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 24 of 41
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1155 | IF basic order is VO, THEN the position of the result predicate is V-adjacent or at the end of the VP. IF basic order is OV, THEN the position of the result predicate is invariably V-adjacent. |
syntax | implication | order, VO, OV, result predicate |
| 1156 | For any given noun phrase, IF it is numerable THEN it is definitizable, and IF it is definitizable THEN it is pronominalizable. | inflection, syntax | implication | number, plural, definite, pronoun |
| 1157 | IF there are preposed relative clauses, THEN there are postposed ones. | syntax | implication | relative clause, order |
| 1158 | IF a resumptive pronoun in the relative clause occurs in cases where the identical element is subject or object of the clause, THEN it occurs in cases where the relative pronoun has some other function. | syntax | implication | relative clause, pronoun |
| 1159 | IF an obligatorily definite identical noun phrase occurs in the preposed main sentences of a relative construction, THEN it also occurs in postposed ones. | syntax | implication | relative clause, order, definite NP |
| 1160 | If the definiteness of the head determines the shape of the relative pronoun, the pronoun co-occurring with the definite head will be “longer“, i.e. it will contain some additional morphological element. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | relative clause, pronoun |
| 1161 | IF a head noun and its relative clause agree in definiteness, THEN head nouns and attributive adjectives also agree in definiteness. |
inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, definiteness, relative clause, adjective, attribution |
| 1162 | IF the indefinite article is derived from the cardinal 'one', THEN non-numerable nouns cannot take indefinite article. | syntax | implication | indefinite article, numeral |
| 1163 | Indefinite articles are generally short; that is, they never have more than two syllables. | phonology, syntax | unconditional | indefinite article |
| 1164 | Any noun that is pronominalizable may take a definite article, but of these, only those that are numerable may take an indefinite article. | syntax | implication | indefinite article |
| 1165 | IF an overt indefinite article is used with mass nouns, THEN it is also used with plural nouns. | inflection, syntax | implication | indefinite article, number, plural, mass noun |
| 1166 | IF an overt indefinite article is used with plural nouns, THEN it is also used with singular nouns. | inflection, syntax | implication | indefinite article, number, plural, singular noun |
| 1167 | IF there is an indefinite article, THEN there is also a definite article. | syntax | implication | indefinite article, definite article |
| 1168 | Vocative nouns (or NPs) take no article or only the definite article, never the indefinite article. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | vocative, definite article |
| 1169 | Whenever order correlates with definiteness, the definite element tends to be placed at the beginning of the sentence. | syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | order, definiteness |
| 1170 | IF there is definiteness contrast for noun-phrases other than object, THEN there is definiteness contrast in the object noun phrase. | syntax | implication | object, definiteness |
| 1171 | IF there is a definiteness marker on the verb or adjective, THEN there is some other definiteness marker. | syntax | implication | definiteness marker, verb, adjective |
| 1172 | IF there are simple and distributive-key universal quantifiers, and the two are morphologically related, THEN the distributive-key quantifier is derived from the simple universal quantifier by a morphosyntactic process. | lexicon | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | quantifier, distributive, universal |
| 1173 | IF there is a distributive-key universal quantifier, THEN there will be a simple universal quantifier. |
lexicon | implication | quantifier, distributive, universal |
| 1174 | IF there is simple and distributive-share universal quantifiers, THEN the distributive-share universal quantifier is derived from the simple universal quantifier by a morphosyntactic process. | lexicon | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | quantifier, distributive, universal |
| 1175 | IF there is a morphosyntactic process P to form a distributive-share universal quantifier, THEN there also will be P to form distributive-share numerals, distributive-share non-cardinal quantifiers, and distributive-share expressions of non-quantificational meanings. | lexicon | implication | quantifier, distributive, universal |
| 1176 | IF there is a distributive-share universal quantifier, THEN there will be a simple universal quantifier. | lexicon | implication | quantifier, distributive, universal |
| 1177 | BACK > FRONT > UP, IN > DOWN. If any one of the five concepts is derived from the body-part model, then none of the concepts to its left may be derived from the landmark or any other model. |
lexicon | target < source | spatial orientation, body part |
| 1178 | IF the terms for a cardinal direction are introduced, THEN the sun provides the most likely model to be selected. IF new terms for cardinal directions ‘east’ and ‘west’ are acquired, THEN most likely these terms are derived from expressions relating, respectively, to the rising and setting sun. |
lexicon | target < source | spatial orientation |
| 1179 | IF there are terms for ‘north’ and/or ‘south’, THEN there are terms for ‘east’ and/or ‘west’. | lexicon | implication | spatial orientation, direction |
| 1180 | Terms for ‘pupil (of the eye)’ are most likely to be derived from nouns denoting a small human like a baby, or a child, or a diminutive humanlike object like a doll. | lexicon | target < source | body part |
| 1181 | When terms for thumbs, big toes and remaining digits are derived from kin-terms, thumbs and big toes are likely to be built on kin-terms of an older, ascending generation and the remaining fingers and toes tend to be derived from terms for offspring or other younger relatives. |
