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 39 of 41
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1906 | IF there are prenasalized voiceless consonants only, THEN voicing is non-contrastive within the consonant system. OR: IF voicing is contrastive in the consonant system, THEN some prenasalized voiced stops will be present. |
phonology | implication | voice, prenasalized stop |
| 1907 | IF a language is pivotless, THEN there will be isolating morphology and free word order. | inflection, syntax | implication | semantic role, information flow, deixis, isolating, free word order, NP encoding |
| 1908 | IF a language is of the pure or the mixed separatist type of relational clause structuring, THEN there will be agglutinative morphology and free word order. | inflection, syntax | implication | semantic role, information flow, deixis, agglutination, free word order |
| 1909 | IF a language is of the cumulative mixed type, THEN there will be fusional morphology or rigid word order. | inflection, syntax | implication | semantic role, information flow, deixis, fusional, rigid word order, NP encoding |
| 1910 | IF there are syntactic relations, THEN there are diathesis changes (voices). IF there are no syntactic relations, THEN there are no voices. |
inflection, syntax | implication | syntactic relation, voice, diathesis |
| 1911 | When comitative and instrumental are kept formally distinct and if one of the two forms part of the mode of expression of predicative possession, there is a 3:1 probability that it is the comitative that belongs to this pattern. | inflection, sysntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | case, comitative, instrumental, predicative possession |
| 1912 | When the marker for instrumental forms part of the mode of expression of predicative possession, there is a 50% probability that comitative and instrumental are not distinguished by formal means. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | case, comitative, instrumental, predicative possession |
| 1913 | IF the grammatical expression of predicative possession requires the use of the marker of either comitative or instrumental, THEN in four out of five cases the comitative is involved. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, comitative, instrumental, predicative possession |
| 1914 | IF the marker of predicative possession is allowed to be part of the range of functions covered by the marker of instrumental, THEN at least one additional function that is not equivalent to the comitative is involved in the combination. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, comitative, instrumental, predicative possession |
| 1915 | IF there are modal particles, THEN there are modal adverbials. | lexicon | implication | modal particles, modal adverbials |
| 1916 | IF there is an optative mood, THEN there is subjunctive or an imperative mood | inflection, syntax | implication | mood, optative, subjunctive, imperative |
| 1918 | IF Dative/Benefative objects can be promoted to direct object, THEN other object cases lower on the topicality hierarchy may also be "promoted" to direct object — but always with obligatory verb-coding of the semantic role of the "promoted" object. | inflection, syntax | implication | direct object, dative-shift, promotion |
| 1919 | IF basic order is VO, THEN the "promoted" direct object tends to be unmarked. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, VO, direct object, dative-shift, markedness |
| 1920 | IF basic order is OV, THEN the "promoted" direct object tends to be marked. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, OV, direct object, dative-shift, markedness |
| 1921 | IF there is polysynthesis, THEN there are no semantically significant determiners. | inflection, syntax | implication | polysynthesis, determiner |
| 1922 | IF there is polysynthesis, THEN no more than a two-way contrast in definiteness, indefiniteness, genericity, and referentiality is conveyed by the bound pronominal affixes of agreement morphology alone. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | polysynthesis, pronoun, agreement, definite, indefinite, generic, referential |
| 1923 | IF there is no definite article, THEN there is no indirect speech. | lexicon, discourse | implication | definite article, indirect speech |
| 1924 | IF there is no definite article, THEN there is no transitive verb of possession ('have'). | lexicon | implication | definite article, transitive verb of possesion |
| 1925 | IF the verb in main clauses is inflected for subject or object agreement, THEN the verb in any sentence-like complement type will also be inflected for subject or object agreement. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject, object, complementation |
| 1926 | IF verbs are inflected for tense and/or aspect, THEN there is an indicative-subjunctive distinction in complementation, and vice versa. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication | tense, aspect, mood, indicative, subjunctive, complementation |
| 1927 | IF subjunctives are used in the complement clauses, THEN they can also be used in main clauses. | inflection, syntax | implication | mood, subjunctive, complementation |
| 1928 | When more than one modifier occurs before the noun, the order is always Dem < Num < Adj. | syntax | unconditional | order, noun, modifier, demonstrative, numeral, adjective |
| 1929 | If a language has two near-synonymous constructions which differ structurally in linguistic distance, they will differ semantically in (among other things) conceptual distance in a parallel fashion. | morphology, syntax, semantics | unconditional | linguistic distance, conceptual distance |
| 1930 | If a language has two modifier constructions that differ in linear order and in linguistic distance, the construction with a prenominal modifier will display the shorter linguistic distance. | morphology, syntax | unconditional | order, noun, modifier, linguistic distance |
| 1931 | If a language has two modifier constructions that differ in linear order and in linguistic distance, the construction with a prenominal modifier will display the closer conceptual distance. | morphology, syntax | unconditional | order, noun, modifier, conceptual distance |
| 1932 | Diminutives tend to contain high front vowels, whereas augmentatives tend to contain high back vowels. | phonology, semantics | unconditional | diminutive, augmentative, vowel, high, front, back, iconicity |
| 1933 | IF anything other than numerals agrees with nouns in class, THEN numerals will also agree with nouns in class. | syntax, inflection | implication | agreement, noun class, numeral |
| 1934 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of a negative determiner, THEN there is a word-form borrowing of a specific determiner, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, indefinite pronoun, negative determiner, specific determiner |
