Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
827 entries · page 13 of 17
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1573 | IF both perfective and imperfective verbs form the passive with a reflexive marker, THEN constraints on the use of the agentive object are more likely to affect the perfective verb. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, diathesis, passive, perfective verb, imperfective verb |
| 1574 | IF there are (a) passive verb forms with a reflexive marker and (b) special (e.g., participial) verb forms for the passive voice, THEN it is exclusively or chiefly type (a) that occurs in the present tense (or in the imperfective tenses). | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, diathesis, passive, reflexive marker, present tense, imperfective tense |
| 1575 | IF (a) decausative reflexive verbs and (b) reflexive verbs with a passive sense are homonymous, THEN it is type (b) that is more tightly contextually constrained than type (a). | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, verb, decausative, diathesis, passive, homonymy |
| 1576 | IF there are reciprocal and antipassive reflexive verbs and IF there is any overlapping between any groups of reflexive verbs, THEN there is a more massive overlapping between the reciprocals and antipassives than between either of these groups and any others, e.g. true reflexives. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, verb, reciprocal, antipassive |
| 1577 | IF a reflexive verb has an antipassive sense/use, THEN most likely it has a reciprocal sense/use as well. | inflection, syntax | implication | reflexive verb, reciprocal, antipassive |
| 1578 | IF there are any reflexive verbs formed by adding a reflexive marker and an affix (or a predicative adjective, etc.), THEN some of these are derived from intransitives. | morphology, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive verb, reflexive marker, intransitive |
| 1579 | IF there are any reflexive verbs derived from intransitives by adding reflexive marker and an affix (or a predicative adjective, etc.), THEN a great number of them are likely to imply intensity of action and resultant state. | morphology, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive verb, reflexive marker, intransitive, intensity of action, resultant state |
| 1580 | IF there is a complex system both of reflexive and causative constructions (with lexical or analytical causatives), THEN the reflexive construction tends to include a greater number of figurative and set phrases than the causative construction. | morphology, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive construction, causative construction |
| 1581 | IF there is a reflexive verb meaning 'to laugh', THEN it is usually not derived from the transitive base meaning 'to make somebody laugh'. | morphology, syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive, causative |
| 1582 | IF both reflexive marker and the causative marker are affixes, THEN it is unlikely for the reflexive marker to be a suffix and the causative marker a prefix. The likelihood is that they are both prefixes or both suffixes, or that the reflexive is a prefix and the causative a suffix. | morphology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | reflexive marker, causative marker, affix-order, suffix, prefix |
| 1590 | IF possession is regularly head-marked, THEN there will be an opposition of alienable and inalienable possession. BY CONTRAPOSITION: IF there is no opposition of alienable and inalienable possession, THEN possession is regularly dependent-marked . |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | possession, alienable, inalienable, head-marking, dependent-marking |
| 1591 | IF there is a set of nouns which cannot occur without a possessive marker, THEN there will be head-marked possession. | inflection, syntax | implication | possession, head-marking, bound noun, possessive marker |
| 1593 | IF basic order is verb-final, THEN there will be a strong tendency to place grammatical morphemes (grams) after the verb, and eventually to suffix them. | morphology, syntax | implication | order, verb-final, verbal morpheme, affix-order, suffix |
| 1594 | IF basic order is verb-medial, THEN there is a strong tendency for preposed grammatical morphemes not to be affixed (i.e., to be free). | morphology, syntax | implication | order, verb-medial, morpheme, affix-order, grammaticalization |
| 1599 | IF an element has auxiliary function, THEN it will be bound. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | AUX, boundness |
| 1602 | IF there are headless relative clauses, THEN there is a productive pattern of nominalization. | morphology, syntax | implication | relative clause, internal (= replacive, =headless), nominalization |
| 1606 | IF the feature [nasal] is a dependent of the Spontaneous Voicing node (SV-node), THEN there are prenalized stops. | phonology | implication | |
