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 19 of 41
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 910 | IF adpositions encode the syntactic core relations of subject, object, and perhaps attribute, THEN no grammatical relations are encoded by morphological case. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition |
| 911 | IF Location (adverb) is encoded by the verbal strategy, THEN all intransitive main predicates will be encoded by that strategy. IF Class Membership (noun) is encoded by the verbal strategy, THEN Property (adjective) will be encoded by that strategy. |
inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | verbalization, hierarchy, verb, adjective, noun, adverb |
| 912 | In a language with only a single genitive, when a transitive clause is nominalized, the subject’s prior claim to the genitive case is absolute. | syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | nominalization, genitive, case, subject |
| 913 | IF there are speech act constructions in certain subordinate clauses, THEN there are speech act constructions in main clauses. | inflection, syntax | implication | speech act construction, clause, main, subordinate |
| 914 | IF there is no direct object, THEN the embedded subject appears as direct object. IF there is direct object, but no indirect object, THEN the embedded subject appears as indirect object. IF there are both direct and indirect objects, THEN the embedded subject appears as one of the oblique cases (i.e. neither subject nor direct object nor indirect object) |
inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | causative, hierarchy, subject, direct object, indirect object, oblique object |
| 915 | IF verbs agree with inanimate NPs, THEN they also agree with animate NPs of the same grammatical relation, or even of a grammatical relation lower on the relational hierarchy which otherwise determines agreement preferences. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, animacy, grammatical relations |
| 916 | IF a plurality split occurs, THEN all NPs to the left from it will have the distinction of plurality and those to the right from it will lack it. | inflection | implicational hierarchy | hierarchy, animacy, split, number, plural |
| 917 | Whenever there is a plurality split in lexical nouns, the split in the 3rd person pronoun (if there is one) will be at the same place or lower down in the animacy hierarchy. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | animacy hierarchy, split, number, plural, person pronoun, 3, noun |
| 918 | IF incorporation of externally modifiable NP, THEN incorporation of backgrounded NP. IF incorporation of backgrounded NP, THEN incorporation of demoted NP. IF incorporation of demoted NP, THEN incorporation of nonreferential noun. |
morphology, syntax | implicational hierarchy | incorporation, noun |
| 919 | The more numerous the contrastive segments, the shorter the average length of a word. | phonology, morphology | mutual implication | word length, phoneme inventory |
| 920 | IF OV is a basic order, THEN there will be left-branching. IF VO is a basic order, THEN there will be right-branching. |
syntax | implication | order, VO, OV, left-branching, right-branching |
| 921 | IF there is the voiceless labial fricative phoneme /f/, THEN there will be the voiced labial fricative phoneme /w-v/. | phonology | implication | labial, fricative |
| 922 | IF there is the voiced velar fricative phoneme /©/, THEN there will be the voiceless velar fricative phoneme /x/. | phonology | implication | velar, fricative, voice |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 941 | Low vowels tend to be longer than high vowels, all things being equal. | phonology | unconditional | vowel, low, high, length |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 951 | When there is phonemic stress, the number of phonemic contrasts in stressed syllables will be greater than or equal to the number of phonemic contrasts in unstressed syllables. | phonology | unconditional | stress, phoneme, syllable |
| 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 |
| 959 | The presence of C1C2- makes -C2C1 as likely as or more likely than -C1C2. | phonology | unconditional | phonotactics, consonant cluster |