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 11 of 23
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 824 | IF relative clauses are prenominal, THEN relativization is primarily by gapping. |
syntax | implication | relative clause, order, gapping |
| 825 | IF there are correlatives, THEN basic order is loosely verb-final. OR BY CONTRAPOSITION: IF basic order is not loosely verb-final, THEN there are no correlatives. |
syntax | implication | relative clause, correlative, order, verb-final |
| 826 | IF postnominal relative clauses contain a distinctive verbal affix, THEN the verb appears in clause-initial position. |
inflection, syntax | implication | relative clause, order, verbal affix, verb-initial |
| 827 | IF a relative clause contains an initial relative pronoun, THEN it does not contain a personal pronoun form of the same NP. | syntax | implication | relative clause, relative pronoun, personal pronoun |
| 828 | IF relative pronouns that are not interrogative in form occur in initial position in postnominal relative clauses, THEN either there are initial interrogative pronouns in questions or there is a general topicalization process that places thematic material in initial position. | syntax | implication | relative clause, relative pronoun, interrogative, order, topic |
| 829 | IF there are correlative relative constructions, THEN there are no prenominal ad-relative* clauses. | syntax | implication | relative clause, order, correlative |
| 830 | IF relative marker of the same form as interrogative pronoun is used, THEN relative clause is postnominal or correlative. | syntax | implication | relative clause, interrogative, order, correlative |
| 831 | IF basic order is rigidly OV, THEN there are prenominal relatives and no right-extraposed relative clauses. | syntax | implication | order, verb, object, relative clause |
| 832 | IF the verb normally precedes its objects, THEN there are no left-extraposed relative clauses. IF the verb normally precedes its objects and there are right-extraposed relative clauses, THEN there are postposed relative clauses |
syntax | implication | order, verb, object, relative clause |
| 833 | IF there are right-extraposed relative clauses, THEN there are either embedded or left-extraposed relative clauses. | syntax | implication | relative clause |
| 840 | IF basic order is VSO, THEN there is very likely to be verbal person-number inflection or both person-number and tense-aspect-mood inflection, but not verbal tense-aspect-mood without person-number inflection. | syntax, inflection | implication | order, VSO, verb, person, number, tense, aspect, mood |
| 841 | IF the relative clause is prenominal, THEN there is no clause-initial marker in these relative clauses. | syntax | implication | postnominal, relative clause, order, clause-initial marker |
| 842 | In relative clauses, IF there is a clause-initial marker, THEN the relative clause is postnominal. | syntax | implication | postnominal, relative clause, relative particle, order |
| 891 | IF basic order is OV, THEN there is mora-counting. IF basic order is VO, THEN there is syllable-counting. |
phonology, syntax | implication | order, VO, OV, rhythm, mora-counting, syllable-counting |
| 892 | IF the word order is OV, THEN there are suffixes. IF the word order is VO, THEN there are prefixes. |
morphology, syntax | implication | VO, OV, order, suffix, prefix |
| 893 | See Graphics for Iambic vs. Troachaic phrase accent and its many correlates | prosodic phonology, morphology, syntax | mutual implication | phrase accent, word canon, timing, mora, syllable, consonantism, vocalism, tone, verse, music, order, object, verb, adverb, auxiliary, adjective, noun, attributive, postposition, clitic, enclitic proclitic, affix-order, suffix, prefix, synthesis, analysis, agglutination, polysynthesis, flexion, isolation |
| 894 | see Graphics for Iambic vs. Trochaic languages | prosodic phonology, morphology, syntax | mutual implication | stress, syllable, unit, order, object, verb, subject, adverb, adjective, noun, attributive, agglutination, flexion, timing, stress, syllable, syllable structure, intonation contour, tone |
| 896 | IF there is head-marking, THEN adjectives tend to be similar to verbs. | inflection, syntax | implication | head-marking, adjective, verb |
| 897 | IF there is dependent-marking, THEN adjectives tend to be similar to nouns. | inflection, syntax | implication | dependent-marking, adjective, noun |
| 898 | Provided there is actancy variation in terms of tense, accusative constructions will always be found in the future/present/imperfective while ergative constructions occur in the perfect/past/perfective tenses. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | alignment, ergative-absolutive, nominative-accusative, tense, present, past, future, perfect, perfective, imperfective |
| 899 | There is an affinity between aspect and object individuation, insofar as the imperfective (progressive, frequentative, etc.) aspect often goes hand in hand with an indefinite, partitive or non-referential object. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication | aspect, imperfect, object, indefinite, partitive, non-referential, incorporation |
| 900 | Whenever there is an opposition between a subjective and an objective conjugation, the former will be used with non-individuated or non-thematic objects, and the latter with individuated or thematic objects. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | conjugation, objective, subjective, object |
| 901 | Incorporation of an object generally goes hand in hand with its non-referentiality and the aspectual nuance of habitual action or activity, one of the senses of the imperfective. | morphology, syntax | mutual implication | coalescence, incorporation, non-referentiality, aspect |
| 902 | Whenever indirect constructions are in opposition with direct constructions, the former will be found with progressive aspect and partially involved objects and the latter with non-progressive aspect and totally involved objects. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | indirect construction, aspect, progressive, object |
| 903 | The antipassive is correlative with the imperfective aspect and low-level object individuation. Whenever antipassive constructions are in opposition with active constructions, the former will be found with the imperfective aspect and low-level object individuation and the latter with perfective aspect and highly individuated objects. |
inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | antipassive, imperfective, aspect, object |
