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 19 of 23
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1563 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN there will be passive voice which is almost always marked in the verbal morphology. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, diathesis, passive |
| 1564 | IF basic order is verb-initial, THEN the verb either agrees with no NPs or with two NPs. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, verb, agreement, subject, object |
| 1565 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN there is no overt copula. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, copula |
| 1566 | IF word order is strictly verb-initial, THEN there are no relative pronouns (i.e., no strong pronouns moved to initial or final position) in prenominal nor in postnominal relative clauses. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, relative clause, relative pronoun |
| 1567 | In all languages with over 60% order overall, VS word order is statistically correlated with temporally sequenced clauses. In languages with less than 40% VS order, there does not seem to be any correlation between sequencing and word order; in languages with between 40% and 60% VS order, if there is correlation, it will be relatively weak. | syntax | implication | order, VS, temporal sequencing |
| 1568 | IF there are deagentive reflexive constructions, THEN there are objective reflexive constructions. IF there are objective reflexive constructions, THEN there will be subjective reflexive constructions. |
syntax | implication | reflexive, deagentive, subjective, objective |
| 1569 | IF there are non-modal reflexive constructions, THEN there will be modal reflexive constructions. |
syntax | implication | reflexive, modal |
| 1570 | IF there is a group of deagentive reflexive constructions, where (a) the agent can be expressed, (b) there is no subject, and (c) there is a direct object, THEN there will be (or must have been earlier) two other groups of deagentive reflexive constructions; one group, where (a) the agent cannot be expressed (b) there is a subject, (c) there is no direct object; and the other, where (a) the agent cannot be expressed (b) there is no subject, (c) there is no direct object. |
syntax | implication | reflexive, deagentive, agent, subject, direct object |
| 1571 | IF there are reflexive constructions of type (a) X VERBs REFL WITH Y, THEN there are likely to be reflexive constructions of type (b) X & Y VERB REFL. |
syntax | implication | reflexive |
| 1572 | IF a language has both (a) a reflexive construction with true passive meaning and (b) special (e.g., analytical participial) forms for the passive voice, THEN constraints concerning the agentive object (if there are any) are likely to affect the passive of type (a) rather than type (b). |
inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, diathesis, passive, agentive object |
| 1573 | IF both perfective and imperfective verbs form the passive with a reflexive marker, THEN constraints on the use of the agentive object are more likely to affect the perfective verb. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, diathesis, passive, perfective verb, imperfective verb |
| 1574 | IF there are (a) passive verb forms with a reflexive marker and (b) special (e.g., participial) verb forms for the passive voice, THEN it is exclusively or chiefly type (a) that occurs in the present tense (or in the imperfective tenses). | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, diathesis, passive, reflexive marker, present tense, imperfective tense |
| 1575 | IF (a) decausative reflexive verbs and (b) reflexive verbs with a passive sense are homonymous, THEN it is type (b) that is more tightly contextually constrained than type (a). | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, verb, decausative, diathesis, passive, homonymy |
| 1576 | IF there are reciprocal and antipassive reflexive verbs and IF there is any overlapping between any groups of reflexive verbs, THEN there is a more massive overlapping between the reciprocals and antipassives than between either of these groups and any others, e.g. true reflexives. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, verb, reciprocal, antipassive |
| 1577 | IF a reflexive verb has an antipassive sense/use, THEN most likely it has a reciprocal sense/use as well. | inflection, syntax | implication | reflexive verb, reciprocal, antipassive |
| 1578 | IF there are any reflexive verbs formed by adding a reflexive marker and an affix (or a predicative adjective, etc.), THEN some of these are derived from intransitives. | morphology, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive verb, reflexive marker, intransitive |
