Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
68 entries · page 1 of 2
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52 | IF a target agrees in case, THEN it will not agree in person; IF a target agrees in person, THEN it will not agree in case. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | agreement, case, person |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 244 | Inflectional systems either have all three of the following properties or none of them: (i) inflectional exponents are intimately joined to the units inflected; (ii) inflectional exponents vary with classes of units to be inflected (i.e. there are coexisting inflection classes); (iii) inflections express several categories cumulatively; (iv) inflectional exponents neutralize some paradigmatic distinctions. | inflection | mutual implication | inflection class, cumulation, syncretism, fusion |
| 316 | IF there is a syntactic form of the subjective* of nouns, THEN there will be a syntactic form of the accusative*, and vice versa. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication | case, subjective, accusative |
| 362 | The extent of “material“ articulation, pertaining in particular to (a) the elaboration of sound systems, (b) the complexity of syllable structures, (c) word length, (d) accentual differentiation (as opposed to not-so-articulated tonal modification), correlates with the extent of “formal“ articulation, pertaining in particular to (a) the differentiation of parts of speech, (b) the elaboration of inflectional and derivational systems, (c) analytic syntax (as opposed to not-so-articulated polysynthesis). | prosodic phonology, inflection, word formation, syntax, lexicon | mutual implication | phoneme system, syllable, word length, accent, tone, word class, polysynthesis |
| 363 | (a)The utterance of the consonants with strong pressure of breath from the chest (as in aspirates, affricates, or in guttural consonants) corresponds to strength of purpose in the language community. (b) The tense and full utterance of consonants corresponds to laborious and active habits respectively, with easy life and indolence producing softly and imperfectly uttered consonants instead. (c) The unrestricted concurrence of consonants in consonant clusters corresponds to versatility, the restricted variety in their concurrence to tenacity. (d) The predominance of consonants (more adapted for the transmission of that representation to the sense of the hearer) corresponds to thoughtfulness, while the predominance of vowels over consonants corresponds to thoughtfulness and talkativeness. | phonology, culture/mind | mutual implication | consonant, vowel, consonant clusters, aspiration |
| 364 | IF morphology is flexive or introflexive, THEN word forms tend to be two or three syllables long. IF morphology is agglutinative or incorporating, THEN word forms tend to be longer. IF bound morphology is lacking (i.e. a language is isolating), THEN word forms tend to be shorter. |
phonology, morphology, lexicon | mutual implication | flexion, introflexion, agglutination, incorporation, isolation, word length, syllable |
| 365 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN inflectional affixes tend to be longer. IF morphology is flexive, THEN inflectional affixes tend to be shorter. |
inflection | mutual implication | affix, complexity, agglutination, flexion |
| 367 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN derivational affixes tend to have more complex syllabic structure. IF morphology is flexive, THEN derivational affixes tend to have less complex syllabic structure. |
phonology, morphology | mutual implication | affix, syllable, agglutination, flexion |
| 368 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN the phonological structure of affixes tends to be very similar to that of stems. IF morphology is flexive, THEN affixes tend to be shorter, structurally simpler, and more uniform in their phonemic make-up than stems. |
phonology, morphology | mutual implication | phonology, affix, stem, agglutination, flexion |
| 369 | IF there is vowel harmony, THEN morphology tends to be agglutinative. | phonology, morphology | mutual implication | agglutination, vowel harmony |
| 373 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN syllabic structure is simple (syllables are short), and vice versa. IF morphology is flexive, THEN syllabic structure is complex (syllables are long), and vice versa. |
phonology, morphology | mutual implication | agglutination, flexion, syllable structure |
| 389 | IF there is no inflectional gender, THEN morphology is agglutinative, and vice versa. | inflection | mutual implication | agglutination, gender |
| 406 | IF morphology is agglutinative (to an extent), THEN at least some inflections can be used on members of more than one word class, and vice versa. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication | agglutination, word class |
| 416 | Affixes are ordered so that their increasing distance from the stem reflects decreasing semantic relevance to it. | inflection, semantics | mutual implication | affix-order, stem, relevance |
| 417 | The degree of bounding between stem and affix is in proportion to the semantic relevance of the affix to the stem. | inflection, semantics | mutual implication | affix, stem, relevance |
