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 35 of 41
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1717 | The Attractiveness of Bodies: A body is the more attractive: (a) the more heavily its syllable is accented relative to the preceding syllable, (b) the shorter it is, and (c) the less the Consonantal Strength of its elements is, especially towards its onset. |
phonology | implication | syllable, head, nucleus, accent, consonant, strength, sonority |
| 1718 | Quality of Contact Embedding: A syllable contact A$B is the better embedded, the more attractive the rhyme of the first syllable would be if the cluster AB were tautosyllabicated in the second syllable, and the more attractive the body of the second syllable would be if the cluster AB were tautosyllabicated in the first syllable. |
phonology | implication | syllable, rhyme, consonant cluster |
| 1719 | General Syllabication Law: A syllabication is the more preferred: (a) the better the resulting syllable contact is and (b) the better that syllable contact is embedded. |
phonology | implication | syllable |
| 1720 | Higher Order Law: All syllabic complexities are less disfavoured in stressed syllables than in unstressed syllables. |
phonology | implication | syllable, complexity, stress |
| 1721 | IF possessive determiners co-occur with definite articles, THEN nominal possessives do so, too. | syntax | implication | article, definiteness, possession |
| 1722 | IF possessive determiners co-occur with demonstratives, THEN nominal possessives co-occur with definite articles. | syntax | implication | article, definiteness, possession, demonstrative |
| 1723 | IF indefinite articles co-occur with possessives, THEN definite articles do so, too. | syntax | implication | article, definiteness, possession |
| 1724 | If the definite article co-occurs with the noun accompanied by a demonstrative, it also co-occurs with nouns accompanied by at least some possessives. | syntax | implication | definite article, demonstrative, possessive |
| 1725 | IF the article co-occurs with the noun that is accompanied by a pronominal possessor, THEN the article co-occurs with the noun if the possessor is nominal. | syntax | implication | article, possessor |
| 1726 | IF the article co-occurs with the noun that is accompanied by an adjacent possessor, THEN the article co-occurs with the noun if the possessor is non-adjacent. | syntax | implication | article, possessor |
| 1727 | IF the article co-occurs with the noun that is accompanied by adnominal possessives that are not marked for genitive, THEN the article co-occurs with adnominal possessives that are marked for genitive. | syntax | implication | article, possessor, attributive, genitive case |
| 1728 | IF the article co-occurs with the noun when the demonstrative or the possessive is preposed, THEN the article co-occurs with the noun when the demonstrative or the possessive is postposed. | syntax | implication | article, possessive, demonstrative, order |
| 1729 | When a demonstrative is used nominally (forming an NP of its own, rather than being a determiner), it does not occur with a non-bound definite article. |
syntax | implication | definite article, demonstrative, pronoun |
| 1730 | IF the definite article can be the sole marker of definiteness in a noun phrase, THEN the definite article can be the sole marker of nominality. | syntax | implication | definite article, definiteness, noun |
| 1731 | Indigenous non-affixal articles are polyfunctional and at least one of their additional uses is pronominal. | syntax | unconditional | article, pronoun |
| 1732 | In most languages the demonstrative pronoun and demonstrative adjective are identical. | syntax | mutual implication | demonstrative |
| 1733 | IF any non-bound noun phrase constituent can occur nominally, THEN so can all other more peripherally ordered ones. | syntax | implication | NP, boundedness, order, noun |
| 1734 | The phonological body of the definite article is never more substantial in adnominal use than in pronominal use. | inflection, syntax | implication | definite article, pronoun |
| 1735 | The phonological body of any noun phrase constituent is never more substantial in adnominal use than in pronominal use. | inflection, syntax | implication | NP, pronoun |
| 1736 | IF a noun phrase constituent has special adnominal and nominal forms for any of its more marked members, THEN it tends to have such forms for some or all of its less marked members. | inflection, syntax | implication | NP, noun, pronoun, markedness |
| 1737 | IF the definite article carries any gender, number, and/or case inflection in adnominal use, THEN it carries at least the same inflection in pronominal use. | inflection, syntax | implication | definite article, gender, number, case, pronoun, determiner |
| 1738 | IF a noun phrase constituent carries any gender, number, and/or case inflection in adnominal use, THEN it carries at least the same inflection in pronominal use. | inflection, syntax | implication | NP, gender, number, case, pronoun, determiner |
| 1739 | The definite article may govern but is never governed by a noun-phrase-internal constituent. | syntax | unconditional | definite article, NP, government |
| 1740 | IF an article is the sole carrier of gender and/or number and/or case, THEN it will co-occur with definite and generic nouns. | inflection, syntax | implication | article, case, number, gender, noun, definiteness, generic |
| 1741 | IF a less peripherally ordered noun phrase constituent marks gender, number, and/or case redundantly, THEN all more peripherally ordered constituents can mark these categories redundantly. | inflection, syntax | implication | NP, order, case, number, gender, agreement |
