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 3 of 23
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 110 | IF relative clauses precede their head nouns, THEN adjectives mostly precede their head nouns also; IF relative clauses follow their head nouns, THEN adjectives mostly follow their head nouns also. |
syntax | implication | order, noun, adjective, relative clause |
| 111 | IF verbs precede adverbs, THEN nouns precede attributive adjectives, mostly. | syntax | implication | order, noun, verb, adjective, adverb |
| 112 | IF objects follow verbs and adverbs precede verbs, THEN adjectives precede nouns. IF objects precede verbs and adverbs follow verbs, THEN adjectives follow nouns. |
syntax | implication | oder, noun, adjective, verb, adverb, object |
| 113 | IF adjectives precede qualifiers, THEN nouns tend to precede adjectives. | syntax | implication | order, noun, adjective, qualifier |
| 114 | IF nouns precede demonstratives, THEN nouns tend to precede adjectives also. | syntax | implication | order, noun, adjective, demonstrative |
| 118 | IF the verb agrees with an NP in an oblique case, THEN the verb agrees the NP in the nominative in the same sentence. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb, noun, agreement, case, nominative, oblique |
| 119 | IF NP-internal constituents agree in two categories, THEN these will most likely be number and gender or number and person, depending on whether the targets are modifiers/determiners (and the controllers head nouns) or head nouns (and the controllers attributive nouns). The second-most likely combination of two categories with modifier/determiner targets is that of number and case; and the only other permissible combination of two categories is that of gender and case. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | NP, agreement, number, gender, case, person |
| 120 | IF NP-internal constituents agree in more than two categories (the maximum being four), THEN those will always include number and gender and very likely also case. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | NP, agreement, number, gender, case |
| 121 | IF there are prepositions, THEN IF the numeral follows the noun, THEN the relative clause follows the noun. | syntax | nested implication | order, preposition, noun, numeral, relative clause |
| 122 | IF the same verbal meaning is expressible either through a construction where a complement of the verb is in the Accusative or through a construction where the same complement is in an adverbial case and there is a meaning difference between two constructions, THEN this semantic contrast will be either a contrast between a definite and an indefinite object, or a contrast between an object that is fully involved in the event and one that is partially involved, or a contrast between affected and non-affected participant. | inflection, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | object, case, accusative, adverbial, definite, indefinite, involvement, affectedness |
| 123 | Objects of transitive or subjects of intransitive sentences (absolutives) may be alternatively marked by an accusative-nominative or by a partitive, and this marking difference does not correlate with any difference in semantic case function, but with one or more of the following semantic properties of the verbs or nouns involved: a. the definiteness-indefiniteness of the noun phrase; b. the extent to which the object is involved in the event; c. the completedness vs. non-completedness of the event; d. whether the sentence is affirmative or negative. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | direct object, subject, case, accusative, nominative, partitive, definiteness, involvement, completedness, affirmation, negation |
| 125 | IF basic order is SOV and determining elements precede determined elements in noun phrases, THEN there will be at least some postpositions, which historically derive either from verbs or from nouns. | syntax | implication | order, SOV, noun, determiner, postposition, verb, grammaticalization |
| 126 | IF the numeral follows the noun, THEN the relative clause follows the noun. OR, BY CONTRAPOSITION: IF the relative clause precedes the noun, THEN the numeral precedes the noun. |
syntax | implication | order, noun, numeral, relative clause |
| 127 | IF any kinds of overt marking (dependent-marking, head-marking, word order) are used in action nominalizations, THEN they are also used in other constructions. | inflection, syntax | implication | nominalization, order, dependent-marking, head-marking |
| 128 | IF in transitive action nominalizations the non-Agent argument loses the dependent-marking or head-marking that it has in sentential constructions, THEN the Agent argument will lose it too, except in the marginal SENT-POSS type of action nominalizations. | inflection, syntax | implication | nominalization, dependent-marking, head-marking |
| 129 | In transitive action nominalizations, either all arguments retain their sentential dependent-marking or at least one of them genitivizes, except in the marginal MIX-type. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | nominalization, dependent-marking, case, genitive |
| 130 | IF heads precede/follow dependents in non-derived noun phrases, THEN they will also precede/follow them in action nominalizations. | syntax | mutual implication | nominalization, order |
| 131 | IF an argument retains its sentential head-marking in an action nominalization, THEN the same argument will also retain its sentential dependent-marking. | inflection, syntax | implication | nominalization, head-marking, dependent-marking |
| 132 | IF action nominalizations are of the sentential type, with all arguments retaining their sentential dependent-marking, THEN basic order will be SOV and Genitive Noun. | inflection, syntax | implication | nominalization, dependent-marking, order, SOV, attributive, genitive |
| 133 | In action nominalizations, IF the S argument receives sentential dependent-marking, THEN the A and P arguments are unlikely to receive non-sentential marking, and vice versa; while IF the S argument receives genitive marking, THEN the A and P arguments are likely to receive sentential marking, and vice versa. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication | nominalization, dependent-marking, genitive |
| 134 | IF there is ergative alignment, THEN action nominalizations are likely to be of the SENT or SENT-POSS types and unlikely to be of the POSS-ACC or NOMN types. | inflection, syntax | implication | nominalization, alignment, ergative-absolutive, agent, case, genitive |
| 135 | IF non-pronominal subjects (S) and agents (A) are genitivized in action nominalizations, THEN pronominal ones are genitivized as well. | inflection, syntax | implication | nominalization, case, genitive, pronoun<br> |