lexicon | target < source | body parts, kinship term |
| 1182 | The notion ‘muscle’ is expressed predominantly by using small mammals as structural templates. As in the case of English muscle (which is ultimately derived from Latin Musculus ‘little mouse’), terms for ‘mouse’ or ‘rat’ appear to provide the most common source for ‘muscle’ or ‘muscular part of the body’, where the latter may refer to such notions as ‘thigh’, ‘calf of a leg’, or ‘biceps’. Other animals such as lizards, rabbits, toads, or calves, are used less frequently that mice and rabbits. | lexicon | target < source | body parts |
| 1183 | For the concept ‘testicle’, by far the most widespread source is provided by terms for ‘egg’, alternative options being ‘stone’, ‘pebble’, ‘seed’, and ‘fruit’. | lexicon | target < source | body parts |
| 1184 | IF there is a separate term for ‘leg’ (as opposed to ‘foot’), THEN there is a term for ‘arm’ (as opposed to ‘hand’). | lexicon | implication | body parts |
| 1185 | IF there is a separate term for ‘foot’, THEN there is also one for ‘hand’. | lexicon | implication | body parts |
| 1186 | IF there are terms for individual toes, THEN there are terms for individual fingers. | lexicon | implication | body parts |
| 1187 | Basic word orders OSV and OVS do not occur at all, while SVO, SOV, VSO, and VOS are all attested. That is: IF the object precedes the subject in basic order, THEN the verb is initial. |
syntax | implication | order, verb, subject, object |
| 1188 | When expressions for deictic orientation are derived forms, they may derive from terms for body parts or environmental landmarks but never from terms for celestial or atmospheric phenomena. | lexicon | target < source | location, deixis |
| 1189 | When terms for deictic and cardinal orientation are related, the terms for cardinal orientation are derived from terms for deictic orientation, but not vice versa. | lexicon | target < source | orientation, deixis |
| 1190 | When sun and wind provide templates for developing nomenclatures for orientation, they will be sources for terms of cardinal but not of deictic orientation. | lexicon | target < source | location, deixis |
| 1191 | In all cultures/languages, there is a hierarchy of terms referring to the animal and plant kingdoms (and perhaps other domains of folk taxonomies) with at least a superordinate (life form), a basic (generic), and a subordinate (specific) level. The basic level terms have the highest salience (e.g. are the ones used most frequently, are shortest and morphologically least complex). |
lexicon | unconditional | (biological) folk taxonomy |
| 1192 | IF there is a logophoric form for 1st and/or 2nd person pronouns, THEN also for the 3rd person pronoun. | inflection, syntax | implication | pronoun, logophoric, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 1193 | IF there is reciprocal marking for 1st person, THEN also for 2nd person. IF there is reciprocal marking for 2nd person, THEN also for 3rd person. |
inflection, syntax | implication | pronoun, reciprocal, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 1194 | IF non-subject can control reflexives/reciprocals, THEN subjects can, too. | syntax | implication | control, reflexive, reciprocal, subject |
| 1195 | IF a reflexive/reciprocal can be an indirect object and/or circumstantial, THEN a reflexive/reciprocal can also be either direct object or possessive. | syntax | implication | reflexive, reciprocal, indirect object, circumstantial, direct object, possessive |
| 1196 | IF the head of a restrictive relative clause does not function as the subject of the restricting clause, THEN that subject must refer independently of the head. | syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | restrictive relative clause, subject, head |
| 1197 | IF the head of a restrictive relative clause functions as the subject of the restricting clause, THEN no personal pronoun will be present in the subject of the restricting clause. | syntax | implication | restrictive relative clause, subject, personal pronoun, head |
| 1198 | IF there is inflectional tense or aspect , THEN there will be a past or perfective gram. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | verb, inflection, tense, aspect, past, perfective |
| 1199 | IF there is no inflectional tense or aspect, THEN there will be an anterior or completive gram or both. | inflection | implication | verb, inflection, aspect, tense |
| 1200 | IF any other semantic types are expressed by words of the word class of adjectives, THEN members of the semantic types AGE, DIMENSION, VALUE and COLOR are likely also to be expressed by adjectives. | syntax, semantics | implication | word classes, adjective |
| 1201 | IF a language is (more or less) analytic, THEN it has a (more or less) regular phraseological system. | morphology, lexicon | implication | phraseology, analytic |
| 1202 | IF morphological categories are marked on verbs rather than nouns, THEN they specify aspects of events and states rather than of persons and objects, and they are derivational rather than inflectional. |
morphology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | gender, number, case, aspect, Aktionsart |
| 1203 | Every natural language has syntactic constituents (called noun-phrases) whose semantic function is to express generalized quantifiers over the domain of discourse. |
syntax, semantics | unconditional | quantification, generalized quantifier, NP |
| 1204 | Dislocated phrase universal: If a language allows phrases to occur in a dislocated position associated with a rule of variable binding, then at least NPs (i.e. the syntactic category corresponding to quantifiers over the domain of discourse) will occur in this position. That is: IF non-NPs (e.g., APs, DPs or PPs) can occur in a dislocated position associated with a rule of variable binding, THEN NPs can also be dislocated. |
syntax | implication | quantification, dislocation, variable binding, NP |