Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
1,237 entries · page 6 of 25
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 345 | IF the order VS is dominant with transitive verbs, THEN it will be dominant with intransitive verbs as well. | syntax | implication | order, transitivity, subject |
| 346 | IF a subject usually follows the nominal predicate, THEN it also follows the verbal predicate. | syntax | implication | order, subject, nominal predicate, verbal predicate |
| 347 | IF the order OV is not recessive, THEN the order SV is not recessive as well. | syntax | implication | order, verb, subject, object |
| 348 | IF VS order is not recessive, THEN VO order is not recessive either. | syntax | implication | order, verb, subject, object |
| 349 | IF SOV is a dominant order, THEN OVS is one of the alternative orders. | syntax | implication | order, SOV, OVS |
| 350 | IF VSO is one of the alternative orders, THEN VOS is also one of the alternative orders. | syntax | implication | order, VSO, VOS |
| 351 | In a dominant order the object and the verb are juxtaposed, uninterrupted by the subject (i.e., SVO, SOV, VOS, OVS, but not VSO, OSV). | syntax | unconditional | order, verb, object, subject |
| 352 | In a dominant order the subject and the object are juxtaposed, uninterrupted by the verb (i.e., SOV, VOS, VSO, OSV, but not SVO, OVS). | syntax | unconditional | order, verb, object, subject |
| 353 | In a dominant order no more than one of these three principles – here numbered <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=351"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">, <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=352"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">, <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=490"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0"> – can be violated. | syntax | unconditional | order |
| 354 | IF the dominant order is OS, THEN the order VS is also dominant. | syntax | implication | order, subject, object |
| 358 | Whenever there is verb agreement with subject and object and basic word order is VS, IF subject agreement markers are always postverbal, THEN object agreement markers are always postverbal too. |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, VS, verb agreement, subject, verb, object, affix-order |
| 359 | IF an incorporated nominal direct object precedes the verb stem, THEN the autonomous subject precedes the predicate. | morphology, syntax | implication | order, incorporation, verb, subject, direct object |
| 360 | IF an incorporated direct object follows the verb stem, THEN the autonomous subject follows the predicate. | morphology, syntax | implication | incorporation, verb, order, direct object, subject |
| 368 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN the phonological structure of affixes tends to be very similar to that of stems. IF morphology is flexive, THEN affixes tend to be shorter, structurally simpler, and more uniform in their phonemic make-up than stems. |
phonology, morphology | mutual implication | phonology, affix, stem, agglutination, flexion |
| 369 | IF there is vowel harmony, THEN morphology tends to be agglutinative. | phonology, morphology | mutual implication | agglutination, vowel harmony |
| 370 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN casual/fast speech shows less phonological reduction than if morphology is flexive. | phonology, morphology, syntax | implication | agglutination, flexion, fast speech, agreement |
| 372 | IF basic order is VO, THEN main stress in a Verb Phrase is to the right of Verb. IF basic order is OV, THEN main stress in a Verb Phrase is to the left of Verb. |
prosodic phonology, syntax | implication | stress, VP, verb, order, object |
| 373 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN syllabic structure is simple (syllables are short), and vice versa. IF morphology is flexive, THEN syllabic structure is complex (syllables are long), and vice versa. |
phonology, morphology | mutual implication | agglutination, flexion, syllable structure |
| 374 | IF there are high syllable-per-sentence and high syllable-per-word ratios & simple syllables & agglutinative morphology, THEN basic word order will be (S)OV. IF there are low syllable-per-sentence and low syllable-per-word ratios & complex syllables & flexive [or no] morphology, THEN basic word order will be (S)V(S)O. |
phonology, morphology, syntax | implication | agglutination, flexion, syllable, order, complexity |
| 375 | IF there is a case exclusively marking noun phrases in construction with adpositions, THEN there will be still further cases in addition to a basic general case. | inflection | implication | case, adpositional case |
| 377 | IF there are specialized topic markers, THEN these will always be postpositional and basic word order will almost always be SOV. | inflection, syntax | implication | topic, order, SOV |
| 378 | IF there are specialized topic markers, THEN there will be high topic prominence (in the sense of Li & Thompson 1976). | syntax, pragmatics | implication | topic |
| 379 | Every language has syntactic topic constructions in which an expression which refers to the topic of the sentence is adjoined to the left of a full sentence comment. | syntax, pragmatics | unconditional | topic, order, comment, theme, new information |
| 380 | Every language has cleft constructions, either wh-clefts or it-clefts or both. | syntax, pragmatics | unconditional | topic, cleft, wh-cleft, it-cleft |
| 381 | Every language has “double-subject”* constructions. | syntax, pragmatics | unconditional | topic, comment |
