Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
1,698 entries · page 8 of 34
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 405 | IF there are aspirated continuous obstruents, THEN there are also aspirated non-continuous obstruents. | phonology | implication | /h/, obstruent, continuous, non-continuous, aspiration |
| 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 |
| 412 | IF there are aspirated voiced consonants (especially sonorants), THEN there are also aspirated voiceless consonants (especially obstruents). | phonology | implication | /h/, consonant, voice, aspiration |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 416 | Affixes are ordered so that their increasing distance from the stem reflects decreasing semantic relevance to it. | inflection, semantics | mutual implication | affix-order, stem, relevance |
| 417 | The degree of bounding between stem and affix is in proportion to the semantic relevance of the affix to the stem. | inflection, semantics | mutual implication | affix, stem, relevance |
| 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 |
| 438 | IF basic order is verb-initial or free, THEN head-marking is favoured, and vice versa. IF basic order is verb-medial or verb-final, THEN dependent-marking is favoured, and vice versa. |
inflection, syntax | mutual implication | order, verb-initial, verb-final, verb-medial, head-marking, dependent-marking |
| 439 | IF alignment is ergative, THEN there will be high complexity. | inflection, syntax | mutual implication? | alignment, ergative-absolutive, complexity |
| 440 | IF alignment is non-accusative, THEN there will be verb-initial order. | syntax | implication | alignment, non-accusative, order, verb-initial |
| 441 | IF basic order is SOV, THEN SO Neg V or SOV Neg. | syntax | implication | order, SOV, negation |
| 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 |