Category: Universals Archive

Universal 332: Original If the suffix position is the only possible one for an object-affix, then the subject-affix also occupies this position at least in…

Universal 348: Original If SOV is a dominant order, then OVS is one of the alternative orders. Standardized IF SOV is a dominant order, THEN…

Universal 364: agglutinative ⇒ long inflectional affixes;flexive ⇒ short inflectional affixes Original Inflectional affixes tend to be longer in agglutinative languages than in flective languages.…

Universal 380: Original Every language has “double-subject”* constructions. Standardized Every language has “double-subject”* constructions. Keywords topic, comment Domain syntax, pragmatics Type unconditional Status achronic Quality…

Universal 396: Original The more frequent and syntagmatically simple forms show paradigmatically complexity, the less frequent and syntagmatically complex forms show less paradigmatic complexity. Standardized…

Universal 412: postposition ⇒ Gender affixes on N are suffixed;Gender affixes on N are prefixed ⇒ preposition Original If a language is postpositional, Gender affixes…

Universal 428: Original All types of predicate constituents do not agree alike with polite plural pronoun subjects; if the referent of the polite, formally plural…

Universal 444: agglutinative ⇒ complement-balancing & complement-deranking;flexive ⇒ complement-balancing Original Agglutinating languages can be complement-balancing and complement-deranking, while fusional languages are complement-balancing. Standardized IF morphologyis…

Universal 460: Original In a language, all (or almost all) verbs with the general meaning ‘to create’ or ‘to destroy’ are transitive verbs according to…

Universal 476: Original There are never more tense distinctions in progressive than in non-progressive. Standardized IF there are tense distinctions in progressive, THEN there will…