Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
297 entries · page 5 of 6
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1417 | All languages have constructions whose function is to place focus at the beginning of the sentence and old, already established topics at the end. | syntax | unconditional | topic, comment, order, focus |
| 1418 | New topics are never placed at the end of the sentence. | syntax | unconditional | topic, comment, order, focus |
| 1420 | No language has reflexive relative pronouns. | syntax | unconditional | relative, pronoun, coreference |
| 1422 | It is almost always possible to use the least marked indicative verb from in a narrative context. | inflection | unconditional | tense, mood, indicative, context, narrative, markedness |
| 1425 | There is a tendency for languages having nasalized vowels to show more asymmetry than languages having long vowels. | phonology | unconditional | nasal, length, vowel |
| 1441 | IF plural inflection is differentiated as to genders, THEN singular inflection is also differentiated as to (the same?) genders. | inflection | unconditional | number, plural, singular, gender |
| 1443 | Every one of the seven metapersons, i.e. 'speaker', 'hearer', 'non-participant', 'speaker + hearer(s)', 'speaker + non-participant(s)', 'hearer(s) + non-participant(s)', 'speaker + hearer(s) + non-participant(s)', is expressed in the pronominal system of every language. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | pronoun, personal pronoun, person |
| 1444 | In no language are there pronominal forms differentiating the number of elements within a metaperson, e.g. special forms for 'hearer + hearer + ... + non-participant' and 'hearer + non-participant + ... + non-participant'. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | pronoun, personal pronoun, person, number |
| 1445 | In an overwhelming majority of languages, there is a special form to denote the metaperson 'speaker'. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | pronoun, personal pronoun, person, 1st |
| 1449 | In an overwhelming majority of languages, there is a special form to denote the metaperson 'hearer' in the singular. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | personal pronoun, person, 2nd, hearer, number, singular |
| 1453 | In no language is there a special form to denote the metaperson 'hearer' in the non-singular. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | personal pronoun, person, 2nd, hearer, number, non-singular, inclusive, exclusive |
| 1458 | In all languages, there is a special form to denote the metaperson 'non-participant'. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | personal pronoun, person, 3rd, non-participant |
| 1463 | In no language is there a special form to denote a metaperson 'speaker+hearer(s)'. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | personal pronoun, person, 1st, speaker, hearer, inclusive |
| 1471 | In an overwhelming majority of languages, there is no special form to denote the metaperson 'hearer(s) + non-participant(s)'. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | personal pronoun, person, 2nd, hearer, non-participant, inclusive, exclusive |
| 1476 | In an overwhelming majority of languages, there is no special form to denote the metaperson 'speaker + hearer(s) + non-participant(s)'. | inflection, syntax, lexicon | unconditional | personal pronoun, person, speaker, hearer, non-participant |
| 1491 | Noun incorporation, per movement in syntax (as opposed to lexical compound formation), is possible for underlying objects only. | morphology, syntax | unconditional | incorporation, noun, object, patient |
| 1492 | In ditransitive constructions, the theme/direct object may incorporate, but the goal/indirect object may not (per movement in syntax, as opposed to lexical compound formation). | morphology, syntax | unconditional | incorporation, theme, goal, indirect object, direct object |
| 1493 | Incorporation is favoured with the verbs denoting permanent and general activity (also typical or characteristic activity) whereas "accidental" or indifferent activities take autonomous direct object. | inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | incorporation, verb |
| 1499 | There are [basic?] terms for ‘eyes’, ‘nose’, and ‘mouth’. | lexicon | unconditional | body part |
| 1500 | The upper limb, ‘arm’ (and ‘hand’) is named by a distinct term in all languages. | lexicon | unconditional | body part |
| 1501 | All languages name ‘(finger)nail’ and ‘(toe)nail’. | lexicon | unconditional | body part |
| 1511 | Reciprocal constructions, which are morphologically related to the reflexive constructions, are never (or, at least, far less often) “lighter” then the latter; they are either “heavier” or the same degree of complexity. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | reciprocal, reflexive, complexity |
| 1603 | Every language has N’s and NPs of the type e → t (common nouns as predicates). | syntax, semantics | unconditional | quantification, NP, DP, semantic type |
