Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1401: Original If a language has either of the orderings (S ADV V X) or (S V X ADV), then it will have both…

Universal 1417: Original If there are separate forms for narrative and non-narrative past contexts, the non-narrative forms tend to be more highly marked than the…

Universal 1433: perfect ⇒ plusquamperfect Original The presence of the perfect almost always implies the presence of the plusquamperfect. Standardized IF there is perfect, THEN…

Universal 1449: Original In no language is there a special form to denote the metaperson ‘hearer’ in the non-singular. Standardized In no language is there…

Universal 1465: Original If some form denotes the metaperson ‘speaker + non-participant(s)’, then(a) in some languages it cannot include among its meanings any other metaperson;(b)…

Universal 1482: Original If a language has a special form with the meaning ‘hearers’ and/or ‘hearer(s) + non-participant(s)’, then it has a special form with…

Universal 1498: Original A hierarchy of grammaticalization from verb to complementizer to adverbial conjunction.If a language uses the morpheme at a given level on the…

Universal 1514: OS ⇒ no verb agreement V. agreement with two noun phrases Original If a language is subject-final then either transitive verbs of unmarked…

Universal 1530: OS ⇒ ¬ overt copula Original Subject-final languages generally do not have overt copulas. Standardized IF subject full noun phrases follow object full…

Universal 1546: Original In verb-initial languages, there is probably less agreement of adjectives with common nouns than in verb-final languages, especially case agreement. Standardized The…