Category: Universals Archive

Universal 255: number (noun) ⇒ the same number (pronoun) Original If there exists a regular number distinction in a language, this distinction is necessarily present…

Universal 271: gender (verb (1 & 2)) ⇒ gender (verb (3)) Original If there exists a certain gender distinction in verb forms of the 1st…

Universal 287: verb morpheme ‘dativus commodi’ ⇒ causative morpheme Original If there is a verb morpheme with the meaning of dativus commodi, there is a…

Universal 303: ergative construction (non-past V imperfect) V. passive voice (non-past V imperfect) ⇒⇒ ergative construction (past V perfective) V. passive voice (past V perfective)…

Universal 319: Original If in a language there is a syntactic form of the absolutive, it also has a syntactic form of the ergative. Standardized…

Universal 335: Original If subject of transitive verb is expressed by a confix, then at least one of the parts of such a confix (prefixal…

Universal 351: Original In a dominant order the subject and the object are juxtaposed, i.e. no verb is placed between them. Standardized In a dominant…

Universal 367: agglutinative ⇒ phonological structure of affixes is similar to the structure of stems;flective ⇒ affixes are shorter and structurally simpler than stems Original…

Universal 383: Original The more topic-prominent a language, the fewer subject-creating constructions it will have. Standardized The higher the topic-prominence, the fewer subject-creating constructions. Keywords…

Universal 399: inflectional number(1 &/V. 2 person pronoun ) ⇒ inflectional number (3 person pronoun) Original If a language indicates number in the 1st and/or…