Category: Universals Archive

Universal 851: Original In final clusters, the existence of at least one fricative + fricative combination implies the presence of at least one stop +…

Universal 867: Original In initial clusters, the existence of at least one sequence consisting of two voiced obstruents implies the existence of at least one…

Universal 883: Original All languages have a high or a lower high front vowel. Standardized All languages have a high or a lower high front…

Universal 899: indirect construction ⇔ progressive aspect & partial nature of the object;direct construction ⇔ non-progressive aspect & totally involved object Original Whenever indirect constructions…

Universal 915: externally modifiable NP > backgrounded NP > demoted NP > nonreferential noun Original Hierarchy of incorporability:externally modifiable NP > backgrounded NP > demoted…

Universal 931: Original Standardized IF there is syllabic laryngeal h§§, THEN there are syllabic fricatives. Keywords laryngeal, fricative, syllabic, consonant Domain phonology Type implication Status…

Universal 947: Original If either inflectional morphology or derivational morphology is served by prosodic rules of stress shift, then typically either new phonological rules emerge…

Universal 963: articles co-occur with nouns accompanied by adnominal possessors ⇒ demonstratives co-occur with nouns accompanied by adnominal possessors Original If articles co-occur with possessive…

Universal 979: Original Irregular plural formation is more likely to occur with nouns high in the split plurality hierarchy. Standardized IF nouns low on the…

Universal 995: posterior consecutive deranking & SVO ⇒ conditional deranking Original If a language has posterior consecutive deranking and its word order is SVO, then…