Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1878: Original Deverbalization Hierarchy:If a verbal form inflects for tense-aspect-modality (TAM) like a predicated verb, then it will take subject and object dependents like…

Universal 1894: Original No inflectional affixes can belong to the set of properties borrowed fro a language unless at least one derivational affix also belongs…

Universal 1910: Original If a language has modal particles, it also has modal adverbials. Standardized IF there are modal particles, THEN there are modal adverbials.…

Universal 1926: Original There is an apparently universal iconic tendency in diminutives and augmentatives: diminutives tend to contain high front vowels, whereas augmentatives tend to…

Universal 1942: Original One generally unremarked fact is that 2nd person plurals never appear to make a distinction between a plurality of addressees and combinations…

Universal 1958: Original If a language has the basic word-form stem+suffix, the accent will fall on a non-final syllable. If a language has the basic…

Universal 1974: Original Existential verbs of indefinite subjects tend toward clause-initial position. Standardized Existential verbs of indefinite subjects tend toward clause-initial position. Keywords verb, existence,…

Universal 1990: Original In terms of the above tree model, we may say that gender systems have their genesis in the left branching of the…

Universal 2006: Original If vowel length is contrastive, pitch is the most important cue, intensity the second-most important cue, and duration the least important cue…

Universal 2022: Original In all languages, there are alternative grammatical constructions for describing (and interpreting) cognitively based feelings, conceptualizing “emotions” as “involuntary” or as “uncontrollable”,…