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 7 of 25
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 414 | IF basic order is SOV, THEN gender affixes on nouns (if any) are suffixed. IF there are prefixed gender affixes, THEN basic order is VO (i.e. not SOV). |
inflection, syntax | implication | order, SOV, noun, gender, affix-order, suffix, prefix |
| 418 | IF the verb agrees with a constituent other than the intransitive subject, THEN the verb also agrees with the intransitive subject. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject |
| 419 | IF the verb agrees with an adverbial constituent, THEN the verb also agrees with a non-adverbial constituent. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, adverb |
| 420 | Provided there is a constituent class including both definite and indefinite members: IF the verb agrees with some or all of its indefinite members, THEN the verb also agrees with its definite members. |
inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, definiteness |
| 421 | Provided there is a constituent class including both animate and inanimate members: IF the verb agrees with some or all of its inanimate members, THEN the verb also agrees with its at least some of its animate members. |
inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, animacy |
| 422 | Provided there is a constituent class including both topical and non-topical members: IF the verb agrees with some or all of its non-topical members, THEN the verb agrees with at least some of its topical members. |
inflection, syntax, discourse | implication | verb agreement, topic |
| 423 | Provided there is a constituent class including both members that precede the verb and also members that follow the verb: IF the verb agrees with some or all of its postverbal members, THEN the verb also agrees with at least some of its preverbal members. |
inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, order |
| 424 | If there are prepositions, THEN IF basic order is not SOV, THEN the relative clause follows the noun. | syntax | nested implication | preposition, order, relative clause, noun |
| 425 | Provided there is a constituent class some members of which are immediate constituents of the sentence at the point in a grammatical derivation where verb-agreement rules apply and some others members are non-immediate constituents of the sentence at that point: IF the verb agrees with some or all non-immediate constituents, THEN the verb also agrees with at least some immediate constituents. |
inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, constituency |
| 426 | IF nouns inflect for plural, THEN so will at least some of the pronouns. | inflection | implication | number, plural, noun, pronoun |
| 427 | IF any constituent other than anaphoric pronouns agrees in gender and/or number, THEN anaphoric pronouns agree in gender and/or number. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, gender, number, anaphoric pronoun |
| 428 | Whenever there is gender agreement, IF morphological gender can be overruled by semantics within the noun phrase, THEN it can also be overruled in noun phrase external gender agreement. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | agreement, gender, NP |
| 429 | Whenever predicates agree with subjects in number and there is a politeness contrast for pronouns of address, with plural forms serving as polite singulars, IF any predicate constituents other than verbs are plural in agreement with polite plural (referentially singular) subject pronouns, THEN verbs are also plural; IF any predicate constituents other than nouns are singular, THEN nouns are also singular. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | agreement, politeness, number, plural, singular, personal pronoun, predicate noun, verb |
| 430 | IF gender distinctions appear anywhere else, THEN they will already be there in the 3rd person. | inflection | implication | gender, 3 person |
| 431 | IF there is a singular-plural distinction in the 2nd and/or the 3rd person of personal pronouns, THEN there is a singular-plural distinction in the 1st person. | inflection | implication | number, singular, plural, pronoun, personal pronoun, person, 1, 2, 3 |
| 432 | IF plurality in non-human (or inanimate) noun phrases is overtly marked, THEN so is plurality in human (or animate) noun phrases. | inflection | implication | number, plural, animacy |
| 433 | IF there are voice distinctions in a non-indicative mood, THEN they are made in the indicative mood as well. | inflection | implication | diathesis, voice, mood, indicative, non-indicative |
| 434 | IF there are distinctions of aspect or tense in the forms of a non-indicative mood, THEN they are also made in the forms of the indicative mood. | inflection | implication | mood, indicative, non-indicative, tense, aspect |
| 435 | IF there is full passive, THEN there is also reduced passive. IF there is no reduced passive, THEN there is no passive at all. |
syntax | implication | diathesis, passive |
| 436 | Head-marking is associated with low complexity, dependent marking with high complexity, where complexity is the total of D, H, and F points for NP and S. D- refers to dependent-marking; H- refers to head-marking; F- refers to detachment* (mnemonically F stands for “free” or “floated”) |
inflection, syntax | implication | head-marking, dependent-marking, complexity |
| 437 | IF alignment is ergative, THEN there will be dependent-marking, and vice versa. IF alignment is stative-active or hierarchical, THEN there will be head-marking, and vice versa. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | head-marking, dependent-marking, alignment, ergative-absolutive, stative-active, hierarchical alignment |
| 439 | IF alignment is ergative, THEN there will be high complexity. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication? | alignment, ergative-absolutive, complexity |
| 442 | IF the ANC is not of the SENT type, THEN the S of an intransitive ANC is always genitivized. | inflection, syntax | implication | nominalization, case, genitive |
| 443 | Hierarchy of proneness to lose sentential head-marking: A > S > P, where sentential head-marking is impossible for A, and possible for P. |
