Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
1,698 entries · page 4 of 34
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 172 | When alignment is ergative/absolutive, IF the verb agrees with the ergative, THEN it agrees with the absolutive. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, verb, alignment, ergative, absolutive |
| 173 | IF there are prepositions, THEN IF the demonstrative follows the noun, THEN the genitive follows the noun. | syntax | nested implication | preposition, order, noun, demonstrative, attributive |
| 174 | IF there are prepositions, THEN the numeral follows the noun, THEN the genitive follows the noun. | syntax | nested implication | preposition, order, noun, numeral, attributive |
| 175 | IF there are prepositions, THEN IF the genitive follows the noun, THEN the relative clause follows the noun. | syntax | nested implication | preposition, order, noun, attributive, relative clause |
| 176 | IF the genitive follows the noun, THEN the relative clause follows the noun. OR, BY CONTRAPOSITION: IF the relative clause precedes the noun, THEN the genitive precedes the noun. |
syntax | implication | noun, order, attributive, relative clause |
| 177 | IF there are postpositions, THEN IF the demonstrative precedes the noun, THEN the genitive precedes the noun. | syntax | nested implication | postposition, order, noun, demonstrative, attributive |
| 178 | IF there are postpositions, THEN IF the numeral precedes the noun, THEN the genitive precedes the noun. | syntax | nested implication | postposition, order, noun, numeral, attributive |
| 179 | IF a target agrees in Case, THEN it also agrees in Number and Gender. IF a target agrees in Gender, THEN it also agrees in Number. |
inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | agreement, number, case, gender, target |
| 180 | IF there is case marking for subject vs. object, THEN basic order is SOV. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, SOV, case, subject, direct object |
| 181 | IF the marker for NP conjunction has the same form as the comitative marker, THEN basic order is SVO and not SOV. | syntax | mutual implication | order, SVO, NP, coordination, conjunction, comitative |
| 182 | IF adnominal genitival complements are neither marked by case nor by coreference on the head-NP, THEN basic order tends to be SVO. | inflection, syntax | implication | attributive, case, genitive, NP, order, head-marking, agreement, SVO |
| 183 | IF there is case inflection on nouns, THEN there is also case inflection on some pronouns. | inflection | implication | case, noun, pronoun, inflection |
| 184 | IF the accusative case marker in (3rd person) pronouns and indefinite nouns is the same, THEN it will also be the same in definite nouns. | inflection | implication | case, accusative, pronoun, person, 3, noun, definiteness |
| 185 | When there are analogical changes in the inflectional paradigms of place names, non-local cases (including the nominative) are generally reformed after local cases (such as the dative), rather than the other way round. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | place name, nominative case, local case, non-local case, analogical change |
| 186 | IF there are declension classes (i.e., variance with respect to case and number), THEN case and number will be cumulated. IF case and number are not cumulated (but expressed separately), then will be no declension classes. |
inflection | implication | case, number, cumulation, declension class, noun |
| 187 | IF there are /t/, /d/, and the voiced aspirate /dh/, THEN there must already be the voiceless aspirate /th/. | phonology | implication | aspirate, voice |
| 188 | IF there is incorporation of the nominal subject into the verb, THEN there is also incorporation of the direct object. | morphology, syntax | implication | incorporation, subject, direct object, verb |
| 189 | IF there are around seven cases or more, THEN locational relations with be expressed by case forms; but not vice versa. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | case system, local case |
| 190 | IF there is a prolative case, THEN there will be an ablative case. IF there is an ablative case, THEN there will be an allative case. IF there is an allative case, THEN there will be a locative case. |
inflection | implication | case system, local case, locative, allative, ablative, prolative |
| 191 | IF there are syncretisms involving local cases other than those mentioned in the implicatum, THEN there will be syncretisms of ablative and prolative, locative and allative, and/or ablative and partitive. | inflection | implication | case, local case, ablative, prolative, locative, allative, ablative, partitive, syncretism |
| 192 | A relation that is higher on the hierarchy of centrality (subject-object > local relations; locative > ablative; ...) than another one will not be expressed lower down on the grammatical-to-lexical hierarchy of expression (word order > verbal coding > case > adpositions > ...). | inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | grammatical relations, local relations, word order, case, adposition |
| 193 | IF verbs assign morphological case, THEN adpositions assign morphological case. IF adpositions assign morphological case, THEN verbs assign morphological case. |
inflection, syntax | implication | verb, case, adposition |
| 194 | IF numerals are case-assigners, THEN so are verbs and/or adpositions. | inflection, syntax | implication | numeral, case, verb, adposition |
| 195 | IF adjectives can assign morphological cases other than genitive to their complements, they will also assign genitive. | inflection, syntax | implication | adjective, case, genitive |
| 196 | IF basic order is OV, THEN syllable structure is simple (tending towards CV). | phonology, syntax | implication | order, OV, syllable, complexity |
| 197 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) precedes the head noun, THEN it will not participate in agreement. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) participates in agreement, THEN it will not precede the head noun. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, prefix, preposition, order, agreement |
| 198 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) precedes the head noun, THEN it will not be inseparable from it. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is inseparable from the head noun, THEN it will not precede it. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, head noun |
