Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1927: Original If nothing else in the language agrees with nouns in terms of class, numeral expressions will. Standardized IF anything other than numerals…

Universal 1943: Original It appears to be only indicators of the 1st and 2nd person which combine to form new pronouns. (but see Comments) Standardized…

Universal 1959: Original … languages have special restrictions for the word-initial and word-final positions that are not valid for every syllable onset and coda, respectively.…

Universal 1975: Original When a language with a full copula begins to lose it, or when a language with a zero copula begins to develop…

Universal 1991: Original As a “natural” semantic shift alternative (a) [human vs. non-human > human male vs. other] is much less motivated than alternative (b)…

Universal 2007: Original If there is contrastive pitch accent, then there is a vocalic length contrast.If there is a vocalic length contrast, then there cannot…

Universal 2023: Original It also appears that the main universal mode for describing cognitively based feelings is in terms of a comparison, that is, via…

Universal 8: SOV v OSV ⇒ case system Original If in a language the verb follows the nominal subject and the nominal object as the…

Universal 24: SA with continuous NPs ⇒ SA with discontinuous NPs Original In all languages, if Suffixaufnahme occurs with continuous NPs, it also occurs with…

Universal 40: Original If a language has Suffixaufnahme both in NPs where the attributive and the head are prosodically separated and in NPs where two…