Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
58 entries · page 1 of 2
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | IF adpositions precede their NPs (i. e. they are prepositions), THEN head nouns almost always precede their attributive nouns (genitives). | syntax | implication | order, preposition, attributive, genitive |
| 4 | IF adpositions follow their NPs (i.e. they are postpositions), THEN head nouns almost always follow their attributive nouns (genitives). | syntax | implication | order, postposition, attributive, genitive |
| 7 | IF morphemes of both number and case are present and both follow or both precede the noun base, THEN the exponent of number almost always comes between the noun base and the exponent of case. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | affix-order, case, number |
| 8 | IF basic order for nominal arguments is verb-final (i.e. SOV or OSV), THEN there is almost always a case system. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-final, case system |
| 10 | IF in apposition the common noun usually precedes the proper noun, THEN, with much better than chance frequency, the attributive noun precedes its head noun. DELETE: is part of #9 |
syntax | implication | order, apposition, attributive, genitive |
| 16 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme, THEN the segmental marker of internal case is closer to the stem of the attributive nominal than is the segmental marker of external case. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | case, attribution, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, affix-order |
| 21 | IF the internal case involved in Suffixaufnahme is a case other than that of the possessor, THEN the case of the possessor (typically genitive) is almost always also involved in Suffixaufnahme. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, attribution, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, possessive, genitive |
| 43 | Case affixes can be grammaticalized from adpositions only if the noun is not separated from the adposition in the unmarked word order in the NP; i.e., if the unmarked order is either (a) (Modifiers and/or Numerals) N Postposition, or (b) Preposition N (Modifiers and/or Numerals). | inflection, syntax | target < source | case, adposition, preposition, postposition, NP, noun, modifier, numeral, order, grammaticalization |
| 88 | IF the demonstrative follows the noun, THEN the relative clause follows the noun. OR, BY CONTRAPOSITION: IF the relative clause precedes the noun, THEN the demonstrative precedes the noun. |
syntax | implication | order, relative clause, demonstrative, noun |
| 93 | IF there is a gender distinction in the 2nd person singular of pronouns, THEN the 3rd person singular is likelier to have than to lack a gender distinction. | inflection | implication | pronoun, gender, number, singular, person, 2, 3 |
| 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 |
| 115 | Cases can be neutralized for a given Number, but not Numbers for a given Case. | inflection | unconditional | number, case |
| 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 |
| 153 | IF nouns share inflectional properties with adjectives, THEN they also share these properties with determiners. | inflection | implication | word class, noun, adjective, determiner |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 312 | IF there is a noun form for use as as subject of intransitive verbs of state, THEN this form will also be used for intransitive verbs of action. | inflection, syntax | implication | subject, intransitivity, verb, active, stative |
| 400 | IF number is indicated by inflection in the 1st and/or 2nd person pronouns, THEN it is indicated by inflection in the 3rd person. | inflection | implication | number, personal pronoun, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 401 | IF number in the 1st and/or 2nd person pronoun is indicated by a plural marker also used for nouns, THEN 3rd person uses the same plural marker. | inflection | implication | number, plural, noun, personal pronoun, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 455 | IF there are personal possessive prefixes, THEN genitive precedes its head noun, but not vice versa | inflection, syntax | implication | possession, person, prefix, suffix, order, attributive, noun |
| 475 | IF there is an opposition accusative/nominative in the inflection of nouns, THEN there is the same opposition in the inflection of independent personal pronouns of 1st, 2nd, 3rd person (at least one of them). | inflection, syntax | implication | alignment, case, accusative, nominative, personal pronoun, person, 1, 2, 3, noun |
| 498 | IF interrogative sentences are formed from declarative sentences by inversion so that verb precedes subject, THEN the question word or phrase is normally initial. IF such inversion occurs in yes-no questions, THEN it also occurs in information questions. |
syntax | implication | order, sentence type, interrogative, subject-verb inversion |
| 525 | In more than one language, and possibly in all, preposed demonstratives are peripheral to tautolateral numerals and adjectives; postposed demonstratives are most frequently so. | syntax | unconditional | order, demonstrative, numeral, adjective, noun |
| 526 | IF the adnominal demonstrative and the definite article occur on the same side of the head noun, THEN the demonstrative is consistently more peripheral than the article. | syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | adnominal demonstrative, definite article, noun, order |