inflection, syntax | implicational hierarchy | nominalization, head-marking |
| 447 | IF there is verb-final (rigid, or non-rigid) or free word order as (one of) the basic order(s), THEN there will be postpositions or case affixes. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-final, postposition, case, affix |
| 448 | IF basic order is verb-initial, THEN there will be prepositions or case prefixes. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, preposition, case, affix, prefix |
| 449 | IF in a pronominally possessed construction there is a genitive-marked constituent, THEN the corresponding constituent in a nominally possessed construction is also genitive-marked. | inflection, syntax | implication | possession, pronoun, noun, attributive, case, genitive |
| 450 | IF a nominally possessed construction has Genitive before Noun, THEN the pronominal (non-affixal) construction has the same order. | inflection, syntax | implication | attributive, noun, order, possession, pronoun |
| 451 | IF a possessee is marked for genitive, THEN there will be a construction in which the possessor is also marked as such. | inflection, syntax | implication | case, genitive, possession |
| 452 | IF a possessor is marked for 3rd person, THEN a possessee is so marked in the same construction. | inflection, syntax | implication | person, 3, possession |
| 455 | IF there are personal possessive prefixes, THEN genitive precedes its head noun, but not vice versa | inflection, syntax | implication | possession, person, prefix, suffix, order, attributive, noun |
| 459 | IF there are long consonants after long vowels, THEN there are long consonants after short vowels. | phonology | implication | phonotactics, geminate, vowel, long, short |
| 460 | IF in a HAVE-construction the possessor is marked for subject, THEN the possessee is comitative-marked. | inflection, syntax | implication | possession, subject, comitative |
| 461 | Verb taking an effected or annihilated object (in particular verbs meaning ‘to create’ and ‘to destroy’) are transitive in all relevant morphosyntactic respects. | inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | verb, transitive, effected object |
| 462 | With verbs with the general meaning 'destroy' or 'create', agents will be subject and patients direct object in basic (active) constructions. | inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | verb, transitivity, subject, direct object, agent, patient |
| 463 | The patient of verbs of creating and destroying is the subject in the passive voice, if there is one. | inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | diathesis, passive, transitivity, subject, direct object, agent, patient |
| 467 | The subjects in predications of class membership are grammatically identical to subjects of intransitive verbs of state. | inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | subject, predication, transitivity, stative |
| 469 | IF the marking for nominal and verbal number is phonologically identical, THEN this will be the case for nouns and verbs of the 3rd person. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | number, person, 3, noun, verb |
| 470 | IF the marking for number is identical for nouns and verbal forms of 1st and 2nd person, THEN this will also be true for nouns and verbal forms of 3rd person. | inflection, syntax | implication | number, person, 1, 2, 3, noun, verb |
| 471 | IF long consonants occur in non-intervocalic position, THEN they will occur in intervocalic position. | phonology | implication | phonotactics, geminate, intervocalic position |
| 472 | IF there is an opposition ergative/absolutive in the inflection of independent personal pronouns of the 1st and 2nd person (or at least one of them), THEN there is the same opposition in the inflection of nouns. | inflection, syntax | implication | alignment, case, ergative, absolutive, personal pronoun, person, 1, 2, noun |
| 473 | IF personal and/or demonstrative pronouns of 3rd person have an opposition ergative/absolutive, THEN the nouns have the same opposition. | inflection, syntax | implication | alignment, case, ergative , absolutive, personal pronoun, demonstrative pronoun, person, 3, noun |
| 475 | IF there is an opposition accusative/nominative in the inflection of nouns, THEN there is the same opposition in the inflection of independent personal pronouns of 1st, 2nd, 3rd person (at least one of them). | inflection, syntax | implication | alignment, case, accusative, nominative, personal pronoun, person, 1, 2, 3, noun |
| 476 | Correlation between Types of Exponence and the Number of Terms of inflexional categories: Cumulative and sensitive separatist exponents limit the number of terms that may potentially realize inflexional categories more severely than insensitive separatist exponents. |
inflection | implication | exponent, cumulation, sensitivity |
| 477 | IF a case system is extra-large (beyond a dozen or so cases), THEN exponents of case are insensitive separatist (rather than sensitive cumulative). | inflection | implication | cumulation, sensitivity, case |
| 478 | IF there are tense distinctions in progressive, THEN there will be as least as many tense distinctions in non-progressive. | inflection | implication | tense, aspect, progressive, non-progressive |
| 479 | IF the same progressive constructions are used for present and for non-present tenses, THEN the progressive aspect verb phrase will either be unmarked or marked as present. | inflection | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | tense, present, non-present, aspect, progressive |
| 480 | When the head (lexical) verb in a progressive verb phrase is marked for tense, THEN it is marked as present tense. | inflection | unconditional | tense, present, aspect, progressive |
| 481 | IF there is future progressive form, THEN there is also a past progressive form. | inflection | implication | tense, past, future, aspect, progressive |
| 482 | IF there is a word-level progressive form for some tenses and there are phrase-level progressive constructions for other tenses, THEN the word-level progressive will be the present tense form. | inflection, syntax | implication | tense, present, aspect, progressive |