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 19 of 25
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1379 | Subordinate Gap/No Gap Hierarchy: IF a matrix filler can be matched with a gap in a subordinate clause of complexity n containing another gap, THEN it can be matched with a gap in a subordinate clause of complexity n containing no other gap. |
syntax | implication | filler, gap, complexity |
| 1380 | Relative Clause and WH-Question Filler: In languages that have filler-gap structures for both relative clauses and WH-questions, IF a gap is grammatical for a relative clause filler in an FGD of complexity n on a hierarchy H, THEN a gap will also be grammatical for a WH-question word filler in an FGD of complexity n. |
syntax | implication | filler, gap, relative clause, wh-question, complexity |
| 1381 | Bridging Verb Hierarchy: IF a bridging verb or verb complex V of semantic specificity n is grammatical in an FGD, THEN all verbs or verb complexes V´ with less semantic specificity than V will also grammatical. |
syntax, semantics | implication | filler, gap, bridging verb, specificity |
| 1382 | Head Noun Phrase Hierarchy: IF an NP with head noun (phrase) N of semantic specificity n on the path from filler to gap is grammatical, THEN all head noun (phrases) N´ with less semantic specificity than N will also be grammatical. |
syntax, semantics | implication | filler, gap, NP, specificity |
| 1383 | Question-word Movement Universal: IF there is a WH-question word movement to clause-peripheral position, THEN it proceeds to the left, not to the right. |
syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | question, wh-movement |
| 1385 | Gap Subcategorizor Hierarchy: IF a gap can be subcategorized by P, THEN it can be subcategorized by V. |
syntax | implication | gap, subcategorization |
| 1386 | IF basic word order is SVO or VSO, THEN an auxiliary is clause medial or clause initial. OR: IF an auxiliary occurs in a clause initial position, THEN word order will be rigid V-initial. |
syntax | implication | auxiliary, order, SVO, VSO, VOS |
| 1387 | IF the finite verb agrees with a subject, THEN the auxiliary agrees with a subject. [??? ] |
inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, auxiliary, verb |
| 1388 | No language with a traditional auxiliary verb will exist in which the auxiliary does not take what is usually verbal inflection. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | auxiliary, inflection, verb |
| 1389 | IF basic word order is free, THEN an auxiliary is clause-initial or clause-medial. | syntax | implication | auxiliary, order |
| 1390 | The auxiliary always potentially includes tense; that is, in a sentence with tense and an auxiliary, tense will always be part of the auxiliary. | syntax | unconditional | auxiliary, tense |
| 1391 | IF future tense markers are morphologically bound, THEN past and/or present tense markers are also bound or indeed more closely bound. |
inflection, syntax | implication | tense, past, future, auxiliary |
| 1392 | When the future is periphrastic, the auxiliary will always be a present tense or unmarked form. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | tense, present, future, auxiliary |
| 1394 | In retrospective languages, IF there is past tense, THEN there will be future tense. In prospective languages, IF there is future tense, THEN there will be past tense. |
inflection, syntax | implication | tense, past, future |
| 1395 | IF past-nonpast contrast is neutralized in a subjunctive or semantically comparable category, THEN future-nonfuture contrast is neutralized as well. | inflection | implication | tense, past, nonpast, future, nonfuture |
| 1396 | IF there is deletion of past tenses in non-initial (or non-final) verbs of conjunctive series, THEN there is deletion of future tenses in the same environment. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, tense, past, future, conjunctive |
| 1397 | IF there is a future participle, THEN there is a past participle and a present participle. | inflection, syntax | implication | participle, tense, future, present, past |
| 1398 | All languages have non-reduced adverbial constructions. If a language has reduced adverbials, these are always more restricted in their privileges of occurrence than non-reduced adverbials. |
syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | adverbial |
| 1399 | IF there are argument-reduced adverbials, THEN there are predicate-reduced adverbials. | syntax | implication | adverbial |
| 1400 | IF there are locative argument-reduced adverbials, THEN there are temporal argument-reduced adverbials. | syntax | implication | adverbial |
| 1401 | Adverbial case affixes are always suffixes. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | adverbial, case, affix, prefix, suffix |
| 1402 | No language has adverbial predicates which are expressed as argument-internal clitics that are postposed to the constituents that they are bound to. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | adverbial, clitic, order |
| 1403 | All languages have sentences with sentence-initial and non-sentence initial adverbial constituents. For most, if not all, adverbial constructions in all languages , the most "normal", most prosaic, and implicationally most unmarked ordering for such constructions is in a non-sentence-initial position-following either the superficial subject, or the superficial object, or both. |
syntax | unconditional | order, sentence, adverbial |
| 1404 | If a language has S (O) V ordering but no SOV orderings, then it will have S (O) ADV V orderings, but no S (O) V ADV orderings. | syntax | implication | order, verb, object, adverbial |
| 1405 | If a language has either of the orderings (S ADV V X) or (S V X ADV), then it will have both of them one being normative for a large majority of adverbial sub-types, the other being normative for the remainder of adverbial subtypes. | syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | order, adverbial |
