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 14 of 25
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 925 | IF a syllabic consonant occurs in the phonological context X in root morphemes, THEN it occurs also in other morphemes, given that they contain the context X. | phonology, morphology | implication | consonant, syllabic, root, morpheme |
| 926 | IF syllabic consonants are created by syncope in stressed syllables, THEN they have been created by stress in unsyncopated syllables. | phonology | implication | consonant, syllabic, syncope, stress |
| 927 | IF stressed syllabic consonants become non-syllabic or are lost, THEN nonstressed syllabic consonants have become nonsyllabic or have been lost. | prosodic phonology | implication | consonant, syllabic, stress |
| 928 | If a language contains syllables with vowel nuclei of the form CmVCn and syllables with consonantal nuclei of the form Cm'C§Cn', then m’ ≤ m, and n’ ≤ n. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | syllable, nucleus, vowel, syllabic, consonant |
| 929 | The source of syllabicity in syllabic consonants is always a vowel, either directly, when a vowel changes into a consonant (consonantalization), or else indirectly, when a vowel is lost and its syllabicity is transferred to a consonant (syllabic syncope). | phonology | unconditional | syllable, vowel, syllabic, consonant, syncope |
| 930 | A consonant may become syllabic only if it is an adjacent margin of a syncopated vowel. | phonology | implication | syllable, vowel, syllabic, consonant, syncope |
| 931 | If in a given context nasal-vowel (NV) sequences occur, and /u/ represents the highest back rounded vowel appearing in these sequences, then: A. NV > N§ ⇒ mu > N§ or ˜u > N§, and B. NVlow > N§ ⇒ NVnonlow > N§ , and similarly for contexts containing vowel-nasal sequences. |
phonology | implication | nasal, vowel, high, back, syllabic, consonant |
| 932 | IF there are syllabic stops or affricates, THEN there are syllabic fricatives. | phonology | implication | stop, affricate, fricative, syllabic, consonant |
| 933 | IF there are syllabic obstruents, THEN there will be syllabic s§ or s§‡ (given that there is nonsyllabic s or s‡). | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | obstruent, /s/, syllabic, consonant |
| 938 | IF there is extensive neutralization among the primary nasal consonants in other than prejunctural and/or preconsonantal positions, THEN there will be such neutralizations in prejunctural and/or preconsonantal positions as well. | phonology | implication | consonant, nasal, neutralization |
| 939 | Secondary nasal consonants are, apart from borrowing and analogical formations, always the result of diachronic developments from clusters. | phonology | target < source | consonant, nasal |
| 940 | IF there are nasal vowels, THEN there is at least one primary nasal consonant. | phonology | implication | consonant, nasal, vowel |
| 942 | When there is extensive neutralization of nasal vowels with oral vowels, this occurs next to nasal consonants. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | consonant, nasal, vowel, oral, neutralization |
| 943 | Nasal vowels, apart from borrowing and analogical formations, always result from the loss of a Primary Nasal Consonant. | phonology | target < source | consonant, nasal, vowel |
| 944 | A nasal syllabic phoneme, apart from borrowings and analogical formations, always results from the loss of a vowel. | phonology | target < source | nasal syllabic, vowel |
| 945 | Nasalized vowels always arise from a sequence of vowel and nasal consonant origin. | phonology | target < source | nasalized, vowel, nasal, consonant |
| 946 | IF there is a merger of oral vowels, THEN there is a merger of the corresponding nasal vowels if they exist. | phonology | implication | oral, vowel, nasal, consonant |
| 947 | When nasal and oral vowels merge unconditionally, the result is always an oral vowel. | phonology | unconditional | oral, vowel, nasal |
| 948 | When there is i and ü, i may originate from ü but not ü from i. | phonology | target < source | high, front, vowel |
| 949 | The more a language is fusional, the more phonological rules are needed to serve morphological fusion. | phonology, morphology | implication | fusion |
| 952 | IF direct and indirect/non-direct objects can be distinguished paradigmatically, THEN they can be distinguished syntagmatically as well, but not vice versa. | inflection, syntax | implication | grammatical relations, object, indirect, non-direct, direct |
| 953 | IF direct and indirect/non-direct objects are distinguished in their coding, THEN they also differ in their syntactic behavior (but not necessarily the reverse). | inflection, syntax | implication | grammatical relations, object, indirect, non-direct, direct |
| 954 | IF direct and indirect/non-direct objects are syntagmatically in any other kind of construction, THEN they are distinguished in all ditransitive constructions. | inflection, syntax | implication | grammatical relations, object, indirect, non-direct, direct, ditransitive |
| 955 | IF direct and indirect/non-direct objects differ in their overt coding of whatever kind (at least minimally), THEN they will also differ in their syntactic behavior (at least minimally), but not necessarily vice versa. | inflection, syntax | implication | grammatical relations, object, indirect, non-direct, direct |
| 956 | IF direct and indirect/non-direct objects differ in their morphological coding (at least minimally), THEN they will also differ in their syntactic behavior (at least minimally), but not necessarily vice versa. | inflection, syntax | implication | grammatical relations, object, indirect, non-direct, direct |