| 136 | IF one of the relations of (i) alienability, (ii) inalienability, and (iii) classification is realized formally by a certain construction, THEN no relations below it on the hierarchy may be realized by a different construction used for relations higher on the hierarchy. LIKEWISE: IF a particular construction encodes a semantic relation of a certain type, THEN no construction for a relation below it will encode a semantic relation higher on the scale. |
morphology, syntax, semantics | implicational hierarchy | possession, alienable, inalienable, classification, compound, head-marking, dependent-marking<br> |
| 139 | IF a property is expressed alternatively by a noun and an adjective and there is an associated difference between temporary versus permanent property, THEN it is the noun which will express permanent property and the adjective which will express temporary property. | syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | word class, noun, adjective, time-stability |
| 140 | IF a property is expressed alternatively by a noun and an adjective and there is also an associated difference between that property associated with other properties in one expression but not in the other, THEN it is the noun which will express the cluster of properties and the adjective the single property. | syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | word class, noun, adjective, property |
| 141 | IF the property concept of shape is expressed through adjectives, THEN those of colour and size are also expressed through adjectives. | syntax, semantics | implication | word class, adjective, property concept |
| 142 | In NP-internal agreement, IF adjectives inflect for the dual, THEN demonstratives inflect for dual also. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, NP, demonstrative, adjective, number, dual |
| 143 | IF the adjective agrees in definiteness, THEN the genitive will precede the noun. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, adjective, definiteness, order, attributive, genitive, noun |
| 144 | IF there is no adjective agreement, THEN the genitive will precede the noun. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, adjective, order, attributive, genitive, noun |
| 145 | IF basic order is SOV, THEN predicative adjectives have non-verbal status, and vice versa. IF basic order is SVO or VSO, THEN predicative adjectives tend to be verbal, and vice versa. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | order, SOV, SVO, VSO, predicative adjective, verb |
| 146 | IF basic order is SOV, THEN adjectives can be the head of NPs. IF basic order is SVO or VSO, THEN adjectives tend to be unable to be heads of NPs and to require a dummy head noun ('thing', 'person', 'one'). |
syntax | implication | order, SOV, SVO, VSO, NP, head, adjective, dummy head noun |
| 147 | IF attributive adjectives have the form of relative clauses, THEN basic order is SVO, and vice versa. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication | attribution, adjective, relative clause, order, SVO |
| 148 | IF adjectives are inflected, THEN nouns are inflected. | inflection, syntax | implication | word class, adjective, noun |
| 150 | IF head nouns have adjective-like inflection, THEN so do adnominal nouns. | inflection, syntax | implication | adjective, inflection, noun, attribution |
| 151 | IF adnominal adjectives inflect like nouns, THEN so do headless ones. | inflection, syntax | implication | word class, adjective, noun, head |
| 152 | IF lower simple cardinal numerals have noun-like inflection and syntax, THEN so do higher numerals. IF higher simple cardinal numerals have adjectival inflection and syntax, THEN so do lower numerals. |
inflection, syntax | implication | word class, numeral, noun, adjective |
| 154 | IF the same adposition is used as a marker for both direct object and dative (indirect object, recipient, etc.), including such non-prototypical datives as projected recipient, THEN object occurs unmarked in some cases. | inflection, syntax | implication | direct object, indirect object, recipient, adposition |
| 155 | IF there is overt marking of the direct object in the unitransitive clause, THEN there is overt marking of the indirect object (dative). IF indirect object (dative) marking is suspended in some cases, THEN direct object marking is suspended in at least those same cases. |
inflection, syntax | implication | transitivity, direct object, indirect object, accusative, dative |
| 156 | IF overt marking of an object in the bitransitive clause differs from the marking of instrumental, THEN there is overt dative marking. | inflection, syntax | implication | direct object, indirect object, transitivity, dative, instrumental |
| 157 | IF an adposition occurs as both an object marker and an allative marker, THEN it also occurs as a dative marker. | inflection, syntax | implication | adposition, direct object, indirect object, allative, dative |
| 158 | IF an adposition occurs as both a dative marker and a locative marker, THEN it also occurs as an allative marker. | inflection, syntax | implication | adposition, dative, locative, allative |
| 159 | IF object and transitive-clause allative are marked identically, even non-adpositionally, THEN dative is also identically marked. | inflection, syntax | implication | direct object, indirect object, accusative, allative, dative, syncretism |
| 160 | IF dative and transitive-clause locative are identically marked, even non-adpositionally, THEN dative* is also identically marked. | inflection, syntax | implication | dative, locative, allative, syncretism |
| 161 | Overt marking of dative or spatial functions cannot be suspended when a referent is non-specific or indefinite. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | indirect object, spatial complement, indefinite, specific reference |
| 162 | Overt marking of dative or spatial functions does not alternate depending on whether the referent is partitive or non-partitive. |
inflection, syntax | unconditional | indirect object, spatial complement, dative, partitive |
| 163 | Overt marking of dative or spatial functions does not alternate depending on the polarity (positive/negative) of the clause. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | indirect object, spatial complement, affirmation, negation |
| 164 | Overt marking of dative or spatial functions (allative, locative) does not alternate depending on aspect (completive/incompletive). | inflection, syntax | unconditional | indirect object, allative, locative, aspect, completive, incompletive |
| 165 | IF there is a pronominal reflexive for 1st person, THEN there is also one for 2nd person. IF there is a pronominal reflexive for 2nd person, THEN there is also one for 3rd person. |
syntax | implication | reflexive, pronoun, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 166 | IF a verb agrees with the direct object by prefix, THEN at least some verbs agree with the subject. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, verb, subject, direct object, prefix |
| 169 | When an adposition and a case affix are involved in a government relation, it is always the adposition that governs the affix rather than in reverse. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | adposition, case, affix, government |