Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1171: Original If a language uses a morphosyntactic process P to form a distributive-share universal quantifier, it also uses P to form distributive-share numerals,…

Universal 1187: Original In all cultures/languages, there is a hierarchy of terms referring to the animal and plant kingdoms (and perhaps other domains of folk…

Universal 1203: Original Monotonicity constraint:The simple NPs of any natural language express monotone quantifiers or conjunctions of monotone quantifiers. Standardized Monotonicity constraint:The simple NPs of…

Universal 1219: Original If a case is governed by a local postposition, then this case will preferably also be used to express possession (i.e., genitive).…

Universal 1235: argumentless passives and unaccusatives > expletive of displaced NPs > expletives of displaced CPs (S´) > weather predicates > referential NPs Original Hierarchy…

Universal 1251: Original When consonant gradation plays a role in the grammar, it serves the function to identify nouns. Standardized IF consonant gradation plays a…

Universal 1267: SVO ⇒ ¬ ergative; ergative ⇒ ¬ SVO Original Ergative systems are found only in SOV and VSO languages. SVO languages are never…

Universal 1283: Original Standardized 1. TARGETS OF PALATALIZATIONa. in terms of place of articulation:IF a less back consonant is palatalized, THEN all more back consonants…

Universal 1299: SOV ⇒ Indefiniteness affixes on N are suffixed; Original If a language has SOV, indefiniteness affixes on N (if any) are suffixed. Standardized…

Universal 1315: scrambling ⇒ head-final order Original Scrambling is limited to head-final contexts. Standardized IF there is scrambling, THEN the order is head-final. Keywords scrambling,…