| 199 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) participates in agreement, THEN it will not be separable from the head noun. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is separable from the head noun, THEN it will not participate in agreement. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, agreement |
| 200 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) participates in agreement, THEN it will not be an independent morpheme. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is an independent morpheme, THEN it will not participate in agreement. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, affix, agreement |
| 201 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is an independent morpheme, THEN it will not be inseparable from the head noun. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is inseparable from the head noun, THEN it is an independent morpheme. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, head noun |
| 202 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is an independent morpheme, THEN it will not express subject-object relations. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) expresses subject-object relations, THEN it will not be an independent morpheme. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | case, adposition, grammatical relations |
| 203 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) participates in agreement, THEN it will not fail to express subject-object relations. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) fails to express subject-object relations, THEN it will not participates in agreement. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | case, adposition, agreement, grammatical relations |
| 204 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is an independent morpheme, THEN it will not fail to express concrete relations. IF a relational marker (case, adposition) fails to express concrete relations, THEN it will not be an independent morpheme. |
inflection, syntax | implication | case, adposition, local relations |
| 205 | IF a relational marker (case, adposition) does not express subject-object relations, THEN it will express local relations. IF it does not express local relations, THEN it will express subject-object relations. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | case, adposition, grammatical relations, local relations |
| 206 | IF alignment is ergative, THEN there will be an opposition of ergative and absolutive series of personal affixes in verb inflection and an opposition of an ergative and an absolutive case in noun inflection, similar to each other in their function. | inflection, syntax | implication | alignment, ergative, case, absolutive, person, verb |
| 207 | IF basic order is VO, THEN syllable structure is complex (permitting initial and final consonant clusters). | phonology, syntax | implication | order, VO, syllable, complexity |
| 208 | IF basic order is OV, THEN there will be pitch accent. IF basic order is VO, THEN there will be stress accent, accompanied by reduction of unstressed vowels. |
phonology, syntax | implication | order, VO, OV, pitch accent, stress, vowel reduction |
| 209 | IF there is an opposition of two vowels of the same aperture, THEN there is a corresponding vocalic opposition of a narrower degree of aperture. | phonology | implication | vowel, degree of aperture, narrow |
| 210 | IF there is no differentiation of unrounded vowels according to degree of aperture, THEN there is no such a difference for the rounded vowels. | phonology | implication | rounded, unrounded, vowel, degree of aperture |
| 211 | IF alignment is accusative, THEN there will be a single “subject” series of personal affixes in verb inflection and an opposition of a nominative and an accusative case in noun inflection. | inflection, syntax | implication | alignment, accusative, verb, person, subject, case, accusative, nominative |
| 212 | IF there is a vocalic opposition, THEN there is a consonantal opposition. | phonology | implication | vocalic, consonantal, opposition |
| 213 | IF there is a derived-case comparative, THEN clause-combining is balancing. | inflection, syntax | implication | comparative, case, clause-combining, balancing |
| 214 | IF there is a fixed-case comparative, THEN clause-combining is deranking. | inflection, syntax | implication | comparative, case, clause-combining, deranking |
| 215 | IF there is noun-genitive order in the possessive construction, THEN there is quantitative-noun order in the partitive construction. | syntax | implication | order, noun, attributive, quantitative, partitive construction |
| 216 | IF alignment is active, THEN there will be an opposition of an active and inactive series of personal affixes in verb inflection and an opposition of an active and an inactive case in noun inflection, similar to each other in their function. | inflection, syntax | implication | alignment, active, verb, person, case, active, inactive |
| 217 | IF one of the elements of the hierarchy takes ergative case-marking, THEN all units to its right also take ergative case-marking as well; and IF one of the units takes accusative case-marking, THEN all units to its left also take accusative case-marking. | inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | alignment, case, ergative, accusative, pronoun, noun, NP hierarchy |
| 218 | IF there are mellow fricatives, THEN there are corresponding strident fricatives. | phonology | implication | mellow, strident, fricative |
| 219 | Provided there are non-root as well as root morphemes, non-root morphemes have a more limited inventory of phonemes than root-morphemes and are on average shorter than root-morphemes. | phonology, morphology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | morpheme, root, non-root, phoneme inventory, length |
| 220 | IF there are converbs with the fundamental meaning of succession, THEN there are converbs with the fundamental meaning of precedence. IF there are converbs with the fundamental meaning of precedence, THEN there are converbs with the fundamental meaning of simultaneity. |
syntax, semantics | implication | converb |
| 222 | IF there is a distributive-key quantifier word, THEN that word is a distributive-key universal quantifier. |
lexicon | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | quantifier, distributive |