| 631 | Distributive-share quantifier words are formed from their ordinary counterparts by morphological process. | morphology | unconditional | quantifier, distributive |
| 635 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme, THEN nominal inflection will be agglutinative. | syntax, inflection | implication | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, agglutination, noun |
| 645 | In languages in which variation of person in pronominal reference is used to show degrees of respect or social distance, the 3rd person indicates greater social distance when used in reference to either the addressee or the speaker than do the pronouns of the 2nd and 1st person, respectively. | inflection, semantics | unconditional | personal pronoun, 3 person, 2 person, 1 person, respect, social distance, addressee, speaker |
| 672 | IF yes-no questions are marked by question particles, THEN they may in addition be marked by verb inversion, and vice versa. | syntax | mutual implication | interrogative sentence, yes-no question, question particle, inversion |
| 673 | IF tags are binary choice, THEN they are sentence final. IF tags are multiple choice, THEN they are sentence initial. |
syntax | implication | order, interrogative sentence, tag question |
| 688 | All languages have the place distinctions of high and low and of front and back in their vowel systems; hence vowel systems minimally include /i, a, u/. | phonology | unconditional | vowel, high, low, front, back |
| 722 | IF a sequence of unlike tones on a word or morpheme is permitted, THEN like tones on a word or morpheme will be permitted as well. | phonology | implication | tone, level tone, contour tone |
| 725 | IF there are complex tonal contours, THEN there will also be simpler ones. | phonology | implication | tone, contour tone, complex, simple |
| 760 | IF there is at least one posterior (compact) injective, THEN there will be least one anterior (diffuse) injective. | phonology | implication | consonant, injective, posterior, anterior, compact, diffuse |
| 765 | Injectives tend not to cluster with plain consonants. | phonology | unconditional | injective, consonant cluster |
| 767 | IF there are unvoiced ejectives, THEN there will be plain stops. | phonology | implication | ejective, stop, voice |
| 784 | The number of voiceless primary oral stops is nearly always greater than the number of voiced ones. | phonology | implication | consonant, oral, stop, voice |
| 786 | The number of primary oral affricates will be less than the number of primary oral stops. | phonology | implication | oral, affricate, stop, primary |
| 805 | IF there are back consonants, THEN there will be front consonants. | phonology | implication | back, front, consonant |
| 815 | IF there is distributive stress, THEN there are no reduced vowels. | prosodic phonology | implication | stress, distributive, vowel, reduced |
| 818 | IF moras matter [for what?], THEN the language is non-monosyllabic and tonal. | phonology, morphology | implication | mora, monosyllabic, tone |
| 849 | In initial clusters, IF there is at least one combination of stop + stop, THEN there almost always the combinations of stop + fricative and fricative + stop. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, initial, stop, fricative |
| 868 | In initial clusters, IF there is at least one sequence consisting of a voiced liquid followed by a nasal, THEN there is at least one combination consisting of a nasal followed by a liquid. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, initial, liquid, voice, nasal |
| 870 | In initial clusters, IF there is at least one sequence consisting of two voiced obstruents, THEN there is at least one combination consisting of two unvoiced obstruents. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, initial, voice, obstruent |
| 879 | In initial clusters, IF there is at least one cluster consisting of obstruent + nasal, THEN there is at least one cluster consisting of obstruent + liquid. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, initial, nasal, obstruent, liquid |
| 888 | IF there is a rounded front vowel, THEN there is a rounded back vowel. | phonology | implication | rounded, front, back, vowel, height |
| 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 |
| 1003 | IF the illocutionary force is finality and assertion, THEN terminal intonation is low or falling. IF the illocutionary force is non-finality or non-assertion, THEN terminal intonation is high or rising. |
phonology, semantics | implication | intonation, illocutionary force |
| 1034 | Only the intense pole – loud stress, high pitch and length – ever has the accentual property. There is no language in which there is one and just one weakest stress or one lowest pitch (or shortest segment) in a phonological word. | prosodic phonology | unconditional | stress, pitch, length, accent |
| 1036 | Morphemically simple phonological words never have more than one main stress. | phonology, morphology | unconditional | stress, accent |
| 1040 | When stress is phonologically predictable and unlimited, the relevant syllables may only be identified in terms of heaviness or open/peripheral vowel quality, with the ‘residual’ rule, applying if the word lacks a syllable of the kind required to attract stress, almost always selecting the initial syllable. | prosodic phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | stress, syllable, accent |