Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1025: Original If a language has a parts-of speech system of types 1-2/3, then it does not allow variation in the order of Head…

Universal 1041: Original If stress is phonologically predictable and automatic (i.e., always on the same syllable), then there are phonemic distinctions of vowel quantity. Standardized…

Universal 1057: Original If verbs agree in Person, they are likelier not to agree than to agree in Gender. Standardized IF verbs agree in person,…

Universal 1073: Original Syllabification across a word boundary may be less likely in a language with initial stress than in a language with final stress.…

Universal 1089: Original Nearly all languages have contrasting labial and dental nasals. Standardized Nearly all languages have contrasting labial and dental nasals. Keywords nasal, consonant,…

Universal 1105: Original The absolute or nominative form of a noun will be used in citation. Standardized The absolute or nominative form of a noun…

Universal 1121: Original If the nominal dual is restricted to nouns other than those denoting natural pairs, the pronominal dual is unrestricted. Standardized IF the…

Universal 1137: Original If the nominal dual is restricted to nouns other than those denoting natural pairs, dual marking is avoided with these nouns if…

Universal 1153: Rel N ⇒ N Rel Original For any language, preposed relative clause implies postposed relative clause. Standardized IF there are preposed relative clauses,…

Universal 1169: distributive-key universal quantifier ⇒ simple universal quantifier Original If a language possesses a distributive-key universal quantifier, it possesses a simple universal quantifier. Standardized…