| 1613 | Languages would not be expected to exhibit phonological constrasts such as [-nasal] laryngeal segments and [+nasal] laryngeal segments. | phonology | unconditional | nasalization, laryngeal (h, glottal stop) |
| 1628 | In languages with double numeral systems, there is a correlative tendency of the A form to be syntactically dependent [i.e. this form cannot stand alone but must be immediately followed by the item counted], and the B form to be independent. | syntax, semantics | unconditional | double numeral systems |
| 1662 | All systems distinguish male and female parent by separate terms even though very frequently other kin types are included in the referents of both. | lexicon | unconditional | kinship |
| 1663 | Whenever there are two terms differing in generation which are true reciprocals, or there is one which is a self-reciprocal term with two referents, and one involves the sex of the speaker in its definition and the other does not, it is always the term of lower generational reference which contains the sex of the speaker in its definition. | lexicon | unconditional | kinship |
| 1665 | The most common word for ‘first generation descendant’ is always the same as the most common word for ‘person who has not reached puberty’ (i.e. ‘child’). | lexicon | unconditional | kinship |
| 1731 | Indigenous non-affixal articles are polyfunctional and at least one of their additional uses is pronominal. | syntax | unconditional | article, pronoun |
| 1739 | The definite article may govern but is never governed by a noun-phrase-internal constituent. | syntax | unconditional | definite article, NP, government |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 1763 | Complete indefinite pronouns cannot be borrowed. | lexicon | unconditional | borrowing, indefinite pronoun |
| 1801 | In preconsonantal position distinctive nasalization develops preferentially before continuants. | phonology | unconditional | nasalization, preconsonantal, continuant |
| 1804 | There is a tendency for consonants to front when in initial position and to back when in final position. | phonology | unconditional | obstruent, voice |
| 1860 | Consonantality of a neighboring sound has the effect of changing a nonlateral into a lateral whereas nonconsonantality has the reverse effect of changing a lateral into a nonlateral. | phonology | unconditional | liquid, lateral, consonantality, consonant |
| 1861 | The consonantality of a neighboring sound has the effect of changing a nontrill (flap or tap) into a trill whereas a neighboring nonconsonantal sound has the reverse effect of changing a trill into a nontrill. | phonology | unconditional | liquid, trill, tap, flap, consonantality, consonant |
| 1862 | A trill is found to occur in a stressed position, to denote emphasis, or in slow speech. As against this, a flap (or tap) occurs in unstressed position, and in non-emphatic or fast speech. | phonology | unconditional | liquid, trill, tap, flap, stress, consonant |
| 1863 | A retroflexed flap (out-flap) and also other retroflexed consonants have a retroflexing or centralizing influence on a preceding rather than following segment. | phonology | unconditional | liquid, flap, retroflexion, centralization, consonant |
| 1864 | The alveolar and retroflex stops generally tend to become taps and flaps intervocalically. | phonology | unconditional | liquid, stop, tap, flap, retroflex |
| 1865 | The liquids tend to become devoiced in the final and also in initial position. They further become spirantized especially in initial position. | phonology | unconditional | liquid, devoicing, spirantization |
| 1869 | There is a "tone of voice" appropriate for talking to young children: (i) overall higher pitch and/or exaggerated intonation contours; (ii) slower speech tempo. |
phonology, pragmatics | unconditional | baby talk, pitch, intonation, tempo |
| 1870 | Baby talk has shorter sentences, fewer subordinate clauses, fewer grammatical relations, more repetitions than normal adult-to-adult speech, often omits inflections and function words, and the copula. | inflection, syntax, discourse | unconditional | baby talk, complexity, subordination, copula |
| 1871 | Every speech community seems to have a small lexicon of words used primarily with young children. The words of this special lexicon (i) fall into certain semantic areas (namely body parts, body functions, kin terms, food, animals, infant games), (ii) they include greater use of hypocoristic affixes, (iii) they are used more freely in different word class functions than the normal adult lexicon (esp. as parts of compound verbs with general purpose auxiliaries), and (iv) they tend to be phonologically simplified (simple canonical forms, esp. CVCV; substitution of marked sounds by less marked ones; special sounds; consonant and vowel harmony; reduplication). | phonology, syntax | unconditional | baby talk, hypocoristic, word class, complexity, markedness, consonant harmony, vowel harmony, reduplication |
| 1872 | Baby talk is also characterized by: high percentage of questions; frequent use of tags; here-and-now semantics; high semantic continuity between pairs of utterances; striking shifts in pronoun use (especially in alternatives for YOU). |
discourse | unconditional | baby talk |