Category: Universals Archive

Universal 665: Original Yes-no question inversion implies a resultant VSO order. In periphrastic constructions the finite auxiliary always occupies the V slot of the inverted…

Universal 681: Original The main principles for the position of negatives:(a) they tend not to be separated from the verb by the subject or the…

Universal 697: Original Standardized IF there are more than five vowels, THEN / C / and also either / ¥ / or / e/ (generally…

Universal 713: grammatical opposition (Du) ⇒ grammatical opposition (Pl) Original If there is any grammatical opposition in the forms of Dual, then there is the…

Universal 729: Original When a marked phonation type is restricted in distribution to certain tones, those tones are in the highest or lowest part of…

Universal 745: Original The Nominal-Switch Universal (part 2):In cases where a nominal Verbal/Nominal-switch is motivated by conditions of Time-Stability, the nominal strategy will encode the…

Universal 761: Original Syllabic initial position is favoured for glottalic consonants in general. Standardized IF there are glottalic consonants in positions other than syllable-initial, THEN…

Universal 777: Original Languages usually have at least three primary oral stops. Standardized There are at least three primary oral stops. Keywords consonant, oral, stop…

Universal 793: Original In a given language, the number of Secondary Nasal Consonants is never greater than the number of Primary Nasal Consonants. Standardized IF…

Universal 809: wide & narrow vowels ⇒ (nasal & oral stops) & (labials & dentals) Original In child language, these two consonantal oppositions (nasal vs.…