Universal 1602: nasal, voice, prenasalized stop, sonorant Original Languages that manifest the dependency of nasality on voicing normally have prenasalized stops. Standardized IF the feature…
Category: Universals Archive
Universals Archive
Universal 1618: Edible: Manner of Ingestion, State of Food;
Nonedible : Value, Purpose/Function
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Universal 1618: Edible: Manner of Ingestion, State of Food;Nonedible : Value, Purpose/Function Original The implicational hierarchy of semantic distinctions for possessive classifier systems: The primary…
Universal 1634: polysynthesis ⇒ ¬ nonfinite verb forms Original IF there is polysynthesis (essentially, noun incorporation and bound agreement/cross-reference markers for subject and object(s) on…
Universal 1650:
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Universal 1650: Original If L is a rigid verb-final language in its basic word order, the rhematic focus of a sentence of L is most…
Universal 1666:
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Universal 1666: Original In languages with an initial marker of subordination, sentential NPs cannot occur in clause-internal position, but such is the case in languages…
Universal 1682:
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Universal 1682: Original In languages that make an extensive use of conjunctions converbs play a minor role or are completely absent. Conversely, in languages that…
Universal 1698:
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Universal 1698: Original The Rhyme Law (conjectured):There must be degrees of preference for combinations of nuclei with codas. For instance, offgliding nuclear speech sounds often…
Universal 1714:
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Universal 1714: Original General Syllabication Law:A syllabication is the more preferred: (a) the better the resulting syllable contact is and (b) the better that syllable…
Universal 1730:
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Universal 1730: Original The phonological body of any noun phrase constituent is never more substantial in adnominal use than in pronominal use. Standardized The phonological…
Universal 1746:
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Universal 1746: Original Ordinal numerals are likelier to be borrowed than corresponding cardinal numerals. Standardized IF a cardinal numeral is a borrowing, THEN the corresponding…