| 1607 | IF high vowels are regressively nasalized, THEN low vowels are regressively nasalized as well. | phonology | implication | nasalization, regressive, low, high, vowel |
| 1608 | IF front vowels are nasalized, THEN back vowels are nasalized as well. | phonology | implication | nasalization, front, back, vowel |
| 1609 | IF vowels are nasalized before nasals that are syllable-initial, THEN vowels are nasalized before a nasal followed by non-continuants. IF vowels are nasalized before a nasal followed by non-continuants, THEN also before a nasal followed by continuants. IF vowels are nasalized before a nasal followed by continuants, THEN vowels are nasalized when nasal is final. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | nasalization |
| 1610 | IF nasalization spreads from a contextually nasalized vowel to a liquid, THEN it also spreads to oral glides. IF nasalization spreads from a contextually nasalized vowel to an oral glide, THEN it also spreads to glottal stop, h and adjacent vowels. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | nasalization |
| 1611 | IF the modals/auxiliaries do not inflect for person, THEN there will be no infinitive. | inflection, syntax | implication | modal, auxiliary, person, infinitive |
| 1612 | IF the feature [nasal] spreads through supralaryngeal segments (like in the implicational sequence above), THEN it spreads also through vowels. IF the feature [nasal] spreads through laryngeal segments, THEN it spreads also through vowels. IF the feature [nasal] spreads through supralaryngeal segments, THEN it does not necessarily spread through laryngeal segments. IN OTHER WORDS: spreading through supralaryngeal segments is independent of spreading through laryngeal segments. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | nasalization |
| 1614 | Whenever there is verb agreement, agreement with the patient NP is likelier if basic order is verb-peripheral (i.e., verb-initial or verb-final) than if it is verb-medial. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, verb-final, verb-medial, agreement, verb, patient |
| 1615 | IF there is verb agreement with patient, THEN there is verb agreement with agent, regardless of alignment type. | syntax, inflection | implication | verb agreement, patient, agent, alignment |
| 1616 | Whenever basic order is SOV, IF the basic order of modifier and noun is reversed to noun-before-modifier, THEN there tends to be agreement between noun and modifier. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, SOV, agreement, NP, attribution, noun, relative clause, adjective, numeral<br> |
| 1617 | Whenever basic order is VO, IF the modifier precedes the noun, THEN there tends to be agreement between noun and modifier. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, VO, agreement, NP, modifier, attribution, relative clause, adjective |
| 1619 | IF there is person agreement on the verb of the ambiguous type with the object, THEN there is ambiguous-type person agreement also with the transitive subject. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, person, subject, object |
| 1625 | IF there is a distinct word class of adjective, THEN numerals tend to combine with nouns directly, without a sortal classifier. OR BY CONTRAPOSITION: IF numerals do not combine with nouns directly but need a sortal classifier, THEN there is no distinct word class of adjective. |
syntax | implication | word class, adjective, numeral, noun, classifier |
| 1628 | In languages with double numeral systems, there is a correlative tendency of the A form to be syntactically dependent [i.e. this form cannot stand alone but must be immediately followed by the item counted], and the B form to be independent. | syntax, semantics | unconditional | double numeral systems |
| 1635 | IF there is polysynthesis, THEN there will be no NP reflexive. | morphology, syntax | implication | polysynthesis, anaphor, pronoun, reflexive |
| 1636 | IF there is polysynthesis, THEN there will be no non-referential quantified NPs (quantifiers serving as NPs on their own). |
morphology, syntax | implication | polysynthesis, quantifier |
| 1637 | IF there is polysynthesis, THEN interrogative phrases are constrained to appear in clause-initial position (through WH-movement). | morphology, syntax | implication | polysynthesis, interrogative, wh-movement |
| 1639 | IF there is polysynthesis, THEN there will be no non-finite verb forms / no non-finite subordinate clauses. | morphology, syntax | implication | polysynthesis, finiteness, verb |
| 1640 | IF there is productive noun incorporation, THEN there will be head-marking. | morphology, syntax | implication | noun incorporation, head-marking |
| 1641 | IF there are relational preverbs owing to preposition incorporation, THEN basic order tends to be verb-final. | morphology, syntax | implication | order, verb-final, preverb, preposition incorporation |
