Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
1,237 entries · page 10 of 25
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 608 | IF there is a derivational morpheme whose distributional characterization makes reference to objects, THEN it will also make reference to intransitive subjects but not to transitive one. | word formation | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | object, intransitive subject, transitive subject |
| 609 | If there are two verb-lexicalization rules in a language such that the two meaning characterization contrast only in the quantity or quality of some noun phrase referent involved in the event, this noun phrase constituent will be either an object or an intransitive subject, but not a transitive subject. | syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | lexicalization, intransitive subject, transitive subject, object |
| 610 | IF there is switch-reference marking with 1st and/or 2nd Person, THEN also with 3rd person, but not vice versa. | inflection, syntax | implication | switch-reference, 1 person, 2 person, 3 person |
| 611 | IF there are reflexive pronouns distinct from non-reflexive ones with 1st and/or 2nd Person, THEN also with 3rd Person, but not vice versa. | inflection | implication | reflexive pronoun, non-reflexive pronoun, 1 person, 2 person, 3 person |
| 612 | Reference clauses for Switch-Reference marking are never subordinate to Marking clauses. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | switch-reference |
| 613 | IF the switch-reference marker is a suffix, THEN the marking clause precedes the Reference clause; IF the switch-reference marker is a verbal prefix, THEN the marking clause follows the reference clause. |
inflection, syntax | implication | switch-reference, suffix, prefix, order |
| 614 | IF there is switch-reference marking between non-adjacent clauses, THEN switch-reference between adjacent clauses will be marked as well. |
inflection, syntax | implication | switch-reference, order, adjacency |
| 616 | IF PURPLE or PINK or ORANGE or GREY , THEN BROWN. IF BROWN, THEN BLUE. IF BLUE, THEN YELLOW and GREEN. IF YELLOW or GREEN, THEN RED. IF RED, THEN WHITE and BLACK. |
lexicon | implicational hierarchy | colour terms hierarchy |
| 619 | If an NPrel is a pronoun for subjects, THEN an NPrel can be a pronoun for non-direct objects, direct objects, and possessors as well. If NPrel is a pronoun for direct objects, THEN NPrel can be a pronoun for non-direct objects, and possessors as well. If NPrel is a pronoun for non-direct objects, THEN NPrel can be a pronoun for possessors as well. |
syntax | implicational hierarchy | accessibility hierarchy, pronoun, relative clause, attributive, non-direct object, direct object, subject |
| 620 | IF there are two ways of forming relative clauses, THEN the more explicit type will be used lower down the hierarchy and the less explicit type higher up the hierarchy. | syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | accessibility hierarchy, relative clause |
| 621 | IF a subordinate direct object can be relativized, THEN a main clause direct object can be as well. | syntax | implication | accessibility hierarchy, relative clause, subordinate, main, direct object |
| 622 | IF an attributive can be relativized by gapping, THEN non-direct objects, direct objects, and subjects can be as well. IF a non-direct object can be relativized by gapping, THEN direct objects and subjects can be as well. IF a direct object can be relativized by gapping, THEN subjects can be as well. |
syntax | implicational hierarchy | accessibility hierarchy, relative clause, gapping, attributive, non-direct object, direct object, subject<br> |
| 623 | IF a distributive-key quantifier word and its ordinary counterpart are associated, in a certain construction, with different number morphology, THEN the distributive-key quantifier word is associated with singular morphology, and the ordinary quantifier word with plural morphology. | lexicon | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | quantifier word, number, singular, plural |
| 624 | Distributive-key quantifier words are at least as closely bound to their head nouns as their ordinary counterparts. | syntax, semantics | unconditional | quantifier, distributive, head noun, boundedness |
| 626 | IF there are distributive-share quantifier words, THEN NPs are non-configurational, and nouns of low and high countability preference are indistinguishable. | syntax, semantics | implication | quantifier word, distributive, non-configurational NP |
| 628 | If there is a distributive-share quantifier word, THEN there is a distributive-share numeral word. | lexicon | implication | quantifier, distributive, numeral |
| 630 | IF a distributive-share quantifier word and its ordinary counterpart are associated, in a certain construction, with different number morphology, THEN the distributive share quantifier word is associated with plural morphology, and the ordinary quantifier word with singular morphology. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | quantifier, distributive, number, plural, singular |
| 631 | Distributive-share quantifier words are formed from their ordinary counterparts by morphological process. | morphology | unconditional | quantifier, distributive |
| 632 | IF reduplication is used to form portmanteau from ordinary quantifier words, THEN distributive-share quantifier words are formed by reduplication as well. | morphology | implication | quantifier, distributive, reduplication, portmanteau |
| 633 | IF pluralization is used to form portmanteau from ordinary quantifier words, THEN distributive-share quantifier words are formed by pluralization as well. | morphology | implication | quantifier, distributive, pluralization, portmanteau |
| 634 | IF there is a scopal quantifier word, THEN that word is a distributive quantifier word. | lexicon | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | quantifier, distributive |
| 635 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme, THEN nominal inflection will be agglutinative. | syntax, inflection | implication | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, agglutination, noun |
