Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
2,017 entries · page 8 of 41
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 355 | Whenever there is verb agreement with subject and object, IF the orderings of agreement markers on verbs include s-V-o but not o-V-s, THEN basic word order is verb-initial (VSO or VOS). | inflection, syntax | implication | order, verb-initial, VSO, VOS, verb agreement, subject, object, affix-order |
| 356 | Whenever there is verb agreement with subject and object, IF the orderings of agreement markers on verbs include o-V-s but not s-V-o, THEN basic word order is SOV. | inflection, syntax | implication | order, SOV, verb agreement, subject, object, affix-order |
| 357 | Whenever there is verb agreement with subject and object, IF the orderings of agreement markers on verbs is always V-s, THEN basic word order is SV. |
inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, subject, affix-order, order, SV |
| 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 |
| 361 | IF word order is free, THEN the words tend to be longer than one syllable. IF basic word order is SVO, THEN the words tend to be monosyllabic. |
phonology, syntax | implication | word length, syllable, order, SVO |
| 362 | The extent of “material“ articulation, pertaining in particular to (a) the elaboration of sound systems, (b) the complexity of syllable structures, (c) word length, (d) accentual differentiation (as opposed to not-so-articulated tonal modification), correlates with the extent of “formal“ articulation, pertaining in particular to (a) the differentiation of parts of speech, (b) the elaboration of inflectional and derivational systems, (c) analytic syntax (as opposed to not-so-articulated polysynthesis). | prosodic phonology, inflection, word formation, syntax, lexicon | mutual implication | phoneme system, syllable, word length, accent, tone, word class, polysynthesis |
| 363 | (a)The utterance of the consonants with strong pressure of breath from the chest (as in aspirates, affricates, or in guttural consonants) corresponds to strength of purpose in the language community. (b) The tense and full utterance of consonants corresponds to laborious and active habits respectively, with easy life and indolence producing softly and imperfectly uttered consonants instead. (c) The unrestricted concurrence of consonants in consonant clusters corresponds to versatility, the restricted variety in their concurrence to tenacity. (d) The predominance of consonants (more adapted for the transmission of that representation to the sense of the hearer) corresponds to thoughtfulness, while the predominance of vowels over consonants corresponds to thoughtfulness and talkativeness. | phonology, culture/mind | mutual implication | consonant, vowel, consonant clusters, aspiration |
| 364 | IF morphology is flexive or introflexive, THEN word forms tend to be two or three syllables long. IF morphology is agglutinative or incorporating, THEN word forms tend to be longer. IF bound morphology is lacking (i.e. a language is isolating), THEN word forms tend to be shorter. |
phonology, morphology, lexicon | mutual implication | flexion, introflexion, agglutination, incorporation, isolation, word length, syllable |
| 365 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN inflectional affixes tend to be longer. IF morphology is flexive, THEN inflectional affixes tend to be shorter. |
inflection | mutual implication | affix, complexity, agglutination, flexion |
| 366 | Whenever there is verb agreement with subject and object, IF object agreement markers can be preverbal, THEN basic word order is SV. | inflection, syntax | implication | verb agreement, order, subject, object, affix-order |
| 367 | IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN derivational affixes tend to have more complex syllabic structure. IF morphology is flexive, THEN derivational affixes tend to have less complex syllabic structure. |
phonology, morphology | mutual implication | affix, syllable, agglutination, flexion |
| 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 |
| 371 | IF there is vowel harmony and perhaps other progressive phonological modifications, THEN basic word order is OV, but not vice versa; IF there is umlaut and perhaps other regressive/anticipatory phonological modifications, THEN basic word order is VO, but not vice versa. |
phonology, syntax | implication | vowel harmony, assimilation, order, object, verb, umlaut |
| 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 |
| 376 | IF an expression is the topic of a sentence, THEN it is typically definite or generic. | syntax, pragmatics | implication | topic, definiteness, generic |
| 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 |
| 386 | The most neutral position for focus in a language will be the position normally occupied by the direct object. | syntax, pragmatics | unconditional | focus, direct object |
| 387 | IF there is nominal inflection, THEN there will be verbal inflection. | inflection | implication | noun, verb |
| 388 | IF /h/ precedes a high vowel, THEN it also precedes a low vowel. |
phonology | implication | /h/, vowel, aspiration, high, low |
| 389 | IF there is no inflectional gender, THEN morphology is agglutinative, and vice versa. | inflection | mutual implication | agglutination, gender |
| 390 | IF aspirated consonants occur in absolute final position, THEN they also occur preconsonantally; IF they occur preconsonantally, THEN they also occur postvocalically; IF they occur postvocalically, THEN they also occur prevocalically. |
phonology | implication | /h/, consonant, aspiration, preconsonantal, prevocalic, absolute, final position |
| 391 | IF an aspirated consonant occurs preceding an unstressed vowel, THEN it also occurs preceding a secondary stressed vowel. IF an aspirated consonant occurs preceding a secondary stressed vowel, THEN it also occurs preceding a primary stressed one. |
prosodic phonology | implication | /h/, consonant, vowel, aspiration, primary, stress, secondary, unstressed |
| 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 |