| 1579 | IF there are any reflexive verbs derived from intransitives by adding reflexive marker and an affix (or a predicative adjective, etc.), THEN a great number of them are likely to imply intensity of action and resultant state. | morphology, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive verb, reflexive marker, intransitive, intensity of action, resultant state |
| 1580 | IF there is a complex system both of reflexive and causative constructions (with lexical or analytical causatives), THEN the reflexive construction tends to include a greater number of figurative and set phrases than the causative construction. | morphology, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive construction, causative construction |
| 1581 | IF there is a reflexive verb meaning 'to laugh', THEN it is usually not derived from the transitive base meaning 'to make somebody laugh'. | morphology, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, causative |
| 1583 | IF there are causative affixes which serve to form causative verbs from transitives, THEN there will be causative affixes which serve to form causative verbs from intransitives. | morphology, syntax | implication | causative, transitivity |
| 1584 | IF there are several causative affixes, THEN the means for deriving causatives from intransitives are more varied than those for forming causatives from transitive verbs. | morphology, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | causative morpheme, causative verb, intransitive verb, transitive verb |
| 1585 | If there are productive complex affixes among the causative affixes, then by means of them causatives can also (or only) be derived from intransitives. | morphology, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | causative, transitivity |
| 1588 | IF culturally basic possessed items are among ‘inalienables’, THEN part-whole and/or spatial relations are included in the ‘inalienable’ class as well. IF part-whole and/or spatial relations are among ‘inalienables’, THEN kin terms and/or body parts are included in the ‘inalienable’ class as well. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implicational hierarchy | possession, inalienable, alienable, kinship |
| 1589 | Provided there is a split in the marking of possession, inalienable possession tends to be encoded through head-marking and alienable possession through dependent-marking. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | possession, inalienable, alienable, head-marking, dependent-marking |
| 1590 | IF possession is regularly head-marked, THEN there will be an opposition of alienable and inalienable possession. BY CONTRAPOSITION: IF there is no opposition of alienable and inalienable possession, THEN possession is regularly dependent-marked . |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | possession, alienable, inalienable, head-marking, dependent-marking |
| 1591 | IF there is a set of nouns which cannot occur without a possessive marker, THEN there will be head-marked possession. | inflection, syntax | implication | possession, head-marking, bound noun, possessive marker |
| 1592 | IF products are among inalienables, THEN so are pet animals; IF pet animals are among inalienables, THEN so are kin terms; IF kin terms are among inalienables, THEN so are clothing items; IF clothing items are among inalienables, THEN so are inherent attributes; IF inherent attributes are among inalienables, THEN so are body parts. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implicational hierarchy | possession, alienable, inalienable, kinship, animacy |
| 1593 | IF basic order is verb-final, THEN there will be a strong tendency to place grammatical morphemes (grams) after the verb, and eventually to suffix them. | morphology, syntax | implication | order, verb-final, verbal morpheme, affix-order, suffix |
| 1594 | IF basic order is verb-medial, THEN there is a strong tendency for preposed grammatical morphemes not to be affixed (i.e., to be free). | morphology, syntax | implication | order, verb-medial, morpheme, affix-order, grammaticalization |
| 1595 | IF there are internal relative clauses, THEN word order will be SOV. | syntax | implication | relative clause, internal (= replacive, =headless), order, SOV |
| 1596 | IF there are internally headed relative clauses, THEN basic word order will be OV. IF basic word order is OV, THEN there will be left-branching. FROM WHICH FOLLOWS: IF there are internally headed relative clauses, THEN there will be left-branching NP structure. |
syntax | implication | relative clause, internal (= replacive), order, OV, NP, left-branching |
| 1597 | IF there are internally headed relative clauses, THEN there will be null anaphora (i.e., pro drop). | syntax | implication | relative clause, internal (= replacive), anaphora, pro drop |
| 1598 | The linguistic distance between possessor and possessum is never greater for the terms in the left than it is for the terms on the right: kinsmen/body parts > artefacts. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | possession, alienable, inalienable, hierachy |