| 1935 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of a free-choice indefinite, THEN there is a word-form borrowing of other than free-choice indefinite of the same ontological category, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, indefinite pronoun, free-choice indefinite |
| 1936 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of a personal indefinite, THEN there is a word-form borrowing of an impersonal indefinite of the same indefiniteness function, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, indefinite pronoun, personal indefinte, impersonal indefinite |
| 1937 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of a local indefinite, THEN there is a word-form borrowing of a temporal indefinite of the same indefiniteness function, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, indefinite pronoun, local indefinite, temporal indefinite |
| 1938 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of other than negative indefinite (excluding determiners), THEN it is likely that there will be a word-form borrowing of a negative indefinite of the same ontological category, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, indefinite pronoun, negative indefinite |
| 1939 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of an impersonal indefinite, THEN it is likely that there will be a word-form borrowing of a temporal indefinite of the same indefiniteness function, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, indefinite pronoun, impersonal indefinite, temporal indefinite |
| 1940 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of a local indefinite, THEN it is likely that there will be a word-form borrowing of an impersonal indefinite of the same indefiniteness function, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, indefinite pronoun, impersonal indefinite, local indefinite |
| 1941 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of a local interrogative, THEN there is a word-form borrowing of a temporal interrogative, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, local interrogative, temporal interrogative |
| 1942 | Indefinite word forms which synchronically contain an indefiniteness marker that already exists in the potential recipient language are more likely to be borrowed (and to be kept after they had been borrowed) than forms of the same function that do not contain such a marker. | lexicon, morphology | unconditional | borrowing, indefinite pronoun |
| 1943 | IF there is a word-form borrowing of a personal indefinite in a language, THEN there is a word-form borrowing of an temporal indefinite of the same indefiniteness function, too. | lexicon, morphology | implication | borrowing, pronoun, definiteness |
| 1944 | When there are suppletive stems for a verb 'to give' determined by the person of the recipient, the opposition will always be 1st vs. 2nd&3rd person or 1st&2nd vs. 3rd person, never 1st&3rd vs. 2nd person. | inflection | unconditional | suppletion, verb, recipient, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 1945 | IF words of whatever word class can be derived from nouns, THEN nouns can be derived from words/stems other than nouns. | word formation | implication | derivation, noun, word class |
| 1946 | IF there is internal stem modification or suprasegmental modification or subtraction or conversion or suppletion in derivation or inflection, THEN there is affixation. |
morphology | implication | internal modification, suprasegmental modification, subtraction, conversion, suppletion, reduplication, affixation |
| 1947 | Provided an infix has alternative positions outside the stem, that external position is always at that edge of the stem in relation to which the infix is positioned. (left edge infixes → prefixes, right edge infixes → suffixes) | morphology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | affix, infix, order |
| 1948 | 2nd person plurals never appear to make a distinction between a plurality of addressees and combinations of one or more addressees with non-ego, non-addressees, i.e., 3rd persons. | inflection | unconditional | pronoun, personal pronoun, number, non-singular, 2nd person, inclusive, exclusive |
| 1949 | IF indicators of any persons combine to form new pronouns, THEN the combination of 1st and 2nd person singular also occurs. | morphology | implication | pronoun, personal pronoun, 1st person, 2nd person |
| 1950 | When three-degree systems of demonstratives where proximal/medial/distal correspond to 1st/2nd/3rd person develop into two-degree systems, the opposition will be proximal&medial vs. distal or proximal vs. medial&distal, corresponding to 1st&2nd vs. 3rd person or 1st vs. 2nd&3rd person. There will never be a two-degree demonstrative system with a correspondence to a person system where the opposition is 1st/3rd vs. 2nd person. | lexicon | unconditional | demonstrative, proximal, medial, distal, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 1951 | In deixis, person and related spatial, 1st and 3rd person never align as against 2nd. 2nd person may align with 1st or 3rd or both. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | deixis, spatial, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 1952 | There can be no spread of plural marking to personal pronouns unless there is such plural marking on demonstrative pronouns; there can be no spread of plural marking to demonstrative pronouns unless there is such plural marking on (at least personal) nouns; there can be no spread of plural marking to 1st person personal pronouns unless there is such plural marking on 2nd person personal pronouns; there can be no spread of plural marking to inanimate nouns unless there is such plural marking on personal nouns. |
inflection | implication | plural, noun, animacy, demonstrative, personal pronoun, 1st person, 2nd person |
| 1953 | IF there are Class IV predicates requiring non-canonicaly marked A/S, THEN there are also Class Ia-b, Class IIa-c, Class IIIa-b and Class V predicates requiring non-canonically marked A/S or O. | inflection, lexicon | implication | case, agent, patient, subject, predicate |
| 1954 | IF non-canonical marking with Class IIIa predicates, THEN also non-canonical marking with Class Ib predicates, and vice versa. | inflection, lexicon | mutual implication | case, agent, patient, subject, predicate |
| 1955 | IF there are Class IIIa/Ib predicates requiring non-canonicaly marked A/S, THEN there are also Class Ia predicates requiring non-canonically marked A/S. | inflection, lexicon | implication | case, agent, subject, predicate |
| 1956 | IF there is partial or complete denasalization of nasal consonants, THEN there is a contrast of oral and nasal vowels. | phonology | implication | vowel, nasal, oral, denasalization |