Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1981: Original rigid type III (verb-final) …Optional plural. Expression of plural in the noun is optional and is normally absent in nouns when they…

Universal 1997: Original There is no purely morphological system [of gender assignment]. First, they always have a semantic core. … the morphological rules assign the…

Universal 2013: Original It is probably the case that a classifier set always includes a contrast human/nonhuman or animate/inanimate … A gender/noun class system almost…

Universal 2029: Original If there is only one liquid, there are no onset clusters. Standardized IF there is only one liquid, THEN there are no…

Universal 12: VO ⇒ flexion Original Consistent VO languages tend to be inflectional in their morphology. Standardized IF basic order is consistently VO, THEN the…

Universal 29: Original In all languages, if Suffixaufnahme occurs without pause between the head and the attributive nominal, it also occurs with it. Standardized IF…

Universal 45: verb agrees with attributive ⇒ verb agrees with Oblique Object ⇒ verb agrees with Indirect Object ⇒ verb agrees with Direct Object ⇒…

Universal 61: Standard-marker-adjective ⇒ postpositions;Adjective-marker-standard ⇒ prepositions Original If in comparisons of superiority the only order, or one of the alternative orders, is standard –…

Universal 77: Original Only languages in which (a) the accusative is unmarked, (b) in addition when a non-accusative is dative-shifted it loses its nominal case…

Universal 93: pronominal gender in 2Sg ⇒ pronominal gender in 3Sg Original IF a language has pronominal gender in the 2nd person singular, THEN it…