Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1613: VO & ModifierN ⇒ Modifier-N agreement Original Concord is common among VO languages, particularly when the order of constituents is modifier-Noun and thus…

Universal 1629: Original If the language has the basic order “focus-before-topic”, then the secondary topic would follow the focus. Correspondingly, in languages where object precedes…

Universal 1645: head-marking anywhere ⇒ head-marking at the clause level;dependent-marking at the clause level ⇒ > dependent-marking at the phrase level Original If a language…

Universal 1661: Original Proper name-like uses are much more frequent with certain kin terms, notably the ones that denote ascending relations, and in particular parental…

Universal 1677: Original There is a strong tendency for agent-oriented modality to be expressed by verbs, auxiliaries or non-bound particles, whereas speaker-oriented and epistemic modalities…

Universal 1693: conditional deranking of consecutive chains ⇒ posterior deranking & SVO Original Languages which permit only conditional deranking of consecutive chains have posterior deranking…

Universal 1709: Original The Contact Law:A syllable contact A$B is the more preferred, the less the Consonantal Strength of the offset A and the greater…

Universal 1725: Original If the definite article can be the sole marker of definiteness in a noun phrase, it can also be the sole marker…

Universal 1741: Original There is more prefixing on verb than on noun. If a language has any prefixes on noun, it will also have prefixes…

Universal 1757: Original SOV languages cannot borrow a set of prepositions. Standardized IF basic word order is SOV, THEN there are no prepositions owing to…