Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
1,698 entries · page 11 of 34
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 572 | (In Indo-European) IF there is no nominal case marking, THEN there will be an article. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, article |
| 573 | IF the definite article is grammaticalized in subject NPs, THEN it is also grammaticalized in direct object NPs. IF the definite article is grammaticalized in direct object NPs, THEN it is also grammaticalized in prepositionally marked NPs. |
inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | article, grammaticalization, PP, direct object NP, subject NP |
| 574 | Hierarchy of syntactic bondedness (stronger > weaker): article+noun > deictic+noun < interrogative+noun < quantifier/indefinite+noun < adjective+noun > > participle+noun > relative clause+noun. As soon as an adjunct category has an obligatory overt marker of its subordination to the head noun (such as ligature morphemes), all weaker bound categories of adjuncts also require an overt marker. But bondedness hierarchy is claimed to be valid for other morphosyntactic differences between various kinds of adjuncts as well. |
syntax | implicational hierarchy | article, noun, interrogative, deictic, quantifier, indefinite, adjective, participle, relative clause, boundeness, hierarchy, ligative |
| 575 | IF there is obligatory marking of (in)definiteness, THEN there will be obligatory marking of nominal plurality (but not vice versa). | inflection, syntax | implication | definiteness, number, plural, noun |
| 576 | IF there is obligatory marking of (in)definiteness, THEN there will be no obligatory marking of numeral classification. | inflection, syntax | implication | definiteness, numeral classifier |
| 577 | IF there is obligatory marking of (in)definiteness, THEN there will be no stacked adnominal numeral constructions. | inflection, syntax | implication | definiteness, numeral |
| 578 | IF a dual and a plural are distinguished in the 1st person exclusive form of a pronoun, THEN they are also distinguished in the inclusive. | inflection | implication | number, dual, plural, pronoun, inclusive, exclusive |
| 579 | IF personal pronouns can have semantic rather than syntactic agreement in gender or number with a particular noun, THEN relative pronouns, predicative, and attributive constituents can also have semantic agreement with that noun. IF relative pronouns can have semantic agreement in gender or number with a particular noun, THEN predicative, and attributive constituents can also have semantic agreement with that noun. IF predicative constituents can have semantic agreement in gender or number with a particular noun, THEN attributive constituents can also have semantic agreement with that noun. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implicational hierarchy | agreement, gender, number, attributive, predicate, relative pronoun, personal pronoun |
| 580 | IF any inflectional category is expressed through suppletion in nouns, THEN it is also expressed suppletively in pronouns or verbs. | inflection | implication | suppletion, noun, verb, pronoun |
| 581 | IF stacked targets (such as attributive adjective and a determiner) may differ in agreeing on a referential-semantic or a syntactic basis, THEN the target further from the controller is likelier than the one closer to it to agree on a semantic basis. | inflection, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | agreement, attribution, adjective, determiner |
| 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 |
| 583 | When there are gender distinctions in the singular, IF there is a gender distinction in 1st and/or 2nd person non-singular, THEN there is the same gender distinction in the singular involving either the corresponding person(s) or 3rd person. | inflection | implication | gender, number, singular, person, 1, 2, 3, pronoun |
| 584 | When there are no gender distinctions in the singular, IF there is a gender distinction in 1st person, THEN there is the same gender distinction in 2nd person for any one non-singular number, and IF there is a gender distinction in 2nd person, THEN there is the same gender distinction in 3rd person. | inflection | implication | gender, number, singular, non-singular, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 585 | IF there is any inflection in nouns, THEN there are also some inflections in pronouns. | inflection | implication | inflection, noun, pronoun |
| 586 | IF morphemes are semantically less complex than others, THEN they will not systematically be more complex in phonetic form than these. | phonology, morphology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | morpheme, complexity, semantics, iconicity |
| 587 | Where phonetic complexity is systematically correlated with semantic complexity, the former will be measured in terms of segments rather than features; therefore, semantically more complex morphemes may be longer than semantically simpler ones but they will not systematically contain more complex sound types. | phonology, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | morpheme, complexity |
| 588 | IF the volume of sound is increased, THEN so will be the emphasis. | phonology | mutual implication | emphasis |
| 589 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN there is no grammatical gender. | inflection | implication | agglutination, gender |
