrees with Direct Object, THEN it also agrees with Subject. |
inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | agreement, verb, subject, direct object, indirect object, oblique object, attributive, relational hierarchy |
| 46 | IF indefinite or less animate objects are morphologically marked, THEN definite or more animate objects will also be morphologically marked, provided there is a marking alternation for objects in terms of definiteness and animacy. | inflection, syntax | implication | direct object, definite, animate, human, case |
| 47 | IF adjectival and participial predicate complements do not agree in case with the NP of which they are complements, THEN nominal predicates will not agree in case either. | inflection, syntax | implication | predicate complement, noun, adjective, participle, NP, case, agreement |
| 48 | The noun phrase (NP) internal distribution of case between head noun and any agreeing constituents is determined by dominance relations defined on X-bar structures, not by linear order, contiguity of constituents, or control by the head noun. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | NP, noun, agreement, X-bar structure, order, case |
| 49 | Case and number agreement of attributive adjectives are determined independently: number agreement is controlled by head nouns; case is distributed among the relevant noun phrase (NP) constituents subject to structural conditions, especially that of c-command. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | NP, noun, case, number, attributive adjective, agreement, c-command |
| 50 | The agreement features of modifiers in NP-internal agreement may include case but not person. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | noun, modifier, case, person, agreement |
| 51 | The agreement features of governing elements in agreement with NPs governed may include person but not case. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | verb, adposition, possession, dependent, agreement, case, person |
| 52 | IF a target agrees in case, THEN it will not agree in person; IF a target agrees in person, THEN it will not agree in case. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | agreement, case, person |
| 53 | In the construction of possessive attribution, only the possessor may agree in case with the possessum, while only the possessum may agree in person with the possessor. | inflection, syntax | implication | possessor, possessee, agreement, case, person |
| 54 | If in the NP-internal distribution of case a lexically assigned case competes with a structurally or otherwise assigned case, lexical case takes precedence over all other types of case assignment, while structural case does not take precedence over any other type of case; that is, such agreement conflicts are resolved in terms of the case hierarchy, lexical case > ... > structural case (in particular nominative/accusative). | inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | case, structural case, lexical case, case hierarchy, nominative, accusative, agreement |
| 55 | IF basic order is VSO, THEN adpositions precede their NPs (i.e. they are prepositions). | syntax | implication | order, VSO, preposition |
| 56 | IF basic order is VSO, THEN, with overwhelmingly more than chance frequency, adjectives follow the noun. | syntax | implication | order, VSO, adjective, noun |
| 57 | IF the descriptive adjective precedes the noun, THEN, with overwhelmingly more than chance frequency, the demonstrative and the numeral do likewise. | syntax | implication | adjective, noun, demonstrative, numeral, order |
| 58 | IF the general rule is that the descriptive adjective follows the noun, THEN there may be a minority of adjectives which usually precede, but IF the general rule is that descriptive adjectives precede the noun, THEN there are no exceptions. | syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | order, adjective, noun |