Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
58 entries · page 2 of 2
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1041 | When stress is not phonologically predictable (i.e., when it is phonemic, fulfilling grammatical or lexical functions) and limited to certain syllables (i.e. does not always fall on the same syllable), the potentially stressable syllables form a sequence without gaps and are almost always reckoned from the ultima backwards, with the maximum for end reckoning apparently being four, and with penultimate syllables being preferred. | prosodic phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | stress, syllable, accent |
| 1093 | Nearly all languages have contrasting labial and dental nasals. | phonology | unconditional | nasal, consonant, labial, dental |
| 1094 | IF there are any place of articulation contrasts in a nasal stop system, THEN there are at least as many place of articulation contrasts in the oral stop system. | phonology | implication | nasal, oral, stop |
| 1120 | All personal pronouns are definite. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | definite, personal pronoun |
| 1289 | IF a numeral system has subtraction, THEN it is never expressed by mere sequence of the subtrahend and minuend. | word formation | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | numeral |
| 1332 | A historical tendency toward phonological symmetry is universal. | phonology | unconditional | phoneme inventory |
| 1868 | IF reduplication is used for grammatical purposes in any other word class, THEN it is also used (for whatever purpose: gradation, superlative, intensification, distributivity, diminution, ...) for adjectives or adjective-derived nouns [perhaps rather: property words]. |
word formation | implication | reduplication, word class, adjective |
| 2031 | IF there are word-initial geminates, THEN there are also medial geminates. | phonology | implication | consonant, geminate, word |