| 904 | The more firmly individuated (definite, human, etc.) the agent and the object and/or the more complete (semantically pregnant, perfective, real. etc.) the process, the greater the chances the sentence will adopt the more grammatically transitive construction. See Graphics |
inflection, syntax | implication | definiteness, animacy, perfective, affectedness, transitivity |
| 907 | IF noun phrases take case marking when occurring in core relations governed by verbs and other lexical expressions, THEN they will also do so when in construction with adpositions in syntactically more peripheral relations. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition |
| 910 | IF adpositions encode the syntactic core relations of subject, object, and perhaps attribute, THEN no grammatical relations are encoded by morphological case. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition |
| 911 | IF Location (adverb) is encoded by the verbal strategy, THEN all intransitive main predicates will be encoded by that strategy. IF Class Membership (noun) is encoded by the verbal strategy, THEN Property (adjective) will be encoded by that strategy. |
inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | verbalization, hierarchy, verb, adjective, noun, adverb |
| 912 | In a language with only a single genitive, when a transitive clause is nominalized, the subject’s prior claim to the genitive case is absolute. | syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | nominalization, genitive, case, subject |
| 913 | IF there are speech act constructions in certain subordinate clauses, THEN there are speech act constructions in main clauses. | inflection, syntax | implication | speech act construction, clause, main, subordinate |
| 914 | IF there is no direct object, THEN the embedded subject appears as direct object. IF there is direct object, but no indirect object, THEN the embedded subject appears as indirect object. IF there are both direct and indirect objects, THEN the embedded subject appears as one of the oblique cases (i.e. neither subject nor direct object nor indirect object) |
inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | causative, hierarchy, subject, direct object, indirect object, oblique object |
| 915 | IF verbs agree with inanimate NPs, THEN they also agree with animate NPs of the same grammatical relation, or even of a grammatical relation lower on the relational hierarchy which otherwise determines agreement preferences. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, animacy, grammatical relations |
| 918 | IF incorporation of externally modifiable NP, THEN incorporation of backgrounded NP. IF incorporation of backgrounded NP, THEN incorporation of demoted NP. IF incorporation of demoted NP, THEN incorporation of nonreferential noun. |
morphology, syntax | implicational hierarchy | incorporation, noun |
| 920 | IF OV is a basic order, THEN there will be left-branching. IF VO is a basic order, THEN there will be right-branching. |
syntax | implication | order, VO, OV, left-branching, right-branching |
| 952 | IF direct and indirect/non-direct objects can be distinguished paradigmatically, THEN they can be distinguished syntagmatically as well, but not vice versa. | inflection, syntax | implication | grammatical relations, object, indirect, non-direct, direct |
| 953 | IF direct and indirect/non-direct objects are distinguished in their coding, THEN they also differ in their syntactic behavior (but not necessarily the reverse). | inflection, syntax | implication | grammatical relations, object, indirect, non-direct, direct |
| 954 | IF direct and indirect/non-direct objects are syntagmatically in any other kind of construction, THEN they are distinguished in all ditransitive constructions. | inflection, syntax | implication | grammatical relations, object, indirect, non-direct, direct, ditransitive |
| 955 | IF direct and indirect/non-direct objects differ in their overt coding of whatever kind (at least minimally), THEN they will also differ in their syntactic behavior (at least minimally), but not necessarily vice versa. | inflection, syntax | implication | grammatical relations, object, indirect, non-direct, direct |
| 956 | IF direct and indirect/non-direct objects differ in their morphological coding (at least minimally), THEN they will also differ in their syntactic behavior (at least minimally), but not necessarily vice versa. | inflection, syntax | implication | grammatical relations, object, indirect, non-direct, direct |
| 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 |
| 964 | Apart from remaining what it is, the numeral ‘one’ can only be reanalysed as an indefinite article (and/or pronoun). | lexicon, syntax | target < source | numeral, indefinite, article, pronoun |
| 966 | IF the definite article is distinct from demonstratives and object follows verb, THEN the definite article precedes the noun. IF the definite article is distinct from demonstratives and object precedes verb, THEN the definite article follows the noun. |
syntax | implication | definite article, demonstrative, order, verb, object, noun |
| 967 | IF articles co-occur with nouns accompanied by adnominal possessors, THEN demonstratives co-occur with them, too. | syntax | implication | article, possessor, demonstrative |
| 968 | IF basic order is VO, THEN the article precedes the noun. IF basic order is OV, THEN the article follows the noun. |
syntax | implication | order, verb, object, article, noun |
| 969 | IF indefinite articles are quite distinct from the numeral ‘one’ and the object follows the verb, THEN they will precede the noun. IF indefinite articles are quite distinct from the numeral ‘one’ and the object precedes the verb, THEN they will follow the noun. |
syntax, lexicon | implication | order, verb, object, article, indefinite, numeral, noun |
| 970 | IF basic order order is OV, THEN plural words follow the noun. IF basic order order is VO, THEN plural words precede the noun. |
syntax | implication | order, verb, noun, plural word |
| 971 | IF there are plural words, THEN there is no inflectional morphology or morphology is head-marking. | inflection, syntax | implication | plural word, isolation, head-marking |
| 972 | IF one type of head-dependent construction will be either head-marked or dependent-marked, THEN other types of head-dependent constructions will equally be either head-marked or dependent-marked. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication | head-marking, dependent-marking |
| 984 | IF there is a separative comparative, THEN basic order is SOV. | syntax | implication | comparative, order, SOV |