Category: Universals Archive

Universal 535: Original If a number is expressed by subtraction as y – x, then every number z (z > y > n) is also…

Universal 551: link for addition is final ⇒ postpositions Original If a link for addition is final, the language is postpositional. Standardized IF a link…

Universal 567: Original If there are high and low social varieties of a language and only one of them has an article, it will usually…

Universal 583: Original Semantically simple morphemes are never systematically more complex in phonetic form than semantically more complex ones. Standardized IF morphemes are semantically less…

Universal 599: Original In all languages where causative verbs take complement noun phrases that have an accusative case-marker, the range of noun phrases that occur…

Universal 615: Subject > Direct Object> Indirect Object > Oblique Object > Attributive > Object of Comparison Original Accessibility Hierarchy:Subj> DO > IO > Obl…

Universal 631: Original If a language has a scopal quantifier word, then that word is a distributive quantifier word. Standardized IF there is a scopal…

Universal 647: Original In a language in which categories of proximity are employed to show degrees of respect or social distance, the one used to…

Universal 663: tag questions with ¬rising contour ⇒ tag questions with rising contour Original The presence of tag questions with nonrising (or higher pitched or…

Universal 679: double negation ⇒ Neg Verb Neg Original If there is double negation within a language, then the negatives normally precede and follow the…