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 13 of 25
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 856 | IF an unvoiced stop is preceded immediately by a stop in an initial cluster, THEN they will not only differ in voicing. IF an unvoiced stop is immediately followed by a stop in a final cluster, THEN they will not only differ in voicing. |
phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | consonant cluster, initial, final, stop, phoneme order, voice |
| 857 | In final clusters, an voiced stop can only be immediately followed by its counterpart if there is a morpheme boundary between them. | phonology | unconditional | consonant cluster, final, stop, voice |
| 858 | In final or initial clusters, a voiced consonant and its glottalized counterpart can only be adjacent if there is a morpheme boundary between them. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | consonant clusters, initial, final, voice, glottalized |
| 859 | A voiced and glottalized consonant cannot be combined in either initial or final clusters. | phonology | unconditional | consonant cluster, initial, final, voice, glottalized |
| 860 | In initial and final consonant clusters, IF one member is a lateral, THEN an r-type sound will never immediately follow (without morpheme boundary). | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, initial, final, lateral |
| 861 | In final systems, clusters with two members never consist of a hushing followed by a hissing sibilant. | phonology | unconditional | consonant cluster, final, sibilant, hushing, hissing |
| 862 | In initial consonant clusters, IF there is at least one sequence containing a liquid (voiced or unvoiced) immediately followed by an obstruent, THEN there is at least one sequence containing an obstruent immediately followed by a liquid. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, initial, obstruent, liquid |
| 863 | In final clusters, IF there is at least one sequence containing a stop immediately followed by an liquid, THEN there is at least one sequence containing a liquid followed by a stop. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, final, stop, liquid |
| 864 | In initial clusters, IF there is a voiced semivowel present, THEN it will not be followed by an obstruent. In final clusters, IF there is a voiced semivowel present, THEN it will not be preceded by an obstruent. |
phonology | implication | consonant cluster, final, initial, semivowel, obstruent |
| 866 | In initial clusters, IF there is at least one sequence of voiced nasal + unvoiced homorganic obstruent, THEN there is at least one sequence of voiced nasal + voiced homorganic obstruent. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, initial, phoneme order, voice, nasal, homorganic |
| 867 | In final clusters, IF an unvoiced consonant or sequence of unvoiced consonants follows a vowel, THEN it will not be followed by one or more voiced consonants (except for unvoiced obstruents followed by a voiced nasal). | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | consonant cluster, final, voice, vowel, obstruent |
| 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 |
| 869 | In final clusters, IF there is at least one sequence consisting of a nasal followed by a liquid, a nasal followed by a nasal or a liquid followed by a liquid, THEN there is at least one combination consisting of a liquid followed by a nasal. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, final, nasal, liquid |
| 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 |
| 871 | In final 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, final, voice, obstruent |
| 872 | In initial clusters, IF there is at least one sequence consisting of voiced obstruent + nasal, THEN there is at least one sequence consisting of unvoiced obstruent + nasal. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, initial, voice, obstruent, nasal |
| 873 | In initial clusters, IF there is at least one sequence consisting of voiced obstruent + semivowel, THEN there is at least one sequence consisting of unvoiced obstruent + semivowel. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, initial, voice, obstruent, semivowel |
| 874 | In final clusters, IF there is at least one sequence consisting of sonant + voiced obstruent, THEN there is at least one sequence consisting of sonant +unvoiced obstruent. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, final, voice, obstruent, sonant |
| 875 | In initial and final clusters, an unvoiced sonant is never immediately preceded or followed by another unvoiced sonant. | phonology | unconditional | consonant cluster, final, initial, voice, sonant |
| 876 | IF there is at least one cluster containing n glottalized consonants, THEN there will be at least one cluster with n-1 glottalized consonants. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, final, initial, glottalized |
| 877 | In initial clusters, IF there is at least one cluster consisting of nasal + liquid, THEN there is at least one cluster consisting of obstruent + liquid. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, initial, nasal, liquid, obstruent |
| 878 | In final clusters, IF there is at least one cluster consisting of nasal + nasal, THEN there is at least one cluster consisting of nasal + obstruent. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, initial, nasal, 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 |
| 880 | IF there are final consonant clusters, THEN there will be at least one cluster with a final obstruent in the dental-alveolar region. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | consonant cluster, final, dental, alveolar, obstruent |
| 881 | IF there are initial consonant clusters, THEN there is at least one cluster with an initial consonant in the dental-alveolar region. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | consonant cluster, initial, dental, alveolar |
| 882 | IF there are affricates, THEN there is at least one in the dental-alveolar of alveo-palatal region. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | consonant cluster, initial, dental, alveolar, alveo-palatal |
| 883 | IF there is a high back unrounded vowel, THEN there will be a [corresponding?] high front unrounded vowel. | phonology | implication | high, back, front, vowel, unrounded |
| 884 | IF there is a lower high back rounded vowel, THEN there will be a high or lower high front vowel. | phonology | implication | high, lower high, back, front, vowel, rounded |
| 885 | IF maximal back vowel height is X, THEN maximal front vowel height will be at least as high. | phonology | implication | vowel, back, front, high |
| 886 | All languages have a high or a lower high front vowel. | phonology | unconditional | high, low, front, vowel |
| 887 | IF there is a front rounded vowel, THEN there will be a front unrounded vowel at the same tongue height. | phonology | implication | rounded, unrounded, front, vowel, height |
| 888 | IF there is a rounded front vowel, THEN there is a rounded back vowel. | phonology | implication | rounded, front, back, vowel, height |
| 889 | IF there is a back unrounded vowel, THEN there is a front unrounded vowel of corresponding tongue height. | phonology | implication | unrounded, front, back, vowel, height |
| 898 | Provided there is actancy variation in terms of tense, accusative constructions will always be found in the future/present/imperfective while ergative constructions occur in the perfect/past/perfective tenses. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | alignment, ergative-absolutive, nominative-accusative, tense, present, past, future, perfect, perfective, imperfective |
| 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 |
| 900 | Whenever there is an opposition between a subjective and an objective conjugation, the former will be used with non-individuated or non-thematic objects, and the latter with individuated or thematic objects. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | conjugation, objective, subjective, object |
| 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 |
| 902 | Whenever indirect constructions are in opposition with direct constructions, the former will be found with progressive aspect and partially involved objects and the latter with non-progressive aspect and totally involved objects. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | indirect construction, aspect, progressive, object |
| 903 | The antipassive is correlative with the imperfective aspect and low-level object individuation. Whenever antipassive constructions are in opposition with active constructions, the former will be found with the imperfective aspect and low-level object individuation and the latter with perfective aspect and highly individuated objects. |
inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | antipassive, imperfective, aspect, object |
| 905 | IF tone is omnisyllabic, THEN morphemes are monosyllabic. | phonology | implication | tone, morpheme, syllable |
| 906 | IF tone is omnisyllabic, THEN there will be a repertoire of purely emotional/affective particles. | phonology, lexicon | implication | tone, particle |
| 907 | IF noun phrases take case marking when occurring in core relations governed by verbs and other lexical expressions, THEN they will also do so when in construction with adpositions in syntactically more peripheral relations. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition |
| 908 | Allomorphy cannot be conditioned across (grammatical) word boundaries. | morphology | unconditional | allomorphy |
| 909 | IF case is marked by means of segmental modification, THEN case will also be marked by means of affixation. | inflection | implication | case, affix |
| 910 | IF adpositions encode the syntactic core relations of subject, object, and perhaps attribute, THEN no grammatical relations are encoded by morphological case. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition |
| 911 | IF Location (adverb) is encoded by the verbal strategy, THEN all intransitive main predicates will be encoded by that strategy. IF Class Membership (noun) is encoded by the verbal strategy, THEN Property (adjective) will be encoded by that strategy. |
inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | verbalization, hierarchy, verb, adjective, noun, adverb |
| 912 | In a language with only a single genitive, when a transitive clause is nominalized, the subject’s prior claim to the genitive case is absolute. | syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | nominalization, genitive, case, subject |
| 913 | IF there are speech act constructions in certain subordinate clauses, THEN there are speech act constructions in main clauses. | inflection, syntax | implication | speech act construction, clause, main, subordinate |
| 918 | IF incorporation of externally modifiable NP, THEN incorporation of backgrounded NP. IF incorporation of backgrounded NP, THEN incorporation of demoted NP. IF incorporation of demoted NP, THEN incorporation of nonreferential noun. |
morphology, syntax | implicational hierarchy | incorporation, noun |
| 921 | IF there is the voiceless labial fricative phoneme /f/, THEN there will be the voiced labial fricative phoneme /w-v/. | phonology | implication | labial, fricative |