| 1599 | IF an element has auxiliary function, THEN it will be bound. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | AUX, boundness |
| 1600 | IF AUX occurs in final position (in surface-order), THEN basic order is rigidly verb-final. | syntax | implication | order, rigid, verb-final, AUX |
| 1601 | IF there are headless relative clauses, THEN basic word order will be verb-final. | syntax | implication | relative clause, internal (= replacive, =headless), order, verb-final |
| 1602 | IF there are headless relative clauses, THEN there is a productive pattern of nominalization. | morphology, syntax | implication | relative clause, internal (= replacive, =headless), nominalization |
| 1603 | Every language has N’s and NPs of the type e → t (common nouns as predicates). | syntax, semantics | unconditional | quantification, NP, DP, semantic type |
| 1604 | IF there are DPs of types other than e, THEN there are DPs of type e. When there are no DPs distinct from NPs, NPs can be used as type e. |
syntax, semantics | implication | quantification, NP, DP, semantic type |
| 1611 | IF the modals/auxiliaries do not inflect for person, THEN there will be no infinitive. | inflection, syntax | implication | modal, auxiliary, person, infinitive |
| 1614 | Whenever there is verb agreement, agreement with the patient NP is likelier if basic order is verb-peripheral (i.e., verb-initial or verb-final) than if it is verb-medial. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, verb-final, verb-medial, agreement, verb, patient |
| 1615 | IF there is verb agreement with patient, THEN there is verb agreement with agent, regardless of alignment type. | syntax, inflection | implication | verb agreement, patient, agent, alignment |
| 1616 | Whenever basic order is SOV, IF the basic order of modifier and noun is reversed to noun-before-modifier, THEN there tends to be agreement between noun and modifier. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, SOV, agreement, NP, attribution, noun, relative clause, adjective, numeral<br> |
| 1617 | Whenever basic order is VO, IF the modifier precedes the noun, THEN there tends to be agreement between noun and modifier. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, VO, agreement, NP, modifier, attribution, relative clause, adjective |
| 1618 | IF person agreement of the verb is of the grammatical type, THEN it is with just the transitive subject. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, person |
| 1619 | IF there is person agreement on the verb of the ambiguous type with the object, THEN there is ambiguous-type person agreement also with the transitive subject. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, person, subject, object |
| 1620 | IF null subjects is permissible (aka subject pro-drop), THEN the inflectional paradigms of verbs are morphologically uniform, and vice versa. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication | subject pro-drop, verb, paradigm |
| 1621 | IF there are numeral classifiers distinguishing anything else, THEN there are numeral classifiers distinguishing animate/human and inanimate/nonhuman. For animate/human class: IF a numeral classifier system distinguishes objects by their sex, THEN it also distinguishes them by social status (including kinship relations). For inanimate/nonhuman class: IF a numeral classifier system distinguishes objects by orientation, THEN it also distinguishes them by shape. IF a numeral classifier system distinguishes objects by their rigidity, THEN it also distinguishes them by shape. IF a numeral classifier system distinguishes objects by their nature/function, THEN it also distinguishes them by shape. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implicational hierarchy | numeral classifier, animacy<br> |
| 1622 | IF there are classifiers for edible possessed items, THEN there are for nonedible ones, and vice versa. For the edible class: IF a possessive classifier system distinguishes objects by state of food, THEN it also distinguishes them by manner of ingestion. For the nonedible class: IF a possessive classifier system distinguishes objects by purpose or function, THEN it also distinguishes them by value. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | possessive classifier<br> |
| 1623 | IF there are predicate classifiers for anything else, THEN there are predicate classifiers distinguishing animate and inanimate. IF for animates there are predicate classifiers for anything other than Posture, THEN there are predicate classifiers for Posture. IF for inanimates there are predicate classifiers in terms of Individuation and/or Rigidity, THEN there are predicate classifiers in terms of Shape/Orientation. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | predicate classifier, animacy<br> |