Category: Universals Archive

Universal 540: Original In numeral systems with simple lexical representation, there is the following correlation: These simplest systems parallel that of number in the noun.…

Universal 556: Original Where there are contrasting forms for the absolute and contextual uses of cardinal numbers, there is always neutralization for some numerals, in…

Universal 572: obligatory (in)definiteness marking ⇒ obligatory plural marking (noun) Original If a language has obligatory marking of (in)definiteness, then it has obligatory marking of…

Universal 588: Original Whenever in a language there are two classes of noun phrases such that members of one class are case-marked ergatively and members…

Universal 604: N Poss ⇒ N Rel;equivalently: Rel N ⇒ Poss N Original If the possessive adjective follows the noun, then the relative clause follows…

Universal 620: Original If a distributive-key quantifier word and its ordinary counterpart are associated, in a certain construction, with different number morphology, then the distributive-key…

Universal 636: Original Number is the pronominal category most widely used among different languages in alternation of reference by personal pronoun to show degrees of…

Universal 652: consonant-vowel ratio is comparatively high ⇔ polysynthetic language Original The consonant-vowel ratio is comparatively high in polysynthetