Category: Universals Archive

Universal 532: Original It seems probable that in all languages expressions of time and place may appear in the initial positions in the sentence. Standardized…

Universal 548: Original If numeral expressions for the smallest addends take the plural of the noun when they designate numbers >1, then complex numerals with…

Universal 564: Du (noun) ⇒ Du (pronoun) Original If the Dual extends to nouns, it also extends to pronouns. Standardized IF the dual extends to…

Universal 580: (gender (Sg) & gender (1non-Sg &,V 2 non-Sg)) ⇒ gender (1Sg &,V 2 Sg ) V gender (3Sg) Original In languages with Gender…

Universal 596: Original The possessive adjective is not separated from the head noun by any constituent except another genuine determiner, i. e. the determiner. Standardized…

Universal 612: Switch-Reference marking ⇒ verb-final Original If there is Switch-Reference marking, languages will mostly be verb-final. Standardized IF there is Switch-Reference marking, THEN word…

Universal 628: Original Distributive-share quantifier words are formed from their ordinary counterparts by morphological process. Standardized Distributive-share quantifier words are formed from their ordinary counterparts…

Universal 644: Original Use of the 3rd person personal pronoun to show greater respect or social distance than the 2nd person pronoun in reference to…

Universal 660: Original There is no reduplication pattern that would involve reference to phonological properties other than syllable number, consonantality-vowelhood, and absolute linear position. Standardized…

Universal 676: replacive RelCl ⇒ OV & left-to-right deletion of anaphora Original If a language has replacive relative clauses, then in the basic word order…