Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1723: Original If the article co-occurs with the noun when the demonstrative or the possessive is preposed, it also co-occurs with the noun when…

Universal 1739: Original The fact that pronominal heads do not take the definite article is a very widespread and possibly universal phenomenon, explainable to an…

Universal 1755: Original For all languages, if the subject of a non-finite form is nominative, then the subject of (at least some) finite forms will…

Universal 1771: Original Nasalization is more likely to occur before continuants than stops. Standardized IF nasalization occurs before a stop, THEN it will occur before…

Universal 1787: Original Vowel Length Parameter:Vowel nasalization and N-deletion, as seperate and successive processes, occur preferentially in the context of long vowels before spreading to…

Universal 1803: Original A long high back rounded vowel does not occur without a long high front unrounded vowel. Standardized IF there is a long…

Universal 1819: Original Standardized IF there is a labialized voiceless uvular ejective stop, THEN there is a labialized voiceless velar ejective stop. Keywords stop, labial,…

Universal 1835: Original Standardized IF there is a voiceless velar nasal, THEN there is also a voiceless bilabial nasal. Keywords nasal, velar, bilabial, voice Domain…

Universal 1851: Original If a lateral is velarized, it happens to have a lowering effect on all vowels. Standardized Vowels tend to be lower in…

Universal 1867: Original Baby talk is also characterized by:high percentage of questions;frequent use of tags;here-and-now semantics;high semantic continuity between pairs of utterances;striking shifts in pronoun…