Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1785: Original The shorter a linguistic expression is, the more likely it is will be associated with familiarity and high frequency of occurrence.The longer…

Universal 1801: Original Nasals tend to endure word-finally after obstruents have been lost. Standardized In word-final nasal + obstruent clusters, IF the nasal is deleted,…

Universal 1817: Original Standardized IF there is a labialized voiceless uvular ejective stop, THEN there is a labialized voiceless uvular fricative. Keywords stop, fricative, labial,…

Universal 1833: Original Standardized IF there is a voiceless palatal approximant, THEN there is also a voiceless labial-velar approximant. Keywords approximant, palatal, labial-velar, voice Domain…

Universal 1849: Original A laryngealized voiced palatal approximant [j] does not occur without the voiceless glottal fricative [h]. Standardized IF there is laryngealized a voiced…

Universal 1865: Original Baby talk has shorter sentences, fewer subordinate clauses, fewer grammatical relations, more repetitions than normal adult-to-adult speech, often omits inflections and function…

Universal 1881: 1st vs. 2nd/3rd person split (past) ⇒ 1st vs. 2nd/3rd person split (future) Original Languages which show a split between 1st versus 2nd/3rd…

Universal 1897: Original The use of variation of any pronominal category to show degrees of respect or social distance is more widespread among different langages…

Universal 1913: Original VO languages tend to have an unmarked accusative. Standardized IF basic order is VO, THEN the “promoted” direct object tends to be…

Universal 1929: Original If there is a word-form loan of a free-choice indefinite in a language, then there is a word-form loan of other than…