Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1182: terms for individual toes ⇒ terms for individual fingers Original In all languages known so far there appear to be labels for ‘toe’…

Universal 1198: Original Much of the morphology of languages with predominantly verbal affixation does in fact describe aspects of events and states, rather than persons…

Universal 1214: local cases ⇒ SVO or SOV Original If there are local cases, then basic word order tends to be SVO or SOV. Standardized…

Universal 1230: Original Diachronically, an undifferentiated locative (expressing where, whereto, wherefrom) retains the meaning of a where case when ‘whereto’ and ‘wherefrom’ cases are being…

Universal 1246: Original … if syllables containing sequences of n consonants in a language are to be found as syllabic types, then sequences of n-1…

Universal 1262: assimilation of fully voiced vowels ⇒ assimilation of partially voiced vowels V assimilation with voiceless vowels Original Assimilation of fully voiced vowels implies…

Universal 1278: Original If the direct object is marked in the bitransitive clause, it is also marked in the unitransitive clause. Standardized IF the direct…

Universal 1294: dative &, V locative resultative ⇒ objective resultative Original If in a language there is dative and/or locative resultative, then there is objective…

Universal 1310: Original Valence affixes on verb (i.e. intransitive/transitive/ditransitive affixes), if there are any, are suffixed with more than chance frequency. Standardized IF there are…

Universal 1326: Original In every human language, redundancy, measured in phonological terms, hovers near 50%. Standardized In every human language, redundancy, measured in phonological terms,…