Universal #1650

Legacy number: 1650

 Number  1645
 Original  If a language has major, salient, head-marking morphology anywhere, it will have it at the clause level.
If a language has dependent-marking morphology at the clause level, it will have it at the phrase level.
<img src="../img/graphics/1650.gif"" alt="">
 Standardized  IF there is major, salient dependent-marking morphology at the clause level, THEN there is dependent marking morphology at the phrase level.
 Formula  head-marking anywhere ⇒ head-marking at the clause level;
dependent-marking at the clause level ⇒ > dependent-marking at the phrase level
 Keywords  head-marking, dependent-marking
 Domain  inflection, syntax
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  absolute
 Basis  60 languages sample
 Source  Nichols 1986: 75

← Back to Universals Archive

Discussion
Counterexamples
Nanai (Southern Tungus), in which phrases are head-marked, but clauses are mostly dependent-marked. Two potential counterexamples are Ket (isolate) and Ewenki (Northern Tungus). Ket uses subject and object cases, but is otherwise almost entirely head-marking: its sole phrasal dependent-marked pattern is partial agreement of adjectives with head nouns. Ewenki is much like Nanai, except that its adjectives agree. Ket and Ewenki thus support the second statement; but this is poor support, in that agreement of adjectives with head nouns is cross-linguistically not well correlated with over-all language type (Nichols 1986: 76).
Notes
Nichols (1986: 106) uses the term GOVERNED to refer to dependents whose presence is required, and whose morphological form is determined, by their heads; and the term SUBCATEGORIZED for those whose presence is required, but whose form is not determined by the head.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
Nichols 1986: 106: uses the term GOVERNED to refer to dependents whose presence is required, and whose morphological form is determined, by their heads; and the term SUBCATEGORIZED for those whose presence is required, but whose form is not determined by the head.