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 23 of 23
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | IF basic order is OV, THEN a frequently-used kind of subordinate clause is one with conjunctive verb forms. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, OV, subordination, conjunctive, |
| 1985 | IF basic order is OV, THEN there are compound verbs involving preverbs plus auxiliary. | syntax | implication | order, OV, compound verb, auxiliary, preverb |
| 1986 | IF basic order is OV, THEN sequences of events of the 'go, do, and return' type are expressed as 'having done, return'. IF basic order is VO, THEN sequences of events of the 'go, do, and return' type are expressed as 'go and do'. |
syntax | implication | order, OV, VO, clause combining, subordination, coordination |
| 1987 | IF basic order is OV, THEN plural marking on nouns is optional, and is avoided in particular when nouns are accompanied by numerals. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, OV, plural, numeral |
| 1988 | (i) IF subordinate clauses precede their main clauses, THEN quotations precede the quoting verb. (ii) IF there are conjunctive verb forms, THEN the conjunctive of a verb 'to say' is used as a quotation marker following after the quote. |
syntax | implication | order, subordination, speech reporting, quotative, verb, conjunctive |
| 1989 | IF the lexical items for existential or copulative function form a word class of their own, THEN its negative will be distinct from other negatives. | syntax | implication | word class, verb, copula, existence, negation |
| 1990 | IF the lexical items for existential or copulative function are lexically separate in the present tense, THEN they share a single past tense. | syntax | implication | verb, existence, copula, tense, present, past |
| 1991 | The negative of past tense forms of the lexical items for existential and copulative function tends to be more regular in formation than the present-tense negative. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb, existence, copula, negation, tense, past, present |
| 1992 | IF the lexical items for existential and copulative function are separate, and they are in a suppletive relation with verbs meaning 'become' and 'stay', then 'become' will be related to the copula and 'stay' to the existential verb. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | verb, existence, copula, suppletion |
| 1993 | In an SOV language with the lexical items for existential and copulative function separate, the Ex tends to be used as an auxiliary combining with the conjunctive to form 'present state' tenses of perfect or present continuous value; as such it tends to change from an independent following auxiliary to a tense-forming suffix. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | order, SOV, verb, existence, copula, auxiliary, conjunctive, tense, aspect, present, perfect, continuous, suffix |
| 1996 | IF there is a gender system, THEN the domain of animate nouns is further differentiated; IF there is a system of noun classification, THEN the domain of inanimate nouns is further differentiated. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | gender, noun class, animacy |
| 1997 | It is more natural for a two-term gender distinction in the plural, human vs. non-human, to come about, through semantic reanalysis, from the two-term distinction human male vs. other than the other way round. | inflection, syntax, semantics | target < source | gender, animacy, human, masculine, feminine |
| 1998 | IF there are gender-number-person contrasts on the predicate agreeing in these categories with the subject, THEN there are the same contrasts on subject pronouns. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, verb, gender, number, person, pronoun |
| 1999 | IF a bound form is morphologically replaced through analogical levelling or otherwise, THEN the corresponding free form is also replaced, or has already been replaced. | inflection, syntax | implication | free form, bound form, analogy, levelling |
| 2000 | All grammars leak. | phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, etc. | unconditional | analogy, iconicity, economy, plumbing |
| 2002 | Gender cannot be assigned on the basis of syntactic properties of nouns (such as, e.g., that of taking prepositional complements). | inflection, syntax | unconditional | gender, gender assignment |
| 2005 | The higher the (simple) cardinal numerals, the unlikelier they are to agree in gender. | inflection, syntax | implication | numeral, agreement, gender |
| 2006 | IF an agreement target can agree [in gender, number, or whatever], THEN typically it must agree, even if the agreement controller lacks the appropriate features. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, gender, number |
| 2007 | IF infinitive phrases are non-prototypical controllers of agreement in gender and number, requiring neutral agreement forms, THEN so are clauses. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, gender, number, infinitive, clause |