| 636 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme, THEN there will be blurred word-class distinction between nouns and adjectives. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, word class, noun, adjective |
| 637 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme, THEN syntax will be non-configurational. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, non-configurational syntax |
| 640 | IF there is any variation in number to show degrees of respect or social distance, THEN it is used in pronominal reference only to individuals, never to groups. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, number, respect, social distance |
| 642 | IF a repluralized or a double plural pronominal form as well as an original, archaic or simple plural are found in alternation showing different degrees of respect or social distance, THEN the former indicates greater respect or social distance than the latter. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, plural number, double plural, respect, social distance |
| 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 |
| 646 | Variation of person in pronominal reference indicates greater difference in degree of respect or social distance than does variation of number. | inflection, semantics | implication | personal pronoun, person, number, respect, social distance |
| 648 | IF the gender of a 3rd person personal pronoun does not vary when used in reference to the addressee(s), in a language which has distinctions of gender in the 3rd person personal pronouns, THEN it corresponds to that of the noun or the head noun phrase which the pronoun replaced. | inflection, syntax | implication | personal pronoun, 3 person, gender, noun, addressee |
| 649 | Variation of gender so as to employ one which does not correspond to the notional category of the sex of the referent is not used for showing greater respect than reference with the usual gender. | inflection, semantics | unconditional | personal pronoun, gender, noun, honorific |
| 650 | In a language in which categories of proximity are employed to show degrees of respect or social distance, the one used to indicate greater physical distance within discourse is also used to indicate greater respect or social distance. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, proximity, respect, social distance |
| 653 | IF there is stative-active case marking in 3rd person, THEN there is also stative-active marking in 1st and 2nd persons. | inflection | implication | case, stative, active, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 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 |
| 657 | IF there are pejorative pronominal affixes, THEN there are honorific ones. | inflection, semantics | implication | pronoun, affix, pejorative, honorific |
| 658 | In languages in which categories of proximity, inclusiveness and definiteness are employed to convey social meaning, non-proximate, exclusive, and indefinite or impersonal usually indicate greater respect or social distance than do the opposing ones; inanimate and non-human typically indicate less respect than do their counterparts, when used with social meaning. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | proximity, inclusiveness, definiteness, social distance, respect |
| 660 | There is no reduplication pattern where the constituent to be reduplicated may be freely chosen from among the included subconstituents. | morphology | unconditional | reduplication |
| 661 | There is no reduplication pattern where the number of repetitions is freely chosen from the set of all numbers. | morphology | unconditional | reduplication |
| 662 | There is no reduplication pattern which would not involve reference to lexical identity. | morphology | unconditional | reduplication |
| 663 | There is no reduplication pattern that would involve reference to phonological properties other than syllable number, consonantality-vowelhood, and absolute linear position. | phonology, morphology | unconditional | reduplication |
| 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 |
| 665 | IF yes-no questions do not have a rising terminal, higher pitched or special stress contour, THEN there are postpositions. | syntax, prosodic phonology | implication | interrogative sentence, yes-no question, intonation, stress, postposition |
| 666 | IF there are tag questions with nonrising (or not higher pitched or stressed)contours, THEN there are tag questions with rising (etc.) contours. | syntax, prosodic phonology | implication | interrogative sentence, tag question, intonation |
| 667 | IF there is inversion of subject and verb in yes-no questions, THEN subject precedes verb in basic order. | syntax | implication | order, interrogative sentence, yes-no question, subject-verb inversion |
| 668 | IF there is inversion of subject and verb in yes-no questions, THEN the resulting order is VSO (and the basic order will therefore be SVO). | syntax | implication | order, interrogative sentence, yes-no question, subject-verb inversion, periphrastic construction, auxiliary, finite verb |
| 669 | IF there is inversion in information questions, THEN question words are almost always sentence initial. | syntax | implication | information question, inversion, question word, order |
| 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 |
| 676 | IF there is person-number distinction in indicative forms, THEN there is the same distinction in imperative forms. | inflection | implication | mood, indicative, imperative, person, number |
| 679 | IF there are replacive relative clauses, THEN in the basic word order verbs follow their objects, and there is a general rule of left-to-right deletion of anaphora. | syntax | implication | relative clause, replacive (=internal, =headless), order, OV, anaphora |
| 680 | IF relative pronouns of interrogative form are used in ad-relative clauses, THEN interrogative pronouns are placed in initial position in questions. | syntax | implication | relative clause, interrogative pronoun, question, order, relative pronoun |