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 17 of 34
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 923 | IF the voiceless stop /p/ is absent from the labial group, THEN the corresponding voiceless fricative /f/ must be present. IF the marked combination of features [-syllabic, +nonsyllabic, -voiced, stop, labial] has a frequency of zero in a system, THEN the marked combination of features [-syllabic, +nonsyllabic, +voiced, fricative, labial] has a frequency above zero. |
phonology | implication | velar, fricative |
| 924 | IF the voiced stop /g/ is absent from the velar group, THEN the corresponding voiced fricative /©/ must be present. IF the marked combination of features [-syllabic, +nonsyllabic, +voiced, stop, velar] has a frequency of zero in a system, THEN the marked combination of features [-syllabic, +nonsyllabic, +voiced, fricative, velar] has a frequency above zero. |
phonology | implication | velar, fricative, voice |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 934 | IF there is syllabic laryngeal h§§, THEN there are syllabic fricatives. | phonology | implication | laryngeal, fricative, syllabic, consonant |
| 935 | IF there are voiceless syllabic stops, THEN there are voiced syllabic stops. | phonology | implication | voice, stop, syllabic, consonant |
| 936 | If there is the syllabic laryngeal ֤ then there are syllabic obstruent stops. | phonology | implication | laryngeal, obstruent, syllabic, consonant |
| 937 | IF a vowel undergoes consonantalization, THEN it must be a high one. | phonology | implication | vowel, consonantalization, 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 949 | The more a language is fusional, the more phonological rules are needed to serve morphological fusion. | phonology, morphology | implication | fusion |
| 950 | IF either inflectional morphology or derivational morphology is served by prosodic rules of stress shift, then typically either new phonological rules emerge or old phonological rules are put to new uses, or both. | phonology, word formation, inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | stress |
| 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 |
| 958 | IF there are both dissolvable and non-dissolvable medial clusters, THEN the former will be significantly more frequent than the latter. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | phonotactics, consonant cluster |
| 960 | When there is phonemic stress, IF there are n unstressed syllables flanking a stressed syllable, THEN there are n -1 unstressed syllables. | prosodic phonology | implication | stress, syllable |
| 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 |
| 962 | IF there is vowel harmony, THEN there is typically no vowel reduction, and vice versa. | phonology | mutual implication | vowel harmony, vowel reduction |
| 966 | IF the definite article is distinct from demonstratives and object follows verb, THEN the definite article precedes the noun. IF the definite article is distinct from demonstratives and object precedes verb, THEN the definite article follows the noun. |
syntax | implication | definite article, demonstrative, order, verb, object, noun |
| 967 | IF articles co-occur with nouns accompanied by adnominal possessors, THEN demonstratives co-occur with them, too. | syntax | implication | article, possessor, demonstrative |
| 968 | IF basic order is VO, THEN the article precedes the noun. IF basic order is OV, THEN the article follows the noun. |
syntax | implication | order, verb, object, article, noun |
| 969 | IF indefinite articles are quite distinct from the numeral ‘one’ and the object follows the verb, THEN they will precede the noun. IF indefinite articles are quite distinct from the numeral ‘one’ and the object precedes the verb, THEN they will follow the noun. |
syntax, lexicon | implication | order, verb, object, article, indefinite, numeral, noun |
| 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 |
| 971 | IF there are plural words, THEN there is no inflectional morphology or morphology is head-marking. | inflection, syntax | implication | plural word, isolation, head-marking |
| 972 | IF one type of head-dependent construction will be either head-marked or dependent-marked, THEN other types of head-dependent constructions will equally be either head-marked or dependent-marked. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication | head-marking, dependent-marking |
| 982 | When there are plural allomorphs conditioned by semantically transparent classes of nouns, these classes will typically be defined along the Split Plural Hierarchy. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | allomorphy, number, plural, animacy |
| 983 | IF nouns low on the split plurality hierarchy have irregular plurals, THEN nouns high on the split plurality hierarchy also have irregular plurals. | inflection, semantics | implication | number, plural, animacy |
| 984 | IF there is a separative comparative, THEN basic order is SOV. | syntax | implication | comparative, order, SOV |
| 985 | IF there is an allative comparative, THEN basic order is VSO. | syntax | implication | comparative, order, VSO |
| 986 | IF there is locative comparative, THEN basic order is either SOV or SVO. | syntax | implication | comparative, order, SOV, SVO |
| 987 | IF there is an exceed comparative, THEN basic order is SVO. | syntax | implication | comparative, order, SVO |
| 988 | IF there is separative comparative, THEN there is absolute anterior consecutive deranking and total identity deletion. | syntax | implication | comparative, deranking, identity deletion |
| 989 | IF there is allative comparative, THEN there is absolute posterior consecutive deranking and total identity deletion. | syntax | implication | comparative, deranking, identity deletion |
| 990 | IF there is locative comparative, THEN there is absolute simultaneous deranking and total identity deletion. | syntax | implication | comparative, deranking, identity deletion |
| 991 | IF there is adverbial comparative, THEN there is absolute deranking and total identity deletion. | syntax | implication | comparative, deranking, identity deletion |
| 992 | IF there is exceed comparative, THEN there is conditional deranking and limited identity deletion. | syntax | implication | comparative, deranking, identity deletion |
| 993 | IF there is conjoined comparative, THEN there is no deranking and no identity deletion. or IF there is conjoined comparative, THEN there is balancing and no identity deletion. |
syntax | implication | comparative, deranking, balancing, identity deletion |
| 994 | IF there is absolute anterior consecutive deranking, THEN basic order is SOV. | syntax | implication | deranking, order, SOV |