| 1406 | IF there are adverbial predicates which are analyzable into a noun and a case affix, THEN any postposed arguments of such predicates will always include case affixes on their head nouns. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | adverbial, case, affix, order |
| 1407 | IF transitive verbs have suffixes agreeing in definiteness or in person-gender-number with their direct objects, THEN prepositions also have suffixes that agree with their complements in the same categories. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, verb, object, preposition, definiteness, person, gender, number |
| 1408 | When there is a general number not specifying any particular number term, it will be expressed, either solely or as the normal case, through the maximally unmarked form, that is, the inflectional root. | inflection | unconditional | number, markedness |
| 1409 | IF there is a dual for 2nd person pronoun, THEN there is a dual for either 1st or a 3rd person or both. There will be never a dual limited to 2nd person. | inflection | implication | pronoun, number, dual, person, 1, 2, 3, inclusive, exclusive |
| 1416 | All languages have constructions whose primary function is to place new or contrastive topics at the beginning of the sentence. | syntax | unconditional | topic, comment, order |
| 1417 | All languages have constructions whose function is to place focus at the beginning of the sentence and old, already established topics at the end. | syntax | unconditional | topic, comment, order, focus |
| 1418 | New topics are never placed at the end of the sentence. | syntax | unconditional | topic, comment, order, focus |
| 1419 | IF heads of possessive constructions (=possessees) agree with their possessors, THEN verbs agree with subjects. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, verb, subject, attribution, possession |
| 1420 | No language has reflexive relative pronouns. | syntax | unconditional | relative, pronoun, coreference |
| 1424 | IF there is a distributive-key quantifier word, THEN there is a distributive-key universal quantifier. | lexicon | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | quantifier, distributive, quantifier |
| 1426 | IF there are voiceless obstruents word-finally, THEN there are sonorant consonants word-finally. | phonology | implication | obstruent, sonorant, voice, word-final |
| 1429 | IF there are non-basic passives, THEN there are basic passives. | syntax | implication | diathesis, passive |
| 1432 | IF there are no preverbs, THEN there will be special verb bases denoting direction. | syntax, lexicon | implication | preverb, verb, semantics, direction |
| 1433 | IF there is no gender, THEN hydronyms always contain formatives classifying them as such. | inflection, lexicon | implication | gender, hydronym, agglutination |
| 1434 | IF there are possessive suffixes on nouns, THEN will be no overt copula form (of 'to be') in the present tense. | inflection, syntax | implication | noun, possessive, affix-order, suffix, copula, tense, present |
| 1441 | IF plural inflection is differentiated as to genders, THEN singular inflection is also differentiated as to (the same?) genders. | inflection | unconditional | number, plural, singular, gender |
| 1443 | Every one of the seven metapersons, i.e. 'speaker', 'hearer', 'non-participant', 'speaker + hearer(s)', 'speaker + non-participant(s)', 'hearer(s) + non-participant(s)', 'speaker + hearer(s) + non-participant(s)', is expressed in the pronominal system of every language. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | pronoun, personal pronoun, person |
| 1444 | In no language are there pronominal forms differentiating the number of elements within a metaperson, e.g. special forms for 'hearer + hearer + ... + non-participant' and 'hearer + non-participant + ... + non-participant'. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | pronoun, personal pronoun, person, number |
| 1446 | IF a form denotes the metaperson 'speaker', THEN it cannot include among its meanings the following metapersons: (a) 'hearer'; (b) 'non-participant' , (c) 'hearer(s) + non-participant(s)'. |
inflection, syntax, lexicon | implication | personal pronoun, person, speaker, hearer, non-participant |
| 1448 | IF the metaperson 'speaker' is not the only meaning denoted by a pronominal form, THEN among its meanings are the metapersons 'speaker + hearer(s)' (and, consequently, 'speaker + hearer(s) + non-participant(s)'), and/or 'speaker + non-participant(s)'. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | implication | personal pronoun, person, number, speaker, hearer, non-participant |
| 1450 | IF some form denotes the metaperson 'hearer' in the singular, THEN it cannot denote the metaperson 'speaker'. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | implication | personal pronoun, person, 1st, 2nd, speaker, hearer, number, singular |
| 1453 | In no language is there a special form to denote the metaperson 'hearer' in the non-singular. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | personal pronoun, person, 2nd, hearer, number, non-singular, inclusive, exclusive |
| 1454 | IF a form denotes the metaperson 'hearer' in the non-singular, THEN this form includes among its meanings the metaperson 'hearer(s) + non-participant(s)'. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | implication | personal pronoun, person, 2nd, hearer, number, non-singular, non-participant, inclusive, exclusive |
| 1455 | IF a form denotes the metaperson 'hearer' in the non-singular, THEN it cannot denote the metaperson 'speaker'. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | implication | personal pronoun, person, 2nd, 1st, hearer, number, non-singular, speaker |
| 1458 | In all languages, there is a special form to denote the metaperson 'non-participant'. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | personal pronoun, person, 3rd, non-participant |