| 382 | All languages have constructions whose function is to place topic, both old and new, before comment. | syntax, pragmatics | unconditional | topic, comment, order, focus |
| 383 | The higher the topic-prominence, the less restricted the distribution of zero anaphora. | syntax, pragmatics | implication | topic, anaphora, zero |
| 384 | The higher the topic-prominence, the fewer subject-creating constructions. | syntax, pragmatics | implication | topic, subject |
| 385 | IF topic-comment structure is coded by intonation, THEN primary stress always falls inside the focus. | syntax, prosodic phonology | implication | topic, comment, intonation, focus |
| 387 | IF there is nominal inflection, THEN there will be verbal inflection. | inflection | implication | noun, verb |
| 392 | IF there is a associative plural, THEN there is a basic plural as well. | inflection | implication | number, plural, associative |
| 393 | When there is the category of associative plural, it will only be used with singular definite nouns, such as proper names, titles, and names of relatives. | inflection | unconditional | number, plural, associative, noun, definite, proper |
| 394 | IF there is person-number marking on adpositions, THEN there will be the same on nouns as well; IF there is person-number marking on nouns, THEN there will be the same on verbs as well. |
inflection | implication | adposition, noun, verb, person, number |
| 395 | IF there is cross-referential inflection, THEN there will be some self-referencing expression of the same categories (i.e., personal pronouns). | inflection, syntax | implication | cross-reference, pronoun |
| 396 | IF there are morphological means to indicate verbal modification (i.e., participles), THEN there are morphological means to indicate verbal reference (i.e., nominalized verb forms). | inflection, syntax | implication | participle, verb, nominalization |
| 397 | The more frequent and syntagmatically simple forms show paradigmatically complexity, the less frequent and syntagmatically complex forms show less paradigmatic complexity. | morphology | unconditional | frequency, complexity |
| 398 | IF an affix conditions outwards, THEN an affix of the same type may in some other context condition inwards. | morphology | implication | affix, allomorphy |
| 399 | When there are homonymous inflectional affixes that express a single meaning element, IF there is cumulative inflection at all, THEN some of those will also be homonymous. | inflection | implication | homonymy, affix, cumulation |
| 400 | IF number is indicated by inflection in the 1st and/or 2nd person pronouns, THEN it is indicated by inflection in the 3rd person. | inflection | implication | number, personal pronoun, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 401 | IF number in the 1st and/or 2nd person pronoun is indicated by a plural marker also used for nouns, THEN 3rd person uses the same plural marker. | inflection | implication | number, plural, noun, personal pronoun, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 402 | IF any inflectional categories are expressed cumulatively and there is person-number inflection, THEN person-number will be among the cumulatively expressed distinctions. | inflection | implication | cumulation, person, number |
| 403 | IF there is any cumulative expression in a nominal paradigm, THEN there will be cumulative expression in a pronominal paradigm as well. | inflection | implication | cumulation, noun, pronoun |
| 404 | If a construction involves a free and a bound constituent which convey the same meaning and one of them is optional, it is always the free form that is optional and never the bound one. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | optionality |
| 406 | IF morphology is agglutinative (to an extent), THEN at least some inflections can be used on members of more than one word class, and vice versa. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication | agglutination, word class |
| 407 | IF at least some inflections are used cross-categorially, THEN morphology is agglutinative at least to an extent. | inflection, syntax | implication | agglutination, word class |
| 408 | IF person marking in possessed nouns and intransitive verbs is phonologically identical, THEN this will also be true for possessed nouns and transitive verbs. | inflection | implication | noun, person, possession, verb, transitivity |
| 409 | IF person marking is phonologically identical for possessed nouns and intransitive verbs of non-perfective tenses, THEN this will also be true in perfective tenses. | inflection | implication | noun, person, possession, verb, transitivity, tense, perfective, non-perfective |
| 410 | IF person marking is phonologically identical for possessed nouns and verbs of non-indicative moods (imperative, interrogative, optative), THEN this will also be true in the indicative mood. | inflection | implication | noun, person, possession, verb, mood, indicative, non-indicative, imperative, interrogative, optative |
| 411 | IF person marking is phonologically identical for possessed nouns and intransitive verbs of the non-subordinate sort, THEN this will also be true for intransitive verbs of the subordinate* sort. | inflection | implication | noun, person, possession, verb, transitivity, subordination |
| 413 | IF there are postpositions, THEN nominal gender affixes (if there are any) are suffixed. IF gender affixes are prefixed, THEN there are prepositions. |
inflection, syntax | implication | postposition, preposition, noun, gender, affix-order, suffix, prefix |