Category: Universals Archive

Universal 375: Original In all languages, an expression which refers to the topic of a sentence is typically definite or generic. Standardized IF an expression…

Universal 391: associative Plural ⇒ basic Plural Original If a language has a group plural, it also has a basic plural. Standardized IF there is…

Universal 407: (person marker (possessee) = person marker (INTR)) ⇒ (person marker (possessee) = person marker (TR)) Original If person marking in possessed nouns and…

Universal 423: Prep ⇒ (¬ SOV ⇒ N Rel) Original If a language has Prep word order, then if the verb position is not SOV,…

Universal 439: non-accusative alignment ⇒ verb-initial Original Non-accusative alignment may be associated with verb-initial order. Standardized IF alignment is non-accusative, THEN there will be verb-initial…

Universal 455: Original An inalienably possessed, non-vocative noun does not necessarily imply that the corresponding vocative noun is inalienably possessed. Standardized IF a noun is…

Universal 471: ergative/nominative (3 person &, V Dem) ⇒ ergative/nominative (noun) Original If in a language personal and/or demonstrative pronouns of the 3rd person have…

Universal 488: Original In declarative sentences with nominal subject and object, the dominant order is always one in which the subject precedes the object. Standardized…

Universal 504: only suffixes ⇒ postposition;only prefixes ⇒ preposition Original If a language is exclusively suffixing, it is postpositional; if it is exclusively prefixing, it…

Universal 520: Original In more than one language, but not in all, the adnominal and pronominal demonstratives stems are fully or partially identical. Standardized It…