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 12 of 34
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 638 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme, THEN there will be ergative or other non-accusative alignment. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, ergative-absolutive alignment |
| 639 | If any pronominal category is used to show degrees of respect or social distance, THEN most commonly it is the category of number. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, number, respect, social distance |
| 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 |
| 641 | IF there is any variation of number in pronominal reference showing different degrees of respect or social distance, THEN the non-singular typically indicates a higher degree of respect toward the referent, or greater social distance between him and other participants in the speech act, than does the singular. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, non-singular number, singular 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 |
| 644 | IF there is variation of the category of person in personal pronouns so as to show degrees of respect or social distance, THEN there is variation of number for the same purpose. | inflection, semantics | implication | personal pronoun, person, number, respect, social distance |
| 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 |
| 647 | IF 3rd person personal pronoun is used to show greater respect or social distance than the 2nd person pronoun in reference to the addressee, THEN this use is usually introduced by substitution of nouns or nominal expressions used in respectful address. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, person, number, respect, social distance, addressee |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 651 | In a language in which categories of definiteness are employed to show degrees of respect or social distance, the one used as indefinite or least definite is also used to indicate greater respect or social distance. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, definite, indefinite, respect, social distance |
| 652 | Of (i) reflexive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, and pronominalized nouns or pronominalized nominal expressions used in reference and (ii) personal pronouns of the same number, the former (i) usually indicate greater respect or social distance than the latter (ii). | syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, reflexive pronoun, demonstrative pronoun, number, 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 |
| 655 | IF there is polysynthesis, THEN the consonant-vowel ratio is comparatively high. | phonology, morphology, syntax | mutual implication | consonant, vowel, ratio, polysynthesis |
| 656 | IF the phoneme inventory is large, THEN morpheme length is short. IF the phoneme inventory is small, THEN morphemes length is long. |
phonology | implication | phoneme, morpheme length |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 670 | IF basic word order is SOV, THEN there tends to be no inversion in information questions. | syntax | implication | order, interrogative sentence, information question, inversion |
| 671 | IF basic word order is SOV, THEN question particles almost always occur sentence finally. IF basic word order is not SOV, THEN question particles show a greater tendency than with basic order SOV to occur sentence initially. |
syntax | implication | order, interrogative sentence, question particle, SOV |
| 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 |
| 674 | IF lexical items are more stable than other items in one language family, THEN these items are among the more stable items in another language family. | lexicon | implication | word |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 677 | IF the order is VSO and the relative clause is postnominal, THEN the relative clause contains either initial relative particle or pronouns or a special marker on the main verb of the clause. | syntax | implication | relative clause, order, postnominal, personal pronoun, relative particle, verbal affix |
| 678 | IF relative clauses are prenominal, THEN they very rarely retain a personal pronoun in the position of the relativized NP. |
syntax | implication | relative clause, order, personal pronoun |
| 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 |
| 681 | IF there are (other) initial nonverbal elements in subordinate clauses, THEN postnominal relative clauses contain relative pronouns. | syntax | implication | relative clause, order, postnominal, initial, verb |
| 682 | IF there is double negation, THEN negation precedes and follows the verb. | syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | double negation, order, negation |
| 683 | IF there is a dummy auxiliary negative construction, THEN there is another way of negation. |
syntax | implication | negation, dummy auxiliary |
| 685 | IF negation is morphological, THEN a. portmanteau realization of Neg; b. prosodic unity of Neg and verb (viz. if they "share" one word stress); c. placement of Neg close to the root of the verb (i.e. between the root and other inflectional morphemes); d. morphophonemic alternation in the Negation morpheme. |
morphology, prosodic phonology | implication | negation, prosodic phrasing, stress, portmanteau, morpheme, order, alternation |
| 686 | IF negation is syntactic, THEN a. moveability of Negation; b. prosodic independence (e.g. the Negation morpheme carries a stress of its own); c. in written language: orthographic separation; d. the Negation morpheme by itself carries inflectional affixes. |
syntax, prosodic phonology | implication | negation, prosodic phrasing, stress, inflection |
| 687 | IF there is morphological (suffixal) negation, THEN word order is verb-final or free. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, free, negation, affix-order, suffix |
| 689 | IF [w] becomes a fricative or determines the place of articulation of adjacent fricatives, THEN it shows itself primarily as a labial. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | fricative, labial, place of articulation |
| 691 | IF bound morphology is exclusively or predominantly prefixing, THEN symmetrical reduplicative compounds (provided such complex forms exist) will be overwhelmingly alliterative rather than rhyming or ablauting. | morphology, syntax | implication | compounds, affix, prefix, alliteration, rhyme, rhythm, iambic |
| 692 | IF clusters of obstruent consonants which are different only with regard to their belonging to different ‘Lokalisierungsreihen’ (e.g. sp, tr, kl, rs) are possible, THEN clusters of two obstruent consonants (e.g. pt, xs, sf) are also possible. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, obstruent, Lokalisierungsreihe |