Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1932: indefinite other than negative indefinite is borrowed ⇒ negative indefinite is borrowed Original If there is a word-form loan of other than negative…

Universal 1948: Original Class IIIa and Class Ib predicates cooccur in a language. Standardized IF non-canonical marking with Class IIIa predicates, THEN also non-canonical marking…

Universal 1964: Original all languages exhibit the following property: if clusters of n Cs are possible syllable-initially, then clusters of n-1 Cs are also possible…

Universal 1980: Original rigid type III (verb-final) …Sequences of events of the ‘go, do, and return’ type appear as ‘having done, return’ rather than ‘go…

Universal 1996: Original Note that there are no syntactic systems [of gender assignment] [only semantic, morphological, and phonological systems of gender assignment]. Standardized Gender cannot…

Universal 2012: Original A system of switch-reference marking is found only in languages with an accusative syntax. Standardized IF there is switch-reference marking, THEN alignment…

Universal 2028: Original Generally agreed upon “facts” about contour tones (marked = more complex, rarer): (a) contour tones are more marked than level tones;(b) rising…

Universal 12: VO ⇒ flexion Original Consistent VO languages tend to be inflectional in their morphology. Standardized IF basic order is consistently VO, THEN the…

Universal 29: Original In all languages, if Suffixaufnahme occurs without pause between the head and the attributive nominal, it also occurs with it. Standardized IF…

Universal 45: verb agrees with attributive ⇒ verb agrees with Oblique Object ⇒ verb agrees with Indirect Object ⇒ verb agrees with Direct Object ⇒…