Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1487: Original Noun incorporation is possible for underlying objects only. Standardized Noun incorporation, per movement in syntax (as opposed to lexical compound formation), is…

Universal 1503: Original If there is an anomaly of stress in the appellative elements of a language, then when the language does not have fixed…

Universal 1519: Original All subject-final languages present morphemically independent subordinate conjunctions which precede a finite clause. Standardized IF subject full noun phrases follow object full…

Universal 1535: Original In verb-initial languages, in NP questions, a questioned NP is always frontable and this is the normal pattern. It is possible, but…

Universal 1551: verb-initial ⇒ deletion V personal pronoun in positions relativized Original In verb-initial languages, occurrence of personal pronouns in positions relativized is fairly common,…

Universal 1567: Original If there are reflexive constructions of type (a) ‘Er küßt sich mit ihr’ in a language, there are likely to be reflexive…

Universal 1583: Original The following four causative oppositions: (1) laugh – make laugh, amuse; (2) boil – bring to boil; (3) burn – ignite (of…

Universal 1599: Original Every language has N’s and NPs of the type e → t (common nouns as predicates). Standardized Every language has N’s and…

Universal 1615: ambiguous O agreement ⇒ ambiguous A agreement Original If a language has ambiguous O agreement [see Comments for terminology], it has ambiguous A…

Universal 1631: polysynthesis ⇒ ¬ true quantifiers Original Polysynthetic languages should not have non-referential quantified NPs – that is, NPs comparable to ‘everyone’, ‘everything’, ‘nobody’,…