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 31 of 41
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1516 | IF full noun phrase subjects must follow full noun phrase direct objects, THEN the verb is initial. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, subject, object |
| 1517 | If basic word order is VOS, THEN SVO will be an alternative order. | syntax | implication | order, VOS, SVO |
| 1518 | IF basic order is subject-final (for full noun phrases), THEN either transitive verbs of unmarked sentences agree with no full noun phrase in the sentence or they agree with two noun phrases (subject and object). | inflection, syntax | implication | order, subject, object, agreement |
| 1519 | Whenever transitive verbs in subject-final languages have agreement at all, there is prefixal (pre-verb stem) agreement with the subject noun phrase and suffixal agreement with a non-subject. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | order, subject, object, agreement, affix-order, prefix, suffix |
| 1520 | IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN there will be little nominal case marking. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, subject, object, case |
| 1521 | IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN there will be prepositions. | syntax | implication | order, subject, object, preposition |
| 1522 | IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN noun phrase questions can always be formed by putting the question word, e.g., Who? What? etc., in a preverbal position, provided the question word is not a bound morpheme. | syntax | implication | order, subject, object, question word |
| 1523 | IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN there will be morphemically independent subordinate conjunctions which precede a finite clause. | syntax | implication | order, subject, object, subordinate conjunction |
| 1524 | IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN full noun phrase possessors always follow the head (the possessed) noun phrase. | syntax | implication | order, subject, object, attributive |
| 1525 | IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN relative clauses always present the head noun to the left of the restricting clause. | syntax | implication | order, subject, object, relative clause |
| 1526 | IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN there are no relative pronouns. | syntax | implication | order, subject, object, relative pronoun |
| 1527 | IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN there are articles. IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN there are definite articles (distinct from the ordinary demonstrative adjectives). |
syntax | implication | order, subject, object, article, definite article |
| 1528 | IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN numerical expressions precede the nouns they modify. |
syntax | implication | order, subject, object, numeral |
| 1529 | IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN articles most frequently precede the nouns. |
syntax | implication | order, subject, object, article |
| 1530 | IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN negative elements precede the verb. |
syntax | implication | order, subject, object, negation |
| 1531 | IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN a causative element precedes the root of the causativized verb. |
morphology, syntax | implication | order, subject, object, causative |
| 1532 | IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN there will be passive forms of verbs. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, subject, object, diathesis, passive |
| 1533 | IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN passive will be marked in verbal morphology. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, subject, object, diathesis, passive |
| 1534 | IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN there are no overt copulas. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, subject, object, copula |
| 1535 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN there is significant prefixing [more than with other basic orders?], though normally there is some suffixing as well; and there is a possibility of ambi-fixing (discontinuous affixes), and a somewhat greater than chance tendency for discontinuous demonstratives. | morphology, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, affix-order, prefix, demonstrative |
| 1536 | IF basic order is verb-initial, THEN the morphology may be agglutinative or polysynthetic . | morphology, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, agglutination, poysynthesis |
| 1537 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN the comparative form precedes the standard. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, adjective, comparison |
| 1538 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN the question particle (if there is any) occurs sentence-initially. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, yes-no question, question marker |
| 1539 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN in NP questions a questioned NP is always frontable. IF word order is verb-initial, THEN there is no attraction of the questioned NP to the normal DO position. IF word order is verb-final, THEN there is a tendency to attract a questioned NP to the normal DO position. |
syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, verb-final, NP question |
| 1540 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN subordinate clauses tend to be finite. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, subordinate clause, finiteness |
| 1541 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN subordinate markers such as complementizers, nominalizers, and subordinate conjunctions precede their clauses. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, complementizer, nominalizer, subordinate conjunction |
| 1542 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN sentences which are subordinate to verbs, adjectives, or nouns invariably follow the element to which they are subordinate. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, subordinate clause |
| 1543 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN coordinate sentences are commonly expressed as [S and S], and not as [S, S and]. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, coordination, |
| 1544 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN speech act indicators (e.g. question particles, etc.) are normally sentence initial. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, speech act indicator, question particle |
| 1545 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN it is very common for most major NPs to carry little or no nominal case marking. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, case-marking |
| 1546 | IF word order is verb-initial and there is affixal case marking, THEN prefixal case marking is more likely than in verb-final languages, but suffixing is still fairly common. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, case-marking, affix-order, prefix |
| 1547 | IF word order is verb-initial and there is case marking, THEN there are prepositions. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, case-marking, affix-order, prefix |
| 1548 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN there is relational marking (agreement, applicative, etc.) associated with the verb. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, verbal case-marking |
| 1549 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN the demonstrative, numeral, and qualifying adjective follow the common noun in that order or its mirror image (Adj + Num + Dem). | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, demonstrative, numeral, adjective, noun |
| 1550 | The likelihood of attributive adjectives agreeing with nouns, especially in case, is lower if basic order is verb-initial than if it is verb-final. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, verb-final, agreement, adjective, attribution, case |
| 1551 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN there tends to be a definite article as distinct from demonstratives. | syntax, lexicon | implication | order, verb-initial, definite article, demonstrative |
| 1552 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN thhe existence of several articles (definite, indefinite, specific, plural, proper noun) is much more common than if word order is verb-final. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, article |
| 1553 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN possessor NPs follow the head NP. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, attributive, noun |
| 1554 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN the relative clause is postnominal. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, relative clause |
| 1555 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN relativization is primarily by deletion; the next most common strategy being the use of personal pronouns in positions relativized. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, relative clause, personal pronoun |
| 1556 | IF word order is verb-initial or verb-final, THEN relative pronouns which code the case of the position relativized are rare. IF word order is verb-medial, THEN relative pronouns which code the case of the position relativized are less rare than if word order is verb-final. |
syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, verb-final, verb-medial, relative clause, relative pronoun, case |
| 1557 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN modals, auxiliaries (if such exist), negative particles or words, desideratives and volitionals, if expressed by separate words, always precede the main verb. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, modal, auxiliary, negation, desiderative, volition |
| 1558 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN manner adverbs, if they are a distinct category, follow the verb. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, manner adverb |
| 1559 | IF basic order is verb-initial, THEN sentential objects always follow the subject and are very commonly finite. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, sentential object, finiteness, nominalization |
| 1560 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN sentential objects are never embedded; they normally follow the main sentence but may precede, especially in direct quote contexts. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, sentential object, embedded |
| 1561 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN verbal forms subordinate to the to the “main” verb always follow the main verb, and are commonly finite. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, main verb, subordinate verb, finiteness |
| 1562 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN causativized verbs follow the causativizing verb. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, verb, causative |
| 1563 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN there will be passive voice which is almost always marked in the verbal morphology. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, diathesis, passive |
| 1564 | IF basic order is verb-initial, THEN the verb either agrees with no NPs or with two NPs. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, verb, agreement, subject, object |
| 1565 | IF word order is verb-initial, THEN there is no overt copula. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, copula |