Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
827 entries · page 4 of 17
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 484 | IF the direct object is morphologically marked in a sentence, THEN the indirect object is also morphologically marked in the same sentence. | inflection, syntax | implication | direct object, indirect object, markedness |
| 485 | IF direct and indirect objects are distinguished by word order, THEN they are also likely to be distinguished by morphosyntactic marking (affix, adposition). | inflection, syntax | implication | direct object, indirect object, order |
| 486 | When word order is rigid, regardless of whether the indirect or direct object is contiguous with the verb, the indirect object tends to be marked either extra- or intra-verbally | inflection, syntax | unconditional | direct object, indirect object, order, verb |
| 489 | If there are long affricates, THEN there are long stops. IF there are long affricates and long stops, THEN there are long fricatives. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | geminate, affricate, stop, fricative |
| 491 | With overwhelmingly greater than chance frequency, IF basic order is SOV, THEN adpositions will come after their NPs (i.e., be postpositions). | syntax | implication | order, SOV, postposition |
| 495 | When question particles or affixes are specified in position by reference to the sentence as a whole, IF they are initial, THEN there are prepositions, and IF they are final, THEN there are postpositions. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, sentence type, interrogative, question particle, question affix, preposition, postposition |
| 497 | When the position of question particles or affixes is specified relative to a particular word in the sentence, they almost always follow that word. IF dominant order is VSO, THEN there are no such question particles or affixes. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, sentence type, interrogative, VSO, question marker |
| 498 | IF interrogative sentences are formed from declarative sentences by inversion so that verb precedes subject, THEN the question word or phrase is normally initial. IF such inversion occurs in yes-no questions, THEN it also occurs in information questions. |
syntax | implication | order, sentence type, interrogative, subject-verb inversion |
| 499 | IF basic order in declarative sentences is VSO, THEN interrogative words or phrases always occupy the first position in interrogative word questions. IF basic order is SOV, THEN there is never such an invariant rule. |
syntax | implication | order, sentence type, interrogative, interrogative word, VSO, SOV, wh-movement |
| 502 | IF basic order is OV, THEN, in expressions of volition and purpose, the main verb follows the subordinate verb. IF basic order is VO, THEN, in expressions of volition and purpose, the main verb precedes the subordinate verb. |
syntax | implication | order, clause combining, volition, verb, subordination |
| 503 | IF the dominant order is VSO, THEN an inflected auxiliary always precedes the main verb. IF the dominant order is SOV, THEN an inflected auxiliary always follows the main verb. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, auxiliary, verb, inflection |
| 520 | IF there are any gender distinctions in the plural of the pronoun, THEN there are some gender distinctions in the singular also. | inflection | implication | pronoun, gender, number, plural, singular |
| 521 | IF conjunction reduction has ergative alignment, THEN so does coreferential deletion in purposive constructions. IF coreferential deletion in purposive constructions has ergative alignment, THEN so does relativization. IF relativization has ergative alignment, THEN so does verb agreement. IF verb agreement has ergative alignment, THEN so does case marking. |
inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | alignment, ergativity, conjunction reduction, coreferential deletion, purposive, relativization, verb, agreement, case |
| 522 | It is possible but not necessary for the adnominal and pronominal demonstratives stems to be fully or partially identical. | morphology, syntax | unconditional | demonstrative |
| 524 | In more than one language, but not in all, the demonstrative and the definite article co-occur. | syntax | unconditional | demonstrative, definite article |
| 525 | In more than one language, and possibly in all, preposed demonstratives are peripheral to tautolateral numerals and adjectives; postposed demonstratives are most frequently so. | syntax | unconditional | order, demonstrative, numeral, adjective, noun |
| 526 | IF the adnominal demonstrative and the definite article occur on the same side of the head noun, THEN the demonstrative is consistently more peripheral than the article. | syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | adnominal demonstrative, definite article, noun, order |
| 532 | IF a numeral system has only basic terms, THEN the largest value of L is 5 and the smallest value is 2. | lexicon | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | numeral |
| 533 | IF a numeral system has arithmetical operations, THEN its smallest value for L is 4. | lexicon | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | numeral |
| 535 | IF numeral classifiers are included in the dominant mode of forming quantification expressions, THEN plural marking on nouns will not be obligatory. | inflection, syntax | implication | numeral classifier, number, plural |
| 537 | IF a number is expressed by subtraction as y-x, THEN every number z (z>y>n) is also expressed subtractively and with y as the minuend. | word formation | implication | numeral |
| 542 | In numeral systems with only simple lexical representation: IF the limit number is 2, THEN there is a singular/plural distinction, and vice versa. IF the limit number is 3, THEN there is a singular/dual/plural distinction, and vice versa. |
inflection, word formation | mutual implication | numeral, number, dual, plural, singular |
| 551 | Where there is rule-governed variation between the use of the singular and plural of nouns accompanied by numerals: IF the number is a higher one, THEN the singular is favoured; IF the construction is a measure construction , THEN the singular is favoured; IF the construction is indefinite , THEN the singular is favoured; IF the noun is inanimate or impersonal, THEN the singular is favoured. |
inflection, syntax | implication | numeral, noun, number, singular, plural |
