Category: Universals Archive

Universal 909: Original In a language with only a single genitive, when a transitive clause is nominalized, the subject’s prior claim to the genitive case…

Universal 925: Original Standardized If a language contains syllables with vowel nuclei of the form CmVCn and syllables with consonantal nuclei of the form Cm’C§Cn’,…

Universal 941: Original A nasal syllabic phoneme, apart from borrowings and analogical formations, always results from the loss of a vowel. Standardized A nasal syllabic…

Universal 958: future tense (resultative) ⇒ past tense (resultative) ⇒ present tense (resultative) Original The probability of tense forms in the resultative is determined by…

Universal 974: Original If there are analogical changes in their inflectional paradigms, the forms (stems and affixes) of indicative forms are more likely replaced than…

Universal 990: absolute anterior consecutive deranking → SOV Original Languages with absolute anterior consecutive deranking typically prefer SOV word order. Standardized IF there is absolute…

Universal 1006: Original No matter which direction the process ( d⇔ð, t⇔† ) is going, the stop outcome is favoured by word-initial, post-nasal or post-liquid…

Universal 1022: Original If a language has a parts-of speech system of types 1-3/4, then it does not allow variation in the order of Head…

Universal 1038: Original When secondary stress is phonological, it most frequently involves alternations of weak stress (unstressed?) with secondary stress (so the the favourite position…

Universal 1054: Original If verbs agree in Number, they are very likely to agree in Person. Standardized IF verbs agree in number, THEN they are…