Category: Universals Archive

Universal 591: Original The repetition of syntactic constituents is used in all languages to express continuity of action (e.g. he walked and walked) and/or emphasis…

Universal 607: Switch-Reference (1 &, V 2) ⇒ Switch-Reference (3) Original If there is Switch-Reference marking with 1st and/or 2nd Person, then also with 3rd…

Universal 623: Original If a language has distributive-share quantifier words, it has non-configurational NPs, and does not distinguish between nouns of low and high countability…

Universal 639: Original A repluralized or a double plural pronominal form indicates greater respect or social distance than an original, archaic or simple plural, when…

Universal 655: Original In languages in which categories of proximity, inclusiveness and definiteness are employed to convey social meaning, non-proximate, exclusive, and indefinite or impersonal…

Universal 671: Original Lexical items that are more stable than other items in one language family tend to be among the more stable items in…

Universal 688: Original In exclusively prefixing languages, if symmetrical reduplicative compounds exist, they will be overwhelmingly of the alliterative type. Standardized IF bound morphology is…

Universal 704: Original The number of height distinctions in front vowels is equal to or greater than the number in back vowels. Standardized IF there…

Universal 720: Original A language which permits successive shifts of tone level in opposite directions within a word permits words with only one shift of…

Universal 736: predicate adjectives encoded nonverbally ⇒ predicate nominals encoded nonverbally Original The Adjective-Nominal Universal (alternative version):If predicative adjectives are encoded nonverbally, then predicate nominals…