| 2008 | The Agreement Hierarchy:attributive < predicate < relative pronoun < personal pronoun(i) Possible agreement pattern are constrained as follows: As we move rightwards along the hierarchy, the likelihood of semantic agreement [in gender or number] [with hybrid nouns] will increase monotonically (that is, with no intervening decrease).(ii) Whenever, in a given position on the Agreement Hierarchy there is a difference between the agreements found in the nominative and in the oblique cases, the likelihood of semantic agreement in the nominative will be as high as or higher than the likelihood of semantic agreement in the oblique cases.(iii) When stacked targets of a given controller stand in different agreement forms, the further target will show semantic agreement.(iv) If parallel targets show different agreement forms, then the further target will show semantic agreement.(v) For any particular target type, the further it is removed from its controller, the greater the likelihood of semantic agreement. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implicational hierarchy | agreement, gender, number, case, nominative, oblique |
| 2009 | When gender agreement is in decline, IF target words other than personal pronouns continue to agree in gender, THEN personal pronouns also continue to agree in gender. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, gender, personal pronoun |
| 2010 | In agreement with conjoined NPs and person resolution is required, when the conjuncts include a 1st person, 1st person agreement forms will be used; otherwise, when the conjuncts include a 2nd person, 2nd person agreement forms will be used; otherwise, 3rd person agreement forms (the default) are used. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | agreement, coordination, resolution rules, person, person hierarchy, 1, 2, 3 |
| 2011 | The type of gender resolution system found is constrained by the [gender] assignment system of the language. Languages with strict semantic assignment systems [...] have semantic resolution systems, as do those with predominantly semantic systems [...]. Languages with formal assignment systems may have semantic resolution [...], syntactic (=formal) resolution [...], or mixed resolution [...]. Informally speaking, gender resolution may be "more semantic" but not "less semantic" than gender assignment. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | agreement, coordination, resolution rules, gender |
| 2015 | IF the attributive noun (genitive, esp. when morphologically unmarked) precedes the head noun, THEN (i) nominal affixes (for case, number, gender/class) and adpositions are postposed (suffixes, postpositions), (ii) pronominal possessives precede the head noun, (iii) attributive adjectives precede the head noun, (iv) verbal affixes (person, number) and pronouns (for subject) precede the verb, (v) direct objects (accusative, esp. when morphologically unmarked) precede the verb. IF the attributive noun (genitive, esp. when morphologically unmarked) follows the head noun, THEN (i) nominal affixes (for case, number, gender/class) and adpositions are preposed (prefixes, prepositions), (ii) pronominal possessives follow the head noun, (iii) attributive adjectives follow the head noun, (iv) verbal affixes (person, number) and pronouns (for subject) follow the verb, (v) direct objects (accusative, esp. when morphologically unmarked) follow the verb. |
syntax, culture/mind | implication | order, attribution, possessive, genitive, object, adjective |
| 2018 | IF there is switch-reference marking, THEN alignment for (all) syntactic purposes is accusative. | inflection, syntax | implication | switch-reference, alignment, accusative |
| 2019 | (i) IF there are classifiers for other contrasts, THEN there are ones for the contrast human/nonhuman or animate/inanimate;(ii) IF there are genders or noun classes for other contrasts, THEN there are ones for the contrast human/nonhuman or animate/inanimate.(iii) There is a contrast human/nonhuman or animate/inanimate recognized by some grammatical forms (such as interrogative pronouns) or rules. | inflection, syntax | implication | classifier, gender, animacy |
| 2020 | There are no (clear cases of) long-distance reciprocals. | syntax | unconditional | reciprocal, binding |
| 2024 | There are "emotive" interjections (i.e. interjections expressing cognitively based feelings). | syntax, lexicon | unconditional | emotion, sensation, cognition, interjection |
| 2028 | There are alternative grammatical constructions for describing (and interpreting) cognitively based feelings, conceptualizing "emotions" as "involuntary" or as "uncontrollable", or as "overwhelming" and "irresistible", or as "active" and in some sense "voluntary", and so on. | syntax, semantics | unconditional | cognition, sensation, emotion, synonymy |
| 2030 | IF there is Scrambling, then basic order is SOV. | syntax | implication | order, SOV, scrambling |