Category: Universals Archive

Universal 889: OV ⇒ suffixes;VO ⇒ prefixes Original OV languages tend to have suffixes and VO languages prefixes. Standardized IF the word order is OV,…

Universal 905: Original Allomorphy cannot be conditioned across (grammatical) word boundaries. Standardized Allomorphy cannot be conditioned across (grammatical) word boundaries. Keywords allomorphy Domain morphology Type…

Universal 921: Original Standardized IF the voiced stop /g/ is absent from the velar group, THEN the corresponding voiced fricative /©/ must be present. IF…

Universal 937: Original No language has nasal vowels unless it also has one or more primary nasal consonants. Standardized IF there are nasal vowels, THEN…

Universal 953: Original If direct and indirect/non-direct objects differ in their morphological coding (at least minimally), then they will also differ in their syntactic behaviour…

Universal 969: Original If there are analogical changes in their inflectional paradigms, then the number of synonymous morphemes (stems and affixes) is more likely to…

Universal 985: allative comparative ⇒ absolute posterior consecutive deranking & total identity deletion Original Languages with an allative comparative are languages with absolute posterior consecutive…

Universal 1001: Original Front vowels predominantly correspond to diminutive and associated categories. Standardized Front vowels predominantly correspond to diminutive and associated categories. Keywords iconicity Domain…

Universal 1017: verb-initial ⇒ N Gen Original … verb-initial languages do exhibit a clear preference for N Gen order. Standardized IF basic order is verb-initial,…

Universal 1033: Original When stress is phonologically predictable and automatic (i.e., always on the same syllable), it may only fall on initial, final, or penultimate…