Category: Universals Archive

Universal 87: Prep ⇒ (N Dem ⇒ N Rel) Original IF a language has Prep word order, then if the demonstrative follows the noun, the…

Universal 103: Original Agreement should preferably occur in marked rather than unmarked construction types, e. g. with appositive rather than attributive adjectives. Standardized IF there…

Universal 119: Original If NP-internal constituents agree in two categories these will most likely be number and gender or number and person, depending on whether…

Universal 135: Original Pronominal Subjects and Agents are more likely to genitivize in ANCs than non-pronominal ones. Standardized IF non-pronominal subjects (S) and agents (A)…

Universal 151: Original If adnominal adjectives inflect like nouns, so do headless ones. Standardized IF adnominal adjectives inflect like nouns, THEN so do headless ones.…

Universal 167: “direction from” ⇒ “direction to” ⇒ “location” OR FROM ⇒ TO ⇒ AT Original If a language has a distinct case marker to…

Universal 183: case (noun) ⇒ case (pronoun) Original If there is case-inflection on nouns, there is also case-inflection on some pronouns. Standardized IF there is…

Universal 199: Original No set of case marking elements both participate in agreement and are separable from the head noun. Standardized IF a relational marker…

Universal 215: N G (possessive construction) ⇒ QuantN (partitive construction) Original If a language has a noun-genitive order in the possessive construction, it has quantitative-noun…

Universal 231: rigid order ⇒ gradation of adjectives expressed by function words;flexible order &rArr gradation of adjectives expressed inflectionally Original If constituent order is rigid…