| 552 | In indefinite and approximative constructions, the numeral tends to follow the noun. | syntax | unconditional | numeral, order, indefinite, approximative |
| 557 | When there is an overt marker distinguishing absolute and contextual numbers, THEN this marker is added to the contextual form yielding the absolute form, and not vice versa. | word formation, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | numeral |
| 559 | When languages with and without articles are in contact, it is more common for languages without an article to innovate one than for languages with an article to abandon it. | syntax | unconditional | article, borrowing |
| 570 | When there are high and low social varieties of a language and only one of them has an article, it will usually be the low variety. | syntax | unconditional | article |
| 589 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN there is no grammatical gender. | inflection | implication | agglutination, gender |
| 590 | IF there is grammatical gender, THEN morphology is flexive. | inflection | implication | flexion, gender |
| 615 | IF there is Switch-Reference marking, THEN word order is verb-final . |
inflection, syntax | implication | switch-reference, order, verb-final |
| 617 | When becoming a nasal or determining the place of articulation of adjacent nasals by assimilation, labial velars behave primarily like velars. | phonology | unconditional | labial, velar, nasal |
| 618 | IF an object of comparison can be relativized, THEN an attributive genitive can be as well. IF an attributive genitive can be relativized, THEN a major oblique case NP can be as well. IF a major oblique case NP can be relativized, THEN an indirect object can be as well. IF an indirect object can be relativized, THEN a direct object can be as well. IF an direct object can be relativized, THEN a subject can be as well. |
syntax | implicational hierarchy | accessibility hierarchy, relative clause, attributive, indirect object, direct object, subject, object of comparison |
| 625 | Distributive-key quantifier words and their ordinary counterparts are not morphologically related. |
morphology | unconditional | quantifier, distributive |
| 627 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme, THEN basic order is verb-initial or verb-final. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, verb-final, case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme |
| 629 | Sonority Hierarchy: vowels > liquids > glides > nasals > fricatives > stops | phonology | implicational hierarchy | sonority hierarchy |
| 631 | Distributive-share quantifier words are formed from their ordinary counterparts by morphological process. | morphology | unconditional | quantifier, distributive |
| 635 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme, THEN nominal inflection will be agglutinative. | syntax, inflection | implication | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, agglutination, noun |
| 638 | IF there is Suffixaufnahme, THEN there will be ergative or other non-accusative alignment. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, agreement, Suffixaufnahme, ergative-absolutive alignment |
| 639 | If any pronominal category is used to show degrees of respect or social distance, THEN most commonly it is the category of number. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, number, respect, social distance |
| 641 | IF there is any variation of number in pronominal reference showing different degrees of respect or social distance, THEN the non-singular typically indicates a higher degree of respect toward the referent, or greater social distance between him and other participants in the speech act, than does the singular. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, non-singular number, singular number, respect, social distance |
| 643 | Variation of more than one pronominal category may occur in the same language in reference showing different degrees of respect. | inflection, semantics | unconditional | personal pronoun, respect, social distance |
| 644 | IF there is variation of the category of person in personal pronouns so as to show degrees of respect or social distance, THEN there is variation of number for the same purpose. | inflection, semantics | implication | personal pronoun, person, number, respect, social distance |
| 647 | IF 3rd person personal pronoun is used to show greater respect or social distance than the 2nd person pronoun in reference to the addressee, THEN this use is usually introduced by substitution of nouns or nominal expressions used in respectful address. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, person, number, respect, social distance, addressee |
| 651 | In a language in which categories of definiteness are employed to show degrees of respect or social distance, the one used as indefinite or least definite is also used to indicate greater respect or social distance. | inflection, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, definite, indefinite, respect, social distance |
| 652 | Of (i) reflexive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, and pronominalized nouns or pronominalized nominal expressions used in reference and (ii) personal pronouns of the same number, the former (i) usually indicate greater respect or social distance than the latter (ii). | syntax, semantics | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | personal pronoun, reflexive pronoun, demonstrative pronoun, number, respect, social distance |
| 655 | IF there is polysynthesis, THEN the consonant-vowel ratio is comparatively high. | phonology, morphology, syntax | mutual implication | consonant, vowel, ratio, polysynthesis |
| 656 | IF the phoneme inventory is large, THEN morpheme length is short. IF the phoneme inventory is small, THEN morphemes length is long. |
phonology | implication | phoneme, morpheme length |
| 659 | The more numerous the principal phonemes and the longer the sequence units (phrases, words, or morphs), the lower the probability of homophony. | phonology | mutual implication | homophony, phoneme inventory, word length |
| 670 | IF basic word order is SOV, THEN there tends to be no inversion in information questions. | syntax | implication | order, interrogative sentence, information question, inversion |
| 671 | IF basic word order is SOV, THEN question particles almost always occur sentence finally. IF basic word order is not SOV, THEN question particles show a greater tendency than with basic order SOV to occur sentence initially. |
syntax | implication | order, interrogative sentence, question particle, SOV |