Category: Universals Archive

Universal 563: Duo-Paucal ⇒ Paucal & Mult(itudin)al Original If a language knows a Duo-Paucal, it will also contrast a general Paucal with a Multitudinal. Standardized…

Universal 579: count & mass nouns ⇔ configurational NP; Original A language distinguishes between count and mass nouns if and only if a language possesses…

Universal 595: Original The reversal of syntactic constituent order is never systematically iconic, i. e. signaling the reversal of meaning. Standardized The reversal of syntactic…

Universal 611: Original If a language has Switch-Reference marking between non-adjacent clauses, it will also mark Switch-reference between adjacent clauses. Standardized IF there is switch-reference…

Universal 627: Original If a distributive-share quantifier word and its ordinary counterpart are associated, in a certain construction, with different number morphology, then the distributive…

Universal 643: Original Variation of person in pronominal reference indicates greater difference in degree of respect or social distance than does variation of number. Standardized…

Universal 659: Original There is no reduplication pattern which would not involve reference to lexical identity. Standardized There is no reduplication pattern which would not…

Universal 675: Original It very rarely happens that prenominal Relative Clauses regularly retain personal pronoun in the NPrel position. Standardized IF relative clauses are prenominal,…

Universal 691: Original In initial sounds: the heterorganic sequence of an obstruent consonant and a nasal consonant (e.g. bn) implies a heterorganic sequence of a…

Universal 707: Original If a nasal vowel system is smaller than the corresponding basic vowel system, it is most often a mid vowel that is…