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 4 of 23
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 171 | IF a noun phrase constituent carries case and number inflection when co-occurring with a noun, THEN it can also fill a nominal slot by itself and carry the same inflection. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | NP, case, number, noun, inflection |
| 172 | When alignment is ergative/absolutive, IF the verb agrees with the ergative, THEN it agrees with the absolutive. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, verb, alignment, ergative, absolutive |
| 173 | IF there are prepositions, THEN IF the demonstrative follows the noun, THEN the genitive follows the noun. | syntax | nested implication | preposition, order, noun, demonstrative, attributive |
| 174 | IF there are prepositions, THEN the numeral follows the noun, THEN the genitive follows the noun. | syntax | nested implication | preposition, order, noun, numeral, attributive |
| 175 | IF there are prepositions, THEN IF the genitive follows the noun, THEN the relative clause follows the noun. | syntax | nested implication | preposition, order, noun, attributive, relative clause |
| 176 | IF the genitive follows the noun, THEN the relative clause follows the noun. OR, BY CONTRAPOSITION: IF the relative clause precedes the noun, THEN the genitive precedes the noun. |
syntax | implication | noun, order, attributive, relative clause |
| 177 | IF there are postpositions, THEN IF the demonstrative precedes the noun, THEN the genitive precedes the noun. | syntax | nested implication | postposition, order, noun, demonstrative, attributive |
| 178 | IF there are postpositions, THEN IF the numeral precedes the noun, THEN the genitive precedes the noun. | syntax | nested implication | postposition, order, noun, numeral, attributive |
| 179 | IF a target agrees in Case, THEN it also agrees in Number and Gender. IF a target agrees in Gender, THEN it also agrees in Number. |
inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | agreement, number, case, gender, target |
| 180 | IF there is case marking for subject vs. object, THEN basic order is SOV. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, SOV, case, subject, direct object |
| 181 | IF the marker for NP conjunction has the same form as the comitative marker, THEN basic order is SVO and not SOV. | syntax | mutual implication | order, SVO, NP, coordination, conjunction, comitative |
| 182 | IF adnominal genitival complements are neither marked by case nor by coreference on the head-NP, THEN basic order tends to be SVO. | inflection, syntax | implication | attributive, case, genitive, NP, order, head-marking, agreement, SVO |
| 188 | IF there is incorporation of the nominal subject into the verb, THEN there is also incorporation of the direct object. | morphology, syntax | implication | incorporation, subject, direct object, verb |
| 189 | IF there are around seven cases or more, THEN locational relations with be expressed by case forms; but not vice versa. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | case system, local case |
| 192 | A relation that is higher on the hierarchy of centrality (subject-object > local relations; locative > ablative; ...) than another one will not be expressed lower down on the grammatical-to-lexical hierarchy of expression (word order > verbal coding > case > adpositions > ...). | inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | grammatical relations, local relations, word order, case, adposition |
| 193 | IF verbs assign morphological case, THEN adpositions assign morphological case. IF adpositions assign morphological case, THEN verbs assign morphological case. |
inflection, syntax | implication | verb, case, adposition |
| 194 | IF numerals are case-assigners, THEN so are verbs and/or adpositions. | inflection, syntax | implication | numeral, case, verb, adposition |
| 195 | IF adjectives can assign morphological cases other than genitive to their complements, they will also assign genitive. | inflection, syntax | implication | adjective, case, genitive |
| 196 | IF basic order is OV, THEN syllable structure is simple (tending towards CV). | phonology, syntax | implication | order, OV, syllable, complexity |
| 197 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) precedes the head noun, THEN it will not participate in agreement. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) participates in agreement, THEN it will not precede the head noun. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, prefix, preposition, order, agreement |
| 198 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) precedes the head noun, THEN it will not be inseparable from it. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is inseparable from the head noun, THEN it will not precede it. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, head noun |
| 199 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) participates in agreement, THEN it will not be separable from the head noun. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is separable from the head noun, THEN it will not participate in agreement. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, agreement |
| 200 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) participates in agreement, THEN it will not be an independent morpheme. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is an independent morpheme, THEN it will not participate in agreement. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, affix, agreement |
| 201 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is an independent morpheme, THEN it will not be inseparable from the head noun. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is inseparable from the head noun, THEN it is an independent morpheme. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, head noun |
| 202 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is an independent morpheme, THEN it will not express subject-object relations. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) expresses subject-object relations, THEN it will not be an independent morpheme. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | case, adposition, grammatical relations |
| 203 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) participates in agreement, THEN it will not fail to express subject-object relations. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) fails to express subject-object relations, THEN it will not participates in agreement. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | case, adposition, agreement, grammatical relations |
| 204 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is an independent morpheme, THEN it will not fail to express concrete relations. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) fails to express concrete relations, THEN it will not be an independent morpheme. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, local relations |
| 205 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) does not express subject-object relations, THEN it will express local relations. IF it does not express local relations, THEN it will express subject-object relations. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | case, adposition, grammatical relations, local relations |
| 206 | IF alignment is ergative, THEN there will be an opposition of ergative and absolutive series of personal affixes in verb inflection and an opposition of an ergative and an absolutive case in noun inflection, similar to each other in their function. | inflection, syntax | implication | alignment, ergative, case, absolutive, person, verb |
