Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1254: Original Labiovelar stops are less likely to participate in consonant gradation than other stops of the same series. Standardized Labiovelar stops are less…

Universal 1270: Original If there is one or more distinctions or remoteness in a tense-aspect system, and reference can be made to objective time measures,…

Universal 1286: Original The Animated First Principle (AFP):In simple transitive clauses, the NP which is most animated will precede NPs which are less animated. Standardized…

Universal 1302: SOV ⇒ Definiteness affixes on N are suffixed Original If a language has SOV, definiteness affixes on noun (if any) are suffixed with…

Universal 1318: Original Only the verbal domain can be the target of long scrambling. Standardized IF there is long scrambling, THEN its landing site will…

Universal 1334: Prep ⇒ ((RelN ⇒ GenN) & (GenN ⇒ AdjN) & (AdjN ⇒ DemN)) Original Prepositional Noun-Modifier Hierarchy (PrNMH): If a language is prepositional,…

Universal 1350: Original Division is always expressed as multiplication by a fraction. Only units or multiples of units are dividends, and the denominator of the…

Universal 1366: Original There is a universal principle that in numeral classifier languages classifier concatenates with a quantifier, locative, demonstrative, or predicate to form a…

Universal 1382: Original No language with SVO or VSO basic order will have a clause final auxiliary. Standardized IF basic word order is SVO or…

Universal 1398: Original No language has adverbial predicates which are expressed as argument-internal clitics that are postposed to the constituents that they are bound to.…