Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1876: Original In the coding of subordination, elimination of Tense/Aspect/Mood distinctions takes place when the other phenomena (like agreement elimination, case/adposition marking, possessor/oblique coding…

Universal 1892: Original No lexical item that is not a noun can belong to the class of properties borrowed from a language unless this class…

Universal 1908: Original If in a language the grammatical expression of predicative possession requires the use of the marker of either comitative or instrumental, then…

Universal 1924: Original If a language has two modifier constructions that differ in linear order and in linguistic distance, the construction with a prenominal modifier…

Universal 1940: Original The use of all other processes of nominal derivation and inflection (namely internal modification, suprasegmental processes, subtraction, conversion, suppletion), with the exception…

Universal 1956: Original In isolierenden Sprachen werden alle Wurzeln gleichwertig behandelt. Man kann es der Wurzel nicht einmal ansehen, ob sie nominalen oder verbalen Charakter…

Universal 1972: Original An existential or copulative element tends to be omitted more often in a construction which involves a full predication such as a…

Universal 1988: Original Das substantiv gibt den namen, das adjectiv die beschaffenheit des gegenstandes an. sicher war auch jenes bei seinem ursprung von einer eigenschaft…

Universal 2004: Original [When the controller consists of conjoined NPs and they have features which require resolution,] in person resolution the first person takes precedence…

Universal 2020: Original All languages have words linking feelings with (i) the thought that “something bad can happen to me”, (ii) the thought that “I…