Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
2,017 entries · page 14 of 41
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 660 | There is no reduplication pattern where the constituent to be reduplicated may be freely chosen from among the included subconstituents. | morphology | unconditional | reduplication |
| 661 | There is no reduplication pattern where the number of repetitions is freely chosen from the set of all numbers. | morphology | unconditional | reduplication |
| 662 | There is no reduplication pattern which would not involve reference to lexical identity. | morphology | unconditional | reduplication |
| 663 | There is no reduplication pattern that would involve reference to phonological properties other than syllable number, consonantality-vowelhood, and absolute linear position. | phonology, morphology | unconditional | reduplication |
| 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 |
| 684 | The main principles for the position of negatives: (a) they tend not to be separated from the verb by the subject or the object, (b) they tend not to interrupt the verb+object unit (Negative-Plus-VO Principle), and (c) they tend to precede the verb (Negative-Before-Verb-Principle). |
syntax | unconditional | negation, order |
| 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 |
| 688 | All languages have the place distinctions of high and low and of front and back in their vowel systems; hence vowel systems minimally include /i, a, u/. | phonology | unconditional | vowel, high, low, front, back |
| 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 |
| 690 | CV (Consonant + Vowel) is the only universal model of the syllable. There are languages lacking syllables with initial vowels and/or syllables with final consonants, but there are no languages devoid of syllables with initial consonants or syllables with final vowels. | phonology | unconditional | syllable, initial, final, consonant, vowel |
| 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 |
| 693 | IF consonant clusters occur in initial and final position of words, THEN these same consonant clusters also occur in medial position, between vowels. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, initial position, final position, medial position |
| 694 | IF there is a heterorganic cluster of an obstruent consonant and a nasal consonant (e.g. bn), THEN there will be a heterorganic cluster of a voiced obstruent consonant and a nasal (e.g. dn). IF there is a heterorganic cluster of a voiced obstruent consonant and a nasal (e.g. dn), THEN there will be a heterorganic cluster of a voiceless obstruent consonant and a nasal (e.g. pm). IF there is a heterorganic cluster of a voiceless obstruent consonant and a nasal (e.g. pm), THEN there will be a heterorganic cluster of a voiceless obstruent consonant and a liquid (e.g. pl). |
phonology | implication | consonant cluster, phoneme order, nasals, liquid, initial, heterorganic |
| 695 | When nasal consonants assimilate to a following consonant, then they assimilate in place of articulation (rather than in manner). | phonology | unconditional | assimilation, consonant, nasal, place of articulation |
| 696 | The two intonation shapes that are found everywhere are fall and rise, with their targets, low and high. The meanings are as uniform as the shapes: falls for ‘being through’, rises for ‘not being through’. Spreading from each is a net of metaphor. ‘Not being through’ is akin to ‘being aroused’, and since we are most aroused by what is most important, a high pitch becomes the normal sign of importance. | phonology, semantics | unconditional | intonation |
| 697 | IF there is 1st person singular in the imperative paradigm, then there is a form(s) of 1st person plural as well. |
inflection | implication | imperative, mood, 1 person, number, plural, singular |
| 698 | IF there are more than three vowels, THEN / ¥ / or / ™ / will be among them. | phonology | implication | vowel |
| 699 | IF there are more than four vowels, THEN / ε / and generally also / C / will be among them. | phonology | implication | vowel |
| 700 | IF there are more than five vowels, THEN / C / and also either / ¥ / or / e/ (generally the former) will be among them. | phonology | implication | vowel |
| 701 | IF there are more than six vowels, THEN /e, o/ or /i, E/ will be among them. (The types /i, E/ may be represented by /ü, ö/.) |
phonology | implication | vowel |
| 702 | IF there are more than seven vowels, THEN /e/ will be among them. | phonology | implication | vowel |
| 703 | IF there are more than eight vowels, THEN /o/ will be among them. | phonology | implication | vowel |
| 704 | The base number tends to be put before the unit, and in general a higher number before a lower, when they are conjoined. | word formation | unconditional | numeral |
| 705 | IF there are two or more interior vowels, THEN at least one of them must be high. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | vowel, high, interior |
| 706 | IF there are n vowels in an interior column, THEN there will at most be n vowels in the front or back columns. | phonology | implication | vowel, interior, front, back |
| 707 | IF there are n height distinctions in back vowels, THEN there are not more than n distinctions in front vowels. | phonology | implication | height, front, back, vowel |