Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1848: Original See IPA. Standardized IF there is a laryngealized voiced alveolar stop, THEN there is also a laryngealized voiced bilabial stop. Keywords stop,…

Universal 1864: Original There is a “tone of voice” appropriate for talking to young children:(i) overall higher pitch and/or exaggerated intonation contours;(ii) slower speech tempo.…

Universal 1880: 1st vs. 2nd/3rd person split: future > present > past Original If a language has different tense categories and shows a split between…

Universal 1896: Original Given a particular language, and given a particular constituent class such that at least some members of that class are not inflected…

Universal 1912: Original In addition to DAT/BEN objects, other object cases lower on the topicality hierarchy may also be “promoted” to DO — but always…

Universal 1928: negative determiner is borrowed ⇒ specific determiner is borrowed Original If there is a word-form loan of a negative determiner in a language,…

Universal 1944: Original When three-degree systems of demonstratives where proximal/medial/distal correspond to 1st/2nd/3rd person develop into two-degree systems, the opposition will be proximal&medial vs. distal…

Universal 1960: Original [???] CHECK! Standardized IF a sequence of consonants (possibly only consisting of one) occurs in a consonant cluster of n members, THEN…

Universal 1976: Original When a language with zero copula inserts a pro-copula it does so between the subject and complement regardless of the normal position…

Universal 1992: Original In synchronic as well as diachronic treatments of languages, the pronominal system is much more basic and primary than pronominal agreement in…