Author: FP

Universal 51: Original In agreement of governors (verbs, adpositions, possessum noun phrases) with dependent NPs (NP external agreement), except those NPs bearing a concrete semantic…

Universal 52: Original No target may agree in both case and person. Standardized IF a target agrees in case, THEN it will not agree in…

Universal 53: Original In the construction of possessive attribution, only the possessor may agree in case with the possessum, while only the possessum may agree…

Universal 54: Original If in the NP-internal distribution of case a lexically assigned case competes with a structurally or otherwise assigned case, lexical case takes…

Universal 55: VSO ⇒ prepositions Original Languages with dominant VSO order are always prepositional. Standardized IF basic order is VSO, THEN adpositions precede their NPs…

Universal 56: VSO ⇒ N Adj Original With overwhelmingly more than chance frequency, languages with dominant order VSO have the adjective after the noun. Standardized…

Universal 57: Adj N ⇒ Dem N & Num N Original When the descriptive adjective precedes the noun, the demonstrative and the numeral, with overwhelmingly…

Universal 58: Original When the general rule is that the descriptive adjective follows, there may be a minority of adjectives which usually precede, but when…

Universal 59: Original When any or all of these items — demonstrative, numeral, descriptive adjective — precede the noun, they are always found in that…

Universal 81: Original There is no language in which an accusative object must be first demoted via dative-shift before it can be relativized. Standardized Relativization…