Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1581: Original If there are productive complex affixes among the causative affixes, then by means of them causatives can also (or only) be derived…

Universal 1597: headless relative clause ⇒ verb-final Original Languages with headless relative clauses seem always to be verb-final, often strictly so. Standardized IF there are…

Universal 1613: VO & ModifierN ⇒ Modifier-N agreement Original Concord is common among VO languages, particularly when the order of constituents is modifier-Noun and thus…

Universal 1629: Original If the language has the basic order “focus-before-topic”, then the secondary topic would follow the focus. Correspondingly, in languages where object precedes…

Universal 1645: head-marking anywhere ⇒ head-marking at the clause level;dependent-marking at the clause level ⇒ > dependent-marking at the phrase level Original If a language…

Universal 1661: Original Proper name-like uses are much more frequent with certain kin terms, notably the ones that denote ascending relations, and in particular parental…

Universal 1677: Original There is a strong tendency for agent-oriented modality to be expressed by verbs, auxiliaries or non-bound particles, whereas speaker-oriented and epistemic modalities…

Universal 1693: conditional deranking of consecutive chains ⇒ posterior deranking & SVO Original Languages which permit only conditional deranking of consecutive chains have posterior deranking…

Universal 1709: Original The Contact Law:A syllable contact A$B is the more preferred, the less the Consonantal Strength of the offset A and the greater…

Universal 1725: Original If the definite article can be the sole marker of definiteness in a noun phrase, it can also be the sole marker…