Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
31 entries
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | IF the exponent of vocative is a prefix, THEN this marker has been reanalysed from a 1st person possessor marker on nouns or a 2nd person subject marker on verbs. |
inflection | target < source | case, vocative, prefix, possessor, person, 1st, 2nd |
| 43 | Case affixes can be grammaticalized from adpositions only if the noun is not separated from the adposition in the unmarked word order in the NP; i.e., if the unmarked order is either (a) (Modifiers and/or Numerals) N Postposition, or (b) Preposition N (Modifiers and/or Numerals). | inflection, syntax | target < source | case, adposition, preposition, postposition, NP, noun, modifier, numeral, order, grammaticalization |
| 939 | Secondary nasal consonants are, apart from borrowing and analogical formations, always the result of diachronic developments from clusters. | phonology | target < source | consonant, nasal |
| 943 | Nasal vowels, apart from borrowing and analogical formations, always result from the loss of a Primary Nasal Consonant. | phonology | target < source | consonant, nasal, vowel |
| 944 | A nasal syllabic phoneme, apart from borrowings and analogical formations, always results from the loss of a vowel. | phonology | target < source | nasal syllabic, vowel |
| 945 | Nasalized vowels always arise from a sequence of vowel and nasal consonant origin. | phonology | target < source | nasalized, vowel, nasal, consonant |
| 948 | When there is i and ü, i may originate from ü but not ü from i. | phonology | target < source | high, front, vowel |
| 964 | Apart from remaining what it is, the numeral ‘one’ can only be reanalysed as an indefinite article (and/or pronoun). | lexicon, syntax | target < source | numeral, indefinite, article, pronoun |
| 965 | Definite articles are often synchronically identical with or clearly related to demonstratives which are also in the overwhelming majority of cases derived from demonstratives historically. | lexicon | target < source | article, demonstrative, definite |
| 1142 | The passive-to-ergative change is unidirectional. There are no passive constructions which have been shown to have developed from ergative constructions. | inflection, syntax | target < source | diathesis, passive, alignment, ergative |
| 1147 | A causative can become a passive, but a passive cannot become a causative. | inflection, syntax | target < source | passive, causative |
| 1177 | BACK > FRONT > UP, IN > DOWN. If any one of the five concepts is derived from the body-part model, then none of the concepts to its left may be derived from the landmark or any other model. |
lexicon | target < source | spatial orientation, body part |
| 1178 | IF the terms for a cardinal direction are introduced, THEN the sun provides the most likely model to be selected. IF new terms for cardinal directions ‘east’ and ‘west’ are acquired, THEN most likely these terms are derived from expressions relating, respectively, to the rising and setting sun. |
lexicon | target < source | spatial orientation |
| 1180 | Terms for ‘pupil (of the eye)’ are most likely to be derived from nouns denoting a small human like a baby, or a child, or a diminutive humanlike object like a doll. | lexicon | target < source | body part |
| 1181 | When terms for thumbs, big toes and remaining digits are derived from kin-terms, thumbs and big toes are likely to be built on kin-terms of an older, ascending generation and the remaining fingers and toes tend to be derived from terms for offspring or other younger relatives. |
lexicon | target < source | body parts, kinship term |
| 1182 | The notion ‘muscle’ is expressed predominantly by using small mammals as structural templates. As in the case of English muscle (which is ultimately derived from Latin Musculus ‘little mouse’), terms for ‘mouse’ or ‘rat’ appear to provide the most common source for ‘muscle’ or ‘muscular part of the body’, where the latter may refer to such notions as ‘thigh’, ‘calf of a leg’, or ‘biceps’. Other animals such as lizards, rabbits, toads, or calves, are used less frequently that mice and rabbits. | lexicon | target < source | body parts |
| 1183 | For the concept ‘testicle’, by far the most widespread source is provided by terms for ‘egg’, alternative options being ‘stone’, ‘pebble’, ‘seed’, and ‘fruit’. | lexicon | target < source | body parts |
| 1188 | When expressions for deictic orientation are derived forms, they may derive from terms for body parts or environmental landmarks but never from terms for celestial or atmospheric phenomena. | lexicon | target < source | location, deixis |
| 1189 | When terms for deictic and cardinal orientation are related, the terms for cardinal orientation are derived from terms for deictic orientation, but not vice versa. | lexicon | target < source | orientation, deixis |
| 1190 | When sun and wind provide templates for developing nomenclatures for orientation, they will be sources for terms of cardinal but not of deictic orientation. | lexicon | target < source | location, deixis |
| 1219 | Nouns denoting body parts are the preferred sources for the grammaticalization of local adpositions. | syntax, lexicon | target < source | case, local case, adposition, grammaticalization |
| 1236 | Diachronically, local cases tend to acquire temporal meanings; in particular, a terminative local case is predestined to acquire temporal meaning. | inflection | target < source | case, local case, terminative |
| 1427 | Secondary fricatives are the results of diachronic developments from clusters. | phonology | target < source | fricative, cluster |
| 1428 | Secondary oral stops, apart from borrowings, are the results of diachronic developments from clusters. | phonology | target < source | stop, cluster |
| 1643 | Reflexive markers tend to develop into decausative markers, but not the other way round. | inflection, syntax | target < source | reflexive marker, decausative |
| 1644 | Evolution of semantic functions of subjective reflexive markers: semantic reflexivity > ‘partitive object’ and/or autocausative > absolute and/or reciprocal. (a) RMs with the primary semantic reflexive function are the starting point of evolution, (b) RMs with the semantic reflexive and "partitive object" and/or autocausative functions are in the advanced stage of evolution; (c) RMs with a complete range of semantic subjective functions may be regarded as "mature", and (d) RMs lacking the semantic reflexive (and next to it "partitive object") function(s) are in the final, decaying stage of development. |
syntax, semantics | target < source | reflexive |
| 1645 | The principal functions within the objective recessive diathesis develop in the following succession: decausative > passive > impersonal. Languages with the reflexive impersonal invariably display the other two objective functions of reflexive markers, and languages with the reflexive (personal) passive display decausative reflexive verbs, but not necessarily the reflexive impersonal. The principal functions within the objective recessive diathesis develop in the following succession: decausative > passive > impersonal. Languages with the reflexive impersonal invariably display the other two objective functions of reflexive markers, and languages with the reflexive (personal) passive display decausative reflexive verbs, but not necessarily the reflexive impersonal. |
inflection, syntax | target < source | reflexive, diathesis, passive, impersonal |
| 1683 | Progressives (which develop from locative, postural or movement verb constructions) tend to develop into imperfectives or occasionally presents. | inflection | target < source | aspect, progressive, imperfective, tense, present |
| 1684 | Anteriors (or perfects, which develop from stative auxiliaries plus a past participle, or from dynamic verbs such as ‘finish’ or ‘come from’) develop into perfectives or general past tenses. | inflection | target < source | aspect, anterior, perfective, tense, past |
| 1685 | Habitual grams tend to come from verbs meaning ‘live’, ‘know’ or ‘be used to’. | inflection | target < source | aspect, habitual |
| 1997 | It is more natural for a two-term gender distinction in the plural, human vs. non-human, to come about, through semantic reanalysis, from the two-term distinction human male vs. other than the other way round. | inflection, syntax, semantics | target < source | gender, animacy, human, masculine, feminine |