Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1598: headless relative clause ⇒ productive nominalization Original Languages with headless relative clauses tend to have powerful and productive patterns of nominalization which are…

Universal 1614: Original If a language has grammatical agreement [see Comments for terminology], it is with just the A. Standardized IF person agreement of the…

Universal 1630: polysynthesis ⇒ ¬ NP reflexive Original All polysynthetic languages will lack overt NP anaphors, at least as objects. Standardized IF there is polysynthesis,…

Universal 1646: dependent-marked clause ⇒ dependent-marked relativization;head-marked relativization ⇒ head-marked clause Original For dependent-marking patterns, clause marking type implies relativization type; while for the head-marking…

Universal 1662: Original The frequency of kin term doublets is correlated with the parental prototype. Standardized IF there are doublets for kin terms other than…

Universal 1678: Original Progressives (which develop from locative, postural or movement verb constructions) tend to develop into imperfectives or occasionally presents. Standardized Progressives (which develop…

Universal 1694: interrogative pronouns > interrogative pro-adverbs > interrogative pro-adjectives > interrogative pro-numerals > interrogative pro-verbs Original There appears to be a differentiation hierarchy in…

Universal 1710: Original The Attractiveness of Rhymes: A rhyme is the more attractive: (a) the more heavily its syllable is accented relative to the following…

Universal 1726: Original Indigenous non-affixal articles are polyfunctional and at least one of their additional uses is pronominal. Standardized Indigenous non-affixal articles are polyfunctional and…

Universal 1742: Original If a language has person marking affixes on verb (direct object), they are prefixed with more than chance frequency. Standardized When there…