| 957 | IF verbs of material transfer (giving and taking) and/or verbs of commanding exhibit anomalies with respect to the syntagmatic differentiation of objects, THEN verbs of information (telling and asking) will also be anomalous in this respect, but not vice versa. IF verbs of information are anomalous in this respect, THEN verbs of teaching and examining will also be anomalous, but not vice versa. |
inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | grammatical relations, object, ditransitive |
| 961 | IF there is a future tense resultative, THEN there is a past tense resultative. IF there is a past tense resultative, THEN there is a present tense resultative. |
inflection | implicational hierarchy | resultative, tense, present, past, future |
| 964 | Apart from remaining what it is, the numeral ‘one’ can only be reanalysed as an indefinite article (and/or pronoun). | lexicon, syntax | target < source | numeral, indefinite, article, pronoun |
| 967 | IF articles co-occur with nouns accompanied by adnominal possessors, THEN demonstratives co-occur with them, too. | syntax | implication | article, possessor, demonstrative |
| 970 | IF basic order order is OV, THEN plural words follow the noun. IF basic order order is VO, THEN plural words precede the noun. |
syntax | implication | order, verb, noun, plural word |
| 986 | IF there is locative comparative, THEN basic order is either SOV or SVO. | syntax | implication | comparative, order, SOV, SVO |
| 1002 | IF a back nasal vowel is lowered, THEN the corresponding front nasal vowel is lowered as well. | phonology | implication | nasal, vowel, back, front, low |
| 1003 | IF the illocutionary force is finality and assertion, THEN terminal intonation is low or falling. IF the illocutionary force is non-finality or non-assertion, THEN terminal intonation is high or rising. |
phonology, semantics | implication | intonation, illocutionary force |
| 1008 | IF a phoneme cannot occur at a word boundary, THEN it cannot occur at an utterance boundary either. | phonology | implication | word boundary |
| 1013 | IF accent is on the third syllable from the left edge, THEN the system is not quantity-insensitive bound. OR, BY CONTRAPOSITION: IF the system is quantity-insensitive bound, THEN accent is not on the third syllable from the left edge. |
prosodic phonology | implication | accent, stress, quantity, syllable |
| 1017 | IF there is a compact nasal consonant, THEN there are two diffuse consonants, one acute and the other grave. | phonology | implication | consonant, nasal, compact, diffuse, acute, grave |
| 1022 | IF the parts-of speech system is of types 1-2/3, THEN basic word order is predicate-initial or predicate-final. | syntax | implication | word class, order |
| 1023 | IF the parts-of speech system is of types 1-3/4, THEN there is no variation in the ordering of Subject and Predicate (unless the potential ambiguity arising from solved by morphological means). | syntax | implication | word class, order |
| 1024 | IF the parts-of speech system is of types 1-3/4 and basic word order is Predicate-final, THEN there is ModifierHead basic word order within the term phrase (unless the potential ambiguity arising from a deviant order is solved by morphological means). | syntax | implication | word class, order |
| 1025 | IF there is a parts-of speech system of types 1-3/4 and Predicate-initial word order, THEN there is HeadModifier basic word order within the term phrase (unless the potential ambiguity arising from a deviant order is solved by morphological means). | syntax | implication | word class, order |
| 1026 | IF there is a parts-of speech system of types 1-3/4, THEN there is no variation in the order of Head and Modifier within the term phrase. | syntax | implication | word class, order |
| 1027 | IF there is a parts-of speech system of types 1-2/3 and Predicate-final basic word order, THEN there is Modifier Head basic word order within the predicate phrase. | syntax | implication | word class, order, head, modifier |
| 1028 | IF there is a parts-of speech system of types 1-2/3 and Predicate-initial basic word order, THEN there is Head Modifier basic word order within the predicate phrase. | syntax | implication | word class, order, head, modifier |
| 1029 | IF there is a parts-of speech system of types 1-2/3 and Predicate-initial basic word order, THEN there is no variation in the order of Head and Modifier within the predicate phrase. | syntax | implication | word class, order, head, modifier |
| 1030 | IF there is a dominant VSO order and the language has parts-of-speech system of types 1-3/4, THEN the adjective always follows the noun. | syntax | implication | word class, order, VSO, adjective, noun |
| 1033 | It is these three features – stress, tone and length (with the possible addition of glottalization) – which function accentually and no others. | prosodic phonology | unconditional | stress, tone, length, accent, glottalization |
| 1034 | Only the intense pole – loud stress, high pitch and length – ever has the accentual property. There is no language in which there is one and just one weakest stress or one lowest pitch (or shortest segment) in a phonological word. | prosodic phonology | unconditional | stress, pitch, length, accent |
| 1035 | The climactic poles of the three accentual features tend to correlate with each other. Thus, e.g., where stress is predictable from vowel length, it is always the long degree which attracts stress. | prosodic phonology | mutual implication | stress, vowel, length, accent |
| 1036 | Morphemically simple phonological words never have more than one main stress. | phonology, morphology | unconditional | stress, accent |
| 1037 | When stress is phonologically predictable and automatic (i.e., always on the same syllable), it may only fall on initial, final, or penultimate syllables. | prosodic phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | stress, syllable, accent |