| 207 | IF basic order is VO, THEN syllable structure is complex (permitting initial and final consonant clusters). | phonology, syntax | implication | order, VO, syllable, complexity |
| 208 | IF basic order is OV, THEN there will be pitch accent. IF basic order is VO, THEN there will be stress accent, accompanied by reduction of unstressed vowels. |
phonology, syntax | implication | order, VO, OV, pitch accent, stress, vowel reduction |
| 211 | IF alignment is accusative, THEN there will be a single “subject” series of personal affixes in verb inflection and an opposition of a nominative and an accusative case in noun inflection. | inflection, syntax | implication | alignment, accusative, verb, person, subject, case, accusative, nominative |
| 213 | IF there is a derived-case comparative, THEN clause-combining is balancing. | inflection, syntax | implication | comparative, case, clause-combining, balancing |
| 214 | IF there is a fixed-case comparative, THEN clause-combining is deranking. | inflection, syntax | implication | comparative, case, clause-combining, deranking |
| 215 | IF there is noun-genitive order in the possessive construction, THEN there is quantitative-noun order in the partitive construction. | syntax | implication | order, noun, attributive, quantitative, partitive construction |
| 216 | IF alignment is active, THEN there will be an opposition of an active and inactive series of personal affixes in verb inflection and an opposition of an active and an inactive case in noun inflection, similar to each other in their function. | inflection, syntax | implication | alignment, active, verb, person, case, active, inactive |
| 217 | IF one of the elements of the hierarchy takes ergative case-marking, THEN all units to its right also take ergative case-marking as well; and IF one of the units takes accusative case-marking, THEN all units to its left also take accusative case-marking. | inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | alignment, case, ergative, accusative, pronoun, noun, NP hierarchy |
| 220 | IF there are converbs with the fundamental meaning of succession, THEN there are converbs with the fundamental meaning of precedence. IF there are converbs with the fundamental meaning of precedence, THEN there are converbs with the fundamental meaning of simultaneity. |
syntax, semantics | implication | converb |
| 225 | IF alignment is active, THEN there is no case inflection. IF alignment is ergative, THEN there are ergative, absolutive, (and locative) cases. IF alignment is accusative, THEN there are nominative, accusative, (genitive, dative, instrumental, and locative) cases. |
inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | alignment, active, ergative, accusative, case, locative, nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental |
| 226 | IF clause structure is of the class type, THEN there is no case inflection. IF alignment is predominantly active, THEN there is either no case inflection or cases encode active and inactive participation rather than subject and object. IF alignment is predominantly ergative, THEN case marking non-distinctively expresses subject and object relations. IF alignment is predominantly nominative [i.e., ergative], THEN cases distinctively express subject and object. |
inflection, syntax | implication | alignment, class, active, ergative, accusative, subject, object, case |
| 230 | IF constituent order is rigid, THEN cases are absent, and vice versa; If cases are absent, THEN the use of prepositions is extensive, and vice versa; IF order is rigid, THEN the use of prepositions is extensive, and vice versa. IF constituent order is flexible, THEN cases are present, and vice versa; IF cases are present, THEN the use of prepositions is sparse, and vice versa; IF order is flexible, THEN the use of prepositions is sparse, and vice versa. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | order, case, preposition |
| 231 | IF constituent order is rigid (or if there is no case inflection), THEN the gradation of adjectives is expressed by function words; IF constituent order is flexible (or if there is case inflection), THEN the gradation of adjectives is expressed inflectionally. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, case, adjective, comparison, inflection, function word |
| 232 | IF constituent order is rigid and there is no case inflection, THEN there is a definite article, but not vice versa. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, case, definite article |
| 233 | Governors either follow or they precede their governees in all of the following constructions alike: (a) subject, object, and verb, (b) nominal attribute and head noun, (c) adjectival attribute and head noun, (d) adposition and noun phrase, (e) particle (especially conjunctions and interrogative words) and clause, (f) subject and verb in interrogative clauses, (g) indirect object, direct object, and subject, (h) core and circumstantial actants. |
syntax | mutual implication | order, subject, direct object, indirect object, verb, nominal attribute, adjectival, head noun, adposition, NP, particle, conjunction, interrogative word, clause, interrogative clause, core, circumstantial actant |
| 235 | In phases of inflectional reduction and expansion of the fund of function words, IF there are numerals and/or quantifiers, THEN there are also prepositions; IF there are prepositions, THEN there are also adjectives; and IF there are adjectives, THEN there are also nouns and (personal) verbs. | syntax | implication | word class, numeral, quantifier, preposition, adjective, noun, verb |
| 238 | IF constituent order is rigid, THEN all determined constituents precede their respective determining constituents; in particular, subjects precede their predicates, verbs their complements (objects, prepositional phrases), prepositions their complements (noun phrases), head nouns their attributive adjectives, relative clauses, and complements (prepositional phrases). | syntax | implication | order, subject, predicate, verb, complement, object, PP, preposition, NP, head noun, attributive adjective, relative clause |
| 239 | IF constituent order is free, THEN all potentially declinable kinds of nominal words in relationships of determination — nouns, pronouns, adjectives (including articles) — are declined at least for case, the cardinal relational category, but presumably for number and gender as well. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, noun, pronoun, adjective, article, case, number, gender |
| 240 | IF there is ergative case marking, THEN with far more than chance frequency there is divergent ordering of genitive and adjective attributes, with genitives preceding and with adjectives following their head nouns; IF there is divergent genitive and adjective ordering, THEN supposedly with somewhat lower frequency, there is ergative case marking. |
inflection, syntax | implication | ergative case, order, attributive, adjective, noun |
| 241 | IF there is segmental relation marking, THEN word order is free, and vice versa. IF there is no segmental relation marking, THEN word order is rigid, and vice versa. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | inflection, order |
| 245 | IF constituent order is free without limits, THEN nominal words are inflected, but not vice versa; IF constituent order is rigid without inversions, THEN there is no nominal inflection, but not vice versa. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, noun |