Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1076: Original Aspiration occurs most frequently after voiceless stops. Standardized Aspiration occurs most frequently after voiceless stops. Keywords aspiration, stop, voice Domain phonology Type…

Universal 1092: Original Nasal stop systems always have voiced members. Standardized Nasal stop systems always have voiced members. Keywords nasal, stop Domain phonology Type unconditional…

Universal 1108: comitative possessive ⇒ predominant balancing of simultaneous sequences Original If a language has a Comitative Possessive, that language will have predominant (or sometimes…

Universal 1124: incorporation (pronouns of nominal subjects) ⇒ incorporation (nominal non-subjects) Original If nominal subjects can be incorporated into verbs, then nominal non-subjects can also…

Universal 1140: Original Passive constructions without morphology on the verb are rare or non-existent. Standardized IF there is a passive construction, THEN the verb is…

Universal 1156: Original If the definiteness of the head determines the shape of the relative pronoun, the pronoun co-occurring with the definite head will be…

Universal 1172: distributive-share universal quantifier ⇒ simple universal quantifier Original If a language possesses a distributive-share universal quantifier, it possesses a simple universal quantifier. Standardized…

Universal 1188: logophoric (1) ⇒ logophoric (2) ⇒ logophoric (3) Original If there are logophoric forms for1st and/or 2nd person pronouns, then there is one…

Universal 1204: Original In all languages, there are never more person distinctions within possessive pronouns and possessive affixes than within personal pronouns. Standardized IF there…

Universal 1220: Original If localization is expressed by adpositions, then there will also be nominal combinations for purposes of localization. Standardized IF localization is expressed…