Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
827 entries · page 8 of 17
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1009 | IF dentals are spirantized, THEN labials and velars are most likely spirantized as well. | phonology | implication | spirantization |
| 1010 | No matter which direction the process ( d⇔ð, t⇔† ) is going, the stop outcome is favoured by word-initial, post-nasal or post-liquid stressed positions. The spirant outcome is favoured by post-vocalic positions, including intervocalic, pre-consonantal and pre-junctural. | phonology | unconditional | spirantization |
| 1011 | Pidginization processes tend to replace fricatives other than s by stops. | phonology | unconditional | spirantization, pidginization |
| 1012 | IF there is an Exceed-2 Comparative or an Exceed-3 Comparative, THEN the adjectives are nouny. IF the adjectives are nouny and there is an Exceed Comparative, THEN the comparative will be of Exceed-2 or of Exceed-3 type. |
syntax | implication | comparative, adjective, nouny |
| 1014 | IF there are n labials or velars, THEN there will be at least n dentals. |
phonology | implication | consonant, dental, labial, velar |
| 1015 | IF there are peripheral affricates, THEN there are medial affricates. | phonology | implication | affricate, peripheral, medial |
| 1016 | IF there are diffuse medial affricates and compact medial fricatives, THEN there are compact medial affricates. | phonology | implication | affricate, fricative, diffuse, compact, medial |
| 1018 | When there are analogical changes in their inflectional paradigms, the forms (stems and affixes) of inferior numerals are more likely to replace the forms (stems and affixes) of superior numerals than the other way round. | morphology | implication | stem, affix, numeral, analogical change |
| 1019 | When there are analogical changes in their inflectional paradigms, the forms (stems and affixes) of cardinal numerals are more likely to replace the forms (stems and affixes) of ordinal numerals than the other way round. | morphology | implication | stem, affix, numeral, ordinal, cardinal, analogical change |
| 1020 | When there are analogical changes in their inflectional paradigms, the forms (stems and affixes) of the present are more likely to replace the forms of the other tenses than the other way round. | morphology | implication | stem, affix, tense, present, non-present, analogical change |
| 1021 | IF basic order is verb-initial, THEN genitive tends to follow the noun. | syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, noun, attributive |
| 1031 | IF VO, THEN Non-tensedness, Non-casedness, WITH-Construction, and Non-Absolute Converb. IF Non-tensedness, THEN VO, Non-casedness, WITH-Construction, and Non-Absolute Converb. IF Non-casedness, THEN VO, Non-tensedness, WITH-Construction, and Non-Absolute Converb. IF AND-construction, THEN VO, Non-tensedness, Non-casedness, and Non-Absolute Converb. IF Non-Absolute Converb, THEN VO, Non-tensedness, Non-casedness, and WITH-Construction. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | order, VO, verb, object, non-tensedness, non-casedness, WITH-construction, converb |
| 1032 | IF basic word order OV, THEN Tensedness, Casedness, AND-Construction, and Absolute Converb. IF Tensedness, THEN basic word order OV, Casedness, AND-Construction, and Absolute Converb. IF Casedness, THEN basic word order OV, Tensedness, AND-Construction, and Absolute Converb. IF AND-construction, THEN basic word order OV, Tensedness, Casedness, and Absolute Converb. IF Absolute Converb, THEN basic word order OV, Tensedness, Casedness, and AND-Construction. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | order, OV, verb, object, tensedness, casedness, AND-construction, converb |
| 1042 | IF secondary stress is phonological, THEN it most frequently involves alternations of weak stress (unstressed?) with secondary stress (so the favorite position of secondary stress is two syllables before or after the main stress); when there are deviations, a factor of syllabic weight is probably always involved. | prosodic phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | stress, syllable, accent |
| 1043 | Root accent is systematically favoured over inflectional accent. | phonology, morphology | unconditional | root, affix, accent |
| 1054 | IF there is agreement within NPs, THEN there is almost certainly agreement within clauses. | inflection, syntax | implication | NP, clause, agreement |
| 1055 | IF there is agreement within clauses, THEN agreement is likelier to be used than not to be used within NPs. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, NP, clause |
| 1056 | IF determiners and modifiers both agree with head nouns, THEN head nouns do not agree with attributive nouns. IF head nouns do not agree with attributive nouns, THEN both determiners and modifiers agree with head nouns. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | agreement, NP, determiner, modifier, attribution |
| 1057 | IF determiners agree within NPs, modifiers are likelier also to agree than not to agree. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, NP, determiner, modifier |
| 1058 | IF verbs agree in number, THEN they are very likely to agree in person. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, verb, number, person |
| 1059 | IF verbs agree in person, THEN they are even likelier also to agree in number. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, verb, number, person |
| 1060 | IF verbs agree in gender, THEN they are very likely also to agree in number. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, verb, number, gender |
| 1061 | IF verbs agree in person, THEN they are likelier not to agree than to agree in gender. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, verb, person, gender |
| 1062 | IF verbs agree in Gender, THEN they are likelier to agree than not to agree in Person. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, verb, person, gender |