| 437 | IF alignment is ergative, THEN there will be dependent-marking, and vice versa. IF alignment is stative-active or hierarchical, THEN there will be head-marking, and vice versa. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | head-marking, dependent-marking, alignment, ergative-absolutive, stative-active, hierarchical alignment |
| 438 | IF basic order is verb-initial or free, THEN head-marking is favoured, and vice versa. IF basic order is verb-medial or verb-final, THEN dependent-marking is favoured, and vice versa. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | order, verb-initial, verb-final, verb-medial, head-marking, dependent-marking |
| 439 | IF alignment is ergative, THEN there will be high complexity. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication? | alignment, ergative-absolutive, complexity |
| 542 | In numeral systems with only simple lexical representation: IF the limit number is 2, THEN there is a singular/plural distinction, and vice versa. IF the limit number is 3, THEN there is a singular/dual/plural distinction, and vice versa. |
inflection, word formation | mutual implication | numeral, number, dual, plural, singular |
| 567 | IF 3rd person differentiates a dual, THEN so does 2nd. IF 2nd person differentiates a dual, THEN so does 3rd. |
inflection | mutual implication | pronoun, personal pronoun, number, dual, 3rd person, 2nd person |
| 582 | IF there is a distinction between count and mass nouns, THEN NPs are configurational. IF NPs are configurational, THEN there is a distinction between count and mass nouns. |
morphology, syntax, semantics | mutual implication | count noun, mass noun, configurational NP |
| 588 | IF the volume of sound is increased, THEN so will be the emphasis. | phonology | mutual implication | emphasis |
| 654 | IF there is unlimited consonant clustering, THEN basic order is VS, and vice versa. IF there are limitations on consonant clustering, THEN basic order is SV, and vice versa. |
phonology, syntax | mutual implication | order, subject, verb, SV, VS, consonant cluster |
| 655 | IF there is polysynthesis, THEN the consonant-vowel ratio is comparatively high. | phonology, morphology, syntax | mutual implication | consonant, vowel, ratio, polysynthesis |
| 659 | The more numerous the principal phonemes and the longer the sequence units (phrases, words, or morphs), the lower the probability of homophony. | phonology | mutual implication | homophony, phoneme inventory, word length |
| 664 | IF there is converb prominence, THEN there is OV order. IF there is OV order, THEN there is converb prominence. |
syntax | mutual implication | converb, order, ov, verb, object |
| 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 |
| 675 | see Graphics | morphology, syntax, prosodic phonology | mutual implication | order, noun, adjective, attributive, verb, object, topic, comment, preposition, postposition dependent-marking, analytic, synthetic morphosyntax, word accent, compound accent, phrase accent, syllable, length, vocalism, timing, sterss, vowel inventory, noun class, gender, article |
| 718 | The larger the number of (phonological) tone levels, the larger the pitch range they occupy. | phonology | mutual implication | tone, tone levels, pitch range |
| 801 | IF there is tensedness, THEN adjectives are nouny. IF adjectives are nouny, THEN there is tensedness. |
morphosyntax | mutual implication | predicative adjective, noun, tensed |
| 802 | IF there is non-tensedness, THEN adjectives are verby. IF adjectives are verby, THEN there is non-tensedness. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | predicative adjective, verb, tensed |
| 810 | IF a phonemic category is complex, THEN its capacity to split is weak. IF a phonemic category is simple, THEN its capacity to split is strong. |
phonology | mutual implication | phoneme, complexity |
| 836 | In languages with two or more laterals, IF there is a contrast between them in manner, THEN there will not be a contrast between them in voice, and vice versa. | phonology | mutual implication | lateral |
| 893 | See Graphics for Iambic vs. Troachaic phrase accent and its many correlates | prosodic phonology, morphology, syntax | mutual implication | phrase accent, word canon, timing, mora, syllable, consonantism, vocalism, tone, verse, music, order, object, verb, adverb, auxiliary, adjective, noun, attributive, postposition, clitic, enclitic proclitic, affix-order, suffix, prefix, synthesis, analysis, agglutination, polysynthesis, flexion, isolation |
| 894 | see Graphics for Iambic vs. Trochaic languages | prosodic phonology, morphology, syntax | mutual implication | stress, syllable, unit, order, object, verb, subject, adverb, adjective, noun, attributive, agglutination, flexion, timing, stress, syllable, syllable structure, intonation contour, tone |
| 895 | See Graphics for Moderate rhythmic holism | inflection, prosodic phonology | mutual implication | syllable structure, stress, vowel harmony, vowel system |
| 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 |
| 901 | Incorporation of an object generally goes hand in hand with its non-referentiality and the aspectual nuance of habitual action or activity, one of the senses of the imperfective. | morphology, syntax | mutual implication | coalescence, incorporation, non-referentiality, aspect |
| 919 | The more numerous the contrastive segments, the shorter the average length of a word. | phonology, morphology | mutual implication | word length, phoneme inventory |