Category: Universals Archive

Universal 366: agglutinative ⇒ derivational affixes have complex syllabic structure;flexive ⇒ derivational affixes have less complex syllabic structure Original Derivational affixes tend to have a…

Universal 382: Original The more topic-prominent a language, the less restricted the distribution of zero anaphora in that language. Standardized The higher the topic-prominence, the…

Universal 398: Original If a language has homonymous inflectional affixes that express a single meaning element, then, if the language has cumulative inflection at all,…

Universal 414: Original With the exception of some North-Western Caucasian languages, no European language has person-number cross-reference prefixed to possessed nouns. Standardized Person-number cross-reference markers…

Universal 430: Sg/Pl distinction (2 &/v 3 person) ⇒ Sg/Pl distinction (1 person); Original The singular-plural distinction is universal in free personal pronouns in the…

Universal 446: verb-final v. free order ⇒ postposition v case affixes Original If a language has Verb-final (rigid, or non-rigid) or free word order as…

Universal 462: Original If there is an opposition of active and passive voice, then the NP which has the semantic role of patient of the…

Universal 478: Original If the head (lexical) verb in a progressive verb phrase is marked for tense, it is marked as present tense. Standardized When…

Universal 494: Original Every human language has a stock of elements that shift their denotations depending on elementary features of the speech situation. Standardized Every…

Universal 510: Original When number agreement between the noun and verb is suspended and the rule is based on order, the case is always one…