| 1063 | Whenever NP-internal constituents agree in only a single category, this will not be Definiteness; it will most likely be Number. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | agreement, NP, number, definiteness |
| 1064 | Whenever there is agreement both within clauses and within NPs, IF NP-constituents agree in Number, THEN clause constituents will almost certainly also agree in Number. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, NP, clause, number |
| 1065 | Whenever there is agreement both within clauses and within NPs, IF clause-constituents agree in number, THEN NP constituents are very likely also to agree in number. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, NP, clause, number |
| 1066 | Whenever predicates agree with subjects in number and there is a politeness contrast for pronouns of address, with plural forms serving as polite singulars, the more verb-like a predicate the likelier it is to agree according to surface features of the subject (i.e., to be plural), and the more noun-like a predicate the likelier it is to agree according to the referential semantics of the subject (i.e., to be singular). | inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | agreement, number, politeness |
| 1067 | Provided stress is phonologically predictable (i.e., demarcative), it will most likely fall on initial syllables, somewhat less commonly on final syllables or on penultimate syllables, rarely on second syllables, and never on others. | prosodic phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | stress, syllable |
| 1070 | IF syllables tend to weaken before stress, THEN they also weaken after stress. | prosodic phonology | implication | stress, syllable |
| 1074 | Provided both stress and quantity are distinctive, either stress distinctions will be limited in terms of quantity (to either long or short vowels) or quantity distinctions will be limited in terms of stress (to stressed syllables only). | prosodic phonology | mutual limitation | stress, syllable, quantity |
| 1075 | While a tone can be restricted in occurrence by an adjacent voiced vs. voiceless consonant, no stress language assigns stress on such a basis. Stress will generally be assigned without reference to segmentals except in two potential situations: (i) there is severe articulatory conflict, and (ii) there is perceptual conflict from within the phonological system. | prosodic phonology | unconditional | stress, tone, consonant |
| 1076 | Syllabification across word boundaries is likelier when stress is non-demarcative than when it is demarcative. |
prosodic phonology | implication | stress, syllabification, word boundary |
| 1077 | Syllabification across a word boundary may be less likely in a language with initial stress than in a language with final stress. | prosodic phonology | implication | stress, syllabification, word boundary |
| 1080 | Aspiration occurs most frequently after voiceless stops. | phonology | unconditional | aspiration, stop, voice |
| 1081 | IF there are voiced stops with “murmured” aspiration, THEN there are most likely normal voiced aspirates. | phonology | implication | aspiration, stop, voice |
| 1082 | In languages with distinctive aspiration, when aspiration is phonemic, it is often more marked than when it is merely allophonic. | phonology | implication | aspiration, stop |
| 1083 | Aspiration tends to be stronger in initial and/or pre-tonic position antevocalically. | phonology | implication | aspiration, stop |
| 1084 | Duration of aspiration varies according to place of articulation: k > t > p. | phonology | implicational hierarchy | aspiration, place of articulation |
| 1087 | IF there is agreement with full noun phrases, THEN very likely there is agreement with pronouns. | inflection, syntax | implication | agreement, noun, pronoun |
| 1088 | IF there is not a full six-position stop paradigm (/p, t, k, b, d, g/), THEN the gaps are most likely to occur at /g/, then /p/, followed by /d/ and finally /b/. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | stop, paradigm |
| 1091 | The general tendency for a cluster of consonant and nasal is either to (i) retain the nasality (by weakening or deleting the consonant), or (ii) to lose the nasality (when the preceding consonant is stronger than the nasal). | phonology | unconditional | consonant cluster, nasal |
| 1092 | IF a nasal system has more than two place of articulation contrasts, THEN it will probably have a palatal or velar nasal, or both. | phonology | implication | nasal, consonant, palatal, velar |
| 1095 | IF there are n stop and affricate positions, THEN there will not be more than n nasal positions. | phonology | implication | nasal, oral, stop, affricate |
| 1098 | Nasal consonants tend to share place of articulation properties with stop systems, and glottal features, syllabicity, and accent bearing with liquids. | phonology | unconditional | nasal, consonant, stop, liquid |
| 1100 | (holistic) Type A vs. Type B |
phonology, morphology, syntax | mutual implication | nasal vowel, syllable, order, attributive, adjective, noun, prefix, suffix, preposition, postposition, serial verb, number, compounding, consonant, agreement, subject |
| 1101 | IF there is a high number of vowel distinctions which are perceptually close to each other, THEN the addition of distinctive vowel nasalization creates an unstable system leading to elimination of distinctively nasal vowels or reducing the number of oral vowels (which is rare). | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | nasal, vowel, nasalization |
| 1108 | If any case has zero realization, or a zero allomorph, it will be absolutive or nominative. | inflection, syntax | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | case, nominative, allomorphy, zero |
| 1109 | The absolute or nominative form of a noun will be used in citation. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | nominative case, absolutive case, semantics |
| 1110 | IF there is Locative Possessive, THEN there is deranking of simultaneous sequences. | inflection, syntax | implication | possessive, deranking |