| 1742 | IF the adnominal demonstrative or possessive occurs with a noun that is accompanied by the definite article at one point in time but not at another point in time, THEN the former time precedes the latter. | syntax | implication | demonstrative, possessive |
| 1743 | On the NP analysis pronouns are arguably anomalous in lacking an overt noun head – unless pronouns are taken to be a kind of noun, a problematic view given that they cannot in general be modified by Dets (*this him, *the me). | syntax | unconditional | personal pronoun, definite article |
| 1744 | Noun phrases with personal pronouns as their heads tend not to take definite articles. | syntax | unconditional | pronoun, personal pronoun, article, definiteness |
| 1745 | There are no endoclitics, i.e., clitics inside words do not exist. | phonology, syntax | unconditional | clitics, endoclitics |
| 1746 | IF there are any prefixes on nouns, THEN there will be prefixes on verbs with considerably more than chance frequency. | morphology | implication | affix-order, prefix, noun, verb |
| 1747 | When there are any person affixes on the verb marking direct object, these will be prefixed with more than chance frequency. |
inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | person, direct object, verb, affix-order, prefix |
| 1748 | IF there are no overt articles, THEN non-specific direct objects fail to be accusative-marked. IF there are no overt articles, THEN non-specific direct objects fail to be marked in the same way as specific direct objects. |
inflection, syntax | implication | article, direct object, case, accusative, specificity |
| 1749 | When ordinal numerals are formally distinguished from cardinal numerals and one is based on / derived from / more complex than the other (rather than being suppletive), ordinals are always based on / derived from / more complex than corresponding cardinals. | word formation | unconditional | numeral, cardinal, ordinal |
| 1750 | When in some contexts the distinction between cardinal and ordinal numerals is neutralized, cardinals may replace ordinals but never vice versa. | syntax | unconditional | numeral, cardinal, ordinal |
| 1751 | IF a cardinal numeral is a borrowing, THEN the corresponding ordinal numeral will also be a borrowing. | lexicon | implication | numeral, cardinal, ordinal, borrowing |
| 1752 | IF a cardinal numeral has synonyms, THEN the corresponding ordinal numeral will also have synonyms. | lexicon | implication | numeral, cardinal, ordinal, synonym |
| 1753 | IF there are synonyms for an ordinal numeral, THEN there are also synonyms for ordinals for all lower numbers. | lexicon | implication | numeral, ordinal, synonym |
| 1754 | Provided at least some ordinal numerals are formally distinguished from cardinal numerals: IF the distinction is by suppletion for higher numbers, THEN it is also by suppletion for 1; IF it is by suppletion for 2, THEN it is also by suppletion for 1. |
word formation | implication | numeral, ordinal, cardinal, suppletion |
| 1755 | IF the distinction between ordinal and cardinal forms for the number 1 at some decade is by suppletion, THEN it is also by suppletion for the same numeral at lower decades. | word formation | implication | numeral, ordinal, cardinal, suppletion |
| 1756 | IF ordinal numerals are distinguished from cardinal numerals for numbers higher than 1, THEN they are also distinguished for 1. | lexicon | implication | numeral, ordinal, cardinal |
| 1757 | When cardinal and ordinal numerals are ordered differently relative to nouns, cardinals always precede nouns and ordinals always follow them. | syntax | unconditional | numeral, ordinal, cardinal, noun, order |
| 1758 | IF only one (cardinal or ordinal) numeral differs from all others in its ordering relative to the noun, THEN it will be that for the number 1.IF another numeral joins 1 in failing to conform to general ordering rules, THEN it will be that for the number 2. | syntax | unconditional | numeral, ordinal, cardinal, noun, order |
| 1759 | IF person and/or number is marked on non-finite forms, THEN person and/or number is also marked on finite forms. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb, finite, non-finite, agreement, person, number |
| 1760 | IF the subject of a non-finite form is nominative, THEN the subject of (at least some) finite forms will also be nominative. | inflection, syntax | implication | finite, non-finite, subject, nominative case |
| 1761 | IF tense is marked on non-finite forms, THEN tense is also marked on finite forms. | inflection | implication | verb, finite, non-finite, tense |
| 1762 | IF basic word order is SOV, THEN there are no prepositions owing to borrowing. | lexicon, syntax | implication | borrowing, order, SOV, preposition |
| 1763 | Complete indefinite pronouns cannot be borrowed. | lexicon | unconditional | borrowing, indefinite pronoun |
| 1764 | Vowels are shorter before voiceless obstruents than before voiced obstruents or sonorants. | phonology | implication | vowel, voice, obstruent, sonorant, length |
| 1765 | IF there is consonantal deletion in initial position, THEN there will be consonantal deletion in intervocalic position. IF there is consonantal deletion in intervocalic position, THEN there will be consonantal deletion in final position. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | consonant, weakening, initial, intervocalic, final, hierarchy |
| 1766 | Hierarchy of major-class and manner features in the context of consonantal weakening: Ø < glides < liquids < nasals < +v fricatives < -v fricatives/-v stops < -v stops.<br> The consonants more to the left on the hierarchy are classified as weaker, leading to eventual deletion, diachronically speaking. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | consonant, weakening, hierarchy |