Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
2,029 entries · page 18 of 41
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 854 | In final clusters, IF there is at least one fricative + fricative combination, THEN there is at least one stop + fricative or at least one fricative + stop combination. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, final, stop, fricative |
| 855 | In final clusters, IF there is at least one nasal + liquid cluster, THEN there is at least one obstruent + liquid cluster. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, final, obstruent, nasal, liquid |
| 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 |
| 865 | In initial clusters, IF an unvoiced consonant or sequence of unvoiced consonants immediately precedes a vowel, THEN it will not itself be preceded by one or more voiced consonants. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, initial, voice |
| 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 |
| 890 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN accent is primarily pitch. IF morphology is flexive, THEN the accent is primarily stress. |
prosodic phonology, morphology | implication | agglutination, flexion, accent, pitch, stress |
| 891 | IF basic order is OV, THEN there is mora-counting. IF basic order is VO, THEN there is syllable-counting. |
phonology, syntax | implication | order, VO, OV, rhythm, mora-counting, syllable-counting |
| 892 | IF the word order is OV, THEN there are suffixes. IF the word order is VO, THEN there are prefixes. |
morphology, syntax | implication | VO, OV, order, suffix, prefix |
| 893 | See Graphics for Iambic vs. Troachaic phrase accent and its many correlates | prosodic phonology, morphology, syntax | mutual implication | phrase accent, word canon, timing, mora, syllable, consonantism, vocalism, tone, verse, music, order, object, verb, adverb, auxiliary, adjective, noun, attributive, postposition, clitic, enclitic proclitic, affix-order, suffix, prefix, synthesis, analysis, agglutination, polysynthesis, flexion, isolation |
| 894 | see Graphics for Iambic vs. Trochaic languages | prosodic phonology, morphology, syntax | mutual implication | stress, syllable, unit, order, object, verb, subject, adverb, adjective, noun, attributive, agglutination, flexion, timing, stress, syllable, syllable structure, intonation contour, tone |
| 895 | See Graphics for Moderate rhythmic holism | inflection, prosodic phonology | mutual implication | syllable structure, stress, vowel harmony, vowel system |
| 896 | IF there is head-marking, THEN adjectives tend to be similar to verbs. | inflection, syntax | implication | head-marking, adjective, verb |
| 897 | IF there is dependent-marking, THEN adjectives tend to be similar to nouns. | inflection, syntax | implication | dependent-marking, adjective, noun |
| 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 |