Category: Universals Archive

Universal 958: future tense (resultative) ⇒ past tense (resultative) ⇒ present tense (resultative) Original The probability of tense forms in the resultative is determined by…

Universal 974: Original If there are analogical changes in their inflectional paradigms, the forms (stems and affixes) of indicative forms are more likely replaced than…

Universal 990: absolute anterior consecutive deranking → SOV Original Languages with absolute anterior consecutive deranking typically prefer SOV word order. Standardized IF there is absolute…

Universal 1006: Original No matter which direction the process ( d⇔ð, t⇔† ) is going, the stop outcome is favoured by word-initial, post-nasal or post-liquid…

Universal 1022: Original If a language has a parts-of speech system of types 1-3/4, then it does not allow variation in the order of Head…

Universal 1038: Original When secondary stress is phonological, it most frequently involves alternations of weak stress (unstressed?) with secondary stress (so the the favourite position…

Universal 1054: Original If verbs agree in Number, they are very likely to agree in Person. Standardized IF verbs agree in number, THEN they are…

Universal 1070: Original If in a language phonemic stress co-exists with phonemic quantity, one of the two elements is subordinate to the other, and three,…

Universal 1086: Original We have not found a single instance in which a nasalized low vowel is lower than the corresponding oral vowel, whereas the…

Universal 1102: Original Yet all human languages classify actions into two basic types: those involving one obligatory participant, which are described by intransitive clauses, and…