Category: Universals Archive

Universal 693: Original The two intonation shapes that are found everywhere are fall and rise, with their targets, low and high. The meanings are as…

Universal 709: Original Systems in which high tones are marked occur more often than systems in which low tones are marked. Standardized Marked tones tend…

Universal 725: Original Laterals [liquids] tend to occur in the neighborhood of consonants whereas nonlaterals tend to occur in the neighborhood of vowels. Standardized Laterals…

Universal 741: Original The Tendency of Adjectival N/L-Switching:In a language with nominal-locational switching for adjectives, the nominal option will encode the more time-stable reading. Standardized…

Universal 757: Original … the generalization that the presence of at least one posterior (compact) injective implies the presence of at least one anterior (diffuse)…

Universal 773: secondary fricative ⇒ primary fricative Original No language has secondary fricatives unless it also has primary fricatives. Standardized IF there are secondary fricatives,…

Universal 789: Original If in a given language there are only two Primary Nasal Consonants, the other one is /m/, that is its most characteristic…

Universal 805: Original The opposition of a stop and an affricate in the languages of the world implies the presence of a fricative in the…

Universal 821: Rel N ⇒ gapping Original While both prenominal and postnominal relative clauses may be formed by gapping, gapping is the overwhelmingly dominant mode…

Universal 837: VSO ⇒ Person & Number inflection Original VSO languages tend to have Person-Number inflection. Standardized IF basic order is VSO, THEN there is…