| 590 | IF there is grammatical gender, THEN morphology is flexive. | inflection | implication | flexion, gender |
| 591 | Whenever in a language there are two classes of noun phrases such that members of one class are case-marked ergatively and members of the other class are case-marked accusatively, and there is a semantic difference between the classes related either to activeness of noun phrase referents, or their quantitative properties, or their pragmatic prominence, members of the class that ranks higher on these properties will be marked accusatively and members of the lower-ranking class, ergatively. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implicational hierarchy | case, accusative, ergative, NP, hierarchy, split |
| 597 | IF the temporal order of syntactic constituents that describe events symbolizes anything about the actual order in which these events are said to take place, THEN the symbolism is iconic in that the earlier-mentioned event is to be taken as the one that takes place earlier. | syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | order, iconicity |
| 599 | IF a possessive adjective is separated from the head noun by any constituent, THEN this intervening element will be the determiner. | syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | possessive adjective, noun, determiner, order |
| 600 | When evaluative and affective adjectives occur in the same construction, the evaluative adjective always precedes the affective adjective. | syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | adjective, order |
| 601 | IF basic order is VO, THEN the chances are equal that there is person-number inflection or that there isn't. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, VO, verb, inflection, person, number |
| 602 | IF the sentence describing the caused event is intransitive, THEN the range of noun phrases that occur in this construction will include intransitive subjects. IF the sentence describing the caused event is transitive, THEN the range of noun phrase that occur in this construction will include objects. |
inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | causative verb, NP, accusative case, intransitive subject, transitive object |
| 603 | Whenever there is more than one alignment type of verb agreement, one being ergative and the other non-ergative: ergative verb agreement occurs in perfective sentences, and non-ergative verb agreement occurs in imperfective sentences. |
inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | agreement, alignment, ergative, aspect, perfective |
| 604 | IF there is agreement between the verb and some of its noun phrase complements with respect to “affectedness” or quality, THEN the noun phrase complements participating in this kind of agreement will be objects and intransitive subjects. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | agreement, verb, NP, semantics, affectedness, object, intransitive subject |
| 605 | IF alignment is accusative for some/many purposes, THEN verb agreement in person or number or gender is not limited to ergative alignment. | inflection, syntax | implication | alignment, accusative, ergative, verb agreement, person, number, gender |
| 606 | IF definite objects are differently ordered from indefinite ones, THEN also definite intransitive subjects will be differently ordered from indefinite ones. IF definite intransitive subjects are differently ordered from indefinite ones, THEN also definite objects will be differently ordered from indefinite ones. |
syntax | implication | definiteness, NP, order, object, transitive subject, intransitive subject |
| 607 | IF the possessive adjective follows the noun, THEN the relative clause follows the noun. OR, BY CONTRAPOSITION: IF the relative clause precedes the noun, THEN the possessive adjective precedes the noun. |
syntax | implication | possessive, noun, adjective, order |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 615 | IF there is Switch-Reference marking, THEN word order is verb-final . |
inflection, syntax | implication | switch-reference, order, verb-final |
| 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 |
| 618 | IF an object of comparison can be relativized, THEN an attributive genitive can be as well. IF an attributive genitive can be relativized, THEN a major oblique case NP can be as well. IF a major oblique case NP can be relativized, THEN an indirect object can be as well. IF an indirect object can be relativized, THEN a direct object can be as well. IF an direct object can be relativized, THEN a subject can be as well. |
syntax | implicational hierarchy | accessibility hierarchy, relative clause, attributive, indirect object, direct object, subject, object of comparison |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 627 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme, THEN basic order is verb-initial or verb-final. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, verb-final, case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme |
| 628 | If there is a distributive-share quantifier word, THEN there is a distributive-share numeral word. | lexicon | implication | quantifier, distributive, numeral |
| 629 | Sonority Hierarchy: vowels > liquids > glides > nasals > fricatives > stops | phonology | implicational hierarchy | sonority hierarchy |
| 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 |
| 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 |