| 1642 | IF basic order is head-final, THEN there are no serial verb constructions. | syntax | implication | order, head-final, serial verb |
| 1643 | Reflexive markers tend to develop into decausative markers, but not the other way round. | inflection, syntax | target < source | reflexive marker, decausative |
| 1644 | Evolution of semantic functions of subjective reflexive markers: semantic reflexivity > ‘partitive object’ and/or autocausative > absolute and/or reciprocal. (a) RMs with the primary semantic reflexive function are the starting point of evolution, (b) RMs with the semantic reflexive and "partitive object" and/or autocausative functions are in the advanced stage of evolution; (c) RMs with a complete range of semantic subjective functions may be regarded as "mature", and (d) RMs lacking the semantic reflexive (and next to it "partitive object") function(s) are in the final, decaying stage of development. |
syntax, semantics | target < source | reflexive |
| 1645 | The principal functions within the objective recessive diathesis develop in the following succession: decausative > passive > impersonal. Languages with the reflexive impersonal invariably display the other two objective functions of reflexive markers, and languages with the reflexive (personal) passive display decausative reflexive verbs, but not necessarily the reflexive impersonal. The principal functions within the objective recessive diathesis develop in the following succession: decausative > passive > impersonal. Languages with the reflexive impersonal invariably display the other two objective functions of reflexive markers, and languages with the reflexive (personal) passive display decausative reflexive verbs, but not necessarily the reflexive impersonal. |
inflection, syntax | target < source | reflexive, diathesis, passive, impersonal |
| 1646 | IF there are transitive reflexive verbs, THEN there are objective reflexive verbs. IF there are objective reflexive verbs, THEN there are subjective reflexive verbs. |
inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | reflexive |
| 1647 | IF there are subordinating serial verb structures, THEN basic order will be SVO. | syntax | implication | order, SVO, serial verb |
| 1648 | IF basic order is VSO, THEN there will be no subordinating serial verb phrase constructions. | syntax | implication | order, VSO, serial verb |
| 1649 | IF basic order is SVO, THEN there will be verb concatenation rather than verb phrase serialization. | syntax | implication | order, VSO, serial verb |
| 1651 | IF there is dependent-marking clause morphology, THEN relativization will be of the same pattern. IF relativization is of head-marking type, THEN the clause uses the same pattern. |
inflection, syntax | implication | head-marking, dependent-marking, relative clause |
| 1652 | IF clause-affecting relativization occurs, THEN it will be of dependent-marking type. | inflection, syntax | implication | head-marking, dependent-marking, relative clause |
| 1653 | IF relative clause formation involves pronominalization, THEN it will be of dependent-marking type. | inflection, syntax | implication | head-marking, dependent-marking, relative clause, pronoun |
| 1654 | FINAL-OVER-INITIAL-POSITION HYPOTHESIS: IF sentential NPs and simple NPs of the same grammatical relation differ in their relative tendencies to occur in clause-final position as opposed to clause-initial position, THEN sentential NPs will exhibit a greater tendency than simple NPs to occur in clause-final position rather than clause-initial position. INITIAL-OVER-INTERNAL-POSITION HYPOTHESIS: IF sentential NPs and simple NPs of the same grammatical relation differ in their relative tendencies to occur in clause-initial position as opposed to clause-internal position, THEN sentential NPs will exhibit a greater tendency than simple NPs to occur in clause-initial position rather than clause-internal position. FINAL-OVER-INTERNAL-POSITION HYPOTHESIS: IF sentential NPs and simple NPs of the same grammatical relation differ in their relative tendencies to occur in clause-final position as opposed to clause-internal position, THEN sentential NPs will exhibit a greater tendency than simple NPs to occur in clause-final position rather than clause-internal position. |
syntax | implication | order, clause-final, clause-internal, clause-initial, simple NP, sentential NP |
| 1656 | IF finite and non-finite (attributive and/or argument) functions of a form appear to be equally marked or equally unmarked, THEN the predicative usage of nominals (nouns and adjectives) will also be unmarked. | inflection, syntax | implication | finiteness, complexity, markedness |
| 1657 | IF finite and non-finite (attributive and/or nominal) functions of converbs are equally marked or equally unmarked, THEN there is non-tensedness. | inflection, syntax | implication | finiteness, complexity, converb, non-tensed |