Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1620: Animate: Sex; Inanimate: Nature, Individuation Original The implicational hierarchy of semantic distinctions for noun class systems: Animacy is involved in all noun class…

Universal 1636: preposition incorporation ⇒ verb-final Original Relational preverbs are primarily (though not exclusively) favoured in verb-final languages. Standardized IF there are relational preverbs owing…

Universal 1652: Original If in a language finite and non-finite (attributive and/or argument) functions of converbs are equally marked or equally unmarked, then the language…

Universal 1668: plural allomorphy ⇒ flexive Original Wir haben also in der Mannigfaltigkeit der Pluralbildung ein gutes Kennzeichen der flektierenden Sprachen gefunden.(Plural allomorphy occurs only…

Universal 1684: Original No language permits conditional deranking under identity with a non-subject while at the same time forbidding conditional deranking under subject identity. Standardized…

Universal 1700: Original The Head Law:A syllable head is the more preferred: (a) the closer the number of speech sounds in the head is to…

Universal 1716: pronominal possessors co-occur with definite articles ⇒ nominal possessives co-occur with pronominal possessors Original If possessive determiners co-occur with definite articles, then nominal…

Universal 1732: Original The definite article never carries more gender, number, and/or case inflection in adnominal use than it does in pronominal use. Standardized IF…

Universal 1748: Original If there are synonyms for an ordinal numeral, then there are also synonyms for ordinals for all lower numbers. Standardized IF there…

Universal 1764: Original The basic direction of merging of the consonant endings is unmistakable: invariably from the front to the back. Standardized IF back and…