Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1347: (ObjPred & AdjN & GenN) ⇒ left-recursive Original If in a language the object precedes the predicate, and the adjective and genitive precede…

Universal 1363: Original The only numeral expressions deleted are those for 1 and for bases of the system. Standardized In numeral systems, IF any numeral…

Universal 1379: Original Question-word Movement Universal:All languages that move WH-question word to clause-peripheral position move it to the left, not the right. Standardized Question-word Movement…

Universal 1395: argument-reduced adverbials ⇒ predicate-reduced adverbials Original If a language has argument-reduced adverbials, it will also have predicate-reduced adverbials. Standardized IF there are argument-reduced…

Universal 1411: Original If in a language only one member of a customary phoneme opposition exists, the existing member of the opposition can take over…

Universal 1427: ¬prefix ⇒ ¬preposition; ¬prefix ⇒ inflectional local cases;prepositions ⇒ prefixes Original If in a language there are no prefixes, then there will be…

Universal 1443: Original In an overwhelming majority of languages, if some form denotes the metaperson ‘speaker’, it cannot include among its meanings the following metapersons:(a)…

Universal 1459: Original In no language is there a special form to denote a metaperson ‘speaker+hearer(s)’. Standardized In no language is there a special form…

Universal 1475: Original In an overwhelming majority of languages, if some form denotes the metaperson ‘speaker + hearer(s) + non-participant(s)’, then it cannot denote the…

Universal 1491: Original As a consequence of the tendency of incorporated nouns to be generic in meaning, they do not seem to be able to…