Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1339: Original An element which serves as a semantic link between two other elements is likely to occur in linear order between them. Standardized…

Universal 1355: Original All adverbially or partitively expressed multiplicands are serialized multiplicands. Standardized In numeral systems, all adverbially or partitively expressed multiplicands are serialized multiplicands.…

Universal 1371: Original In classifier languages without inflectional plurals neither counters nor measures ever take plural markers and, unlike typical noun class systems, the classifiers…

Universal 1387: periphrastic past ⇒ periphrastic future Original Future tense markers may be less bound than present or past but never more so. Standardized IF…

Universal 1403: Original In languages where transitive verbs have suffixes agreeing in definiteness or in person-gender-number with their direct objects, prepositions also have suffixes that…

Universal 1419: OV ⇒ Predicate Copula;VO ⇒ Copula Predicate Original The predicate precedes copula in OV languages and follows it in VO languages. Standardized IF…

Universal 1435: ¬ aspect ⇒ continuous tense Original There is a correlation between the development of continuous tenses and absence of aspect differentiation. Standardized IF…

Universal 1451: Original In all languages, if there is a certain form to denote the metaperson ‘hearer’ in the non-singular, it cannot denote the metaperson…

Universal 1467: Original In an overwhelming majority of languages, there is no special form to denote the metaperson ‘hearer(s) + non-participant(s)’. Standardized In an overwhelming…

Universal 1483: Original If in a language there is a pronominal form denoting the dual of the metapersons ‘hearer’, ‘hearer + non-participant’ and/or ‘non-participant’, then…