Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1447: Original In an overwhelming majority of languages, if some pronominal form denotes the metaperson ‘hearer’ in the singular, it cannot include among its…

Universal 1463: Original In an overwhelming majority of languages, if some form denotes the metaperson ‘speaker + hearer(s)’ and/or ‘speaker + non-participant(s)’, it cannot include…

Universal 1479: Original If a language lacks a form with the meaning ‘speaker + hearer(s)’ and/or ‘speaker + non-participant (s)’ and/or ‘speaker + hearer(s) +…

Universal 1495: Original All languages label ‘eyes’, ‘nose’, and ‘mouth’. Standardized There are [basic?] terms for ‘eyes’, ‘nose’, and ‘mouth’. Keywords body part Domain lexicon…

Universal 1511: Original In languages whose numeral systems consists of less than five numerals, the highest numeral is likely to be derived from an approximate…

Universal 1527: OS ⇒ Caus Verb Original A causative element precedes the root of the causativized verb in subject-final languages. Standardized IF subject full noun…

Universal 1543: verb-initial ⇒ preposition Original In verb-initial languages, where case marking exists, it is normally done by prepositions. Standardized IF word order is verb-initial…

Universal 1559: verb-initial ⇒ passive voice Original Verb-initial languages always have a passive voice and it is almost always marked in the verbal morphology (rather…

Universal 1575: Original If there are any reflexive verbs derived from intransitives by adding reflexive marker and an affix (or a predicative adjective, etc.), a…

Universal 1591: internal relative clause ⇒ SOV Original Clear cases of internal relative clauses are present only in languages whose basic word order is SOV.…