Category: Universals Archive

Universal 909: Original In a language with only a single genitive, when a transitive clause is nominalized, the subject’s prior claim to the genitive case…

Universal 925: Original Standardized If a language contains syllables with vowel nuclei of the form CmVCn and syllables with consonantal nuclei of the form Cm’C§Cn’,…

Universal 941: Original A nasal syllabic phoneme, apart from borrowings and analogical formations, always results from the loss of a vowel. Standardized A nasal syllabic…

Universal 957: Original For languages with phonemic stress, the presence of n unstressed syllables flanking a stressed syllable implies the presence of n -1 unstressed…

Universal 973: Original If there are analogical changes in their inflectional paradigms, the forms (stems and affixes) of 3rd person are more likely to be…

Universal 989: conjoined comparative ⇒ ¬ deranking & ¬ identity deletion;conjoined comparative ⇒ balancing & ¬ identity deletion Original Languages with a conjoined comparative are…

Universal 1005: spiratized dentals ⇒ spirantized labials & spirantized velars Original … across-the-board spirantization processes tend to start with labials and velars and then spread…

Universal 1021: Original If a language has a parts-of speech system of types 1-3/4 and has Predicate-initial word order, then it has HeadModifier basic word…

Universal 1037: Original When stress is not phonologically predictable (i.e., when it is phonemic, fulfilling grammatical or lexical functions) and limited to certain syllables (i.e.…

Universal 1053: Original If determiners agree within NPs, modifiers are likelier also to agree than not to agree. Standardized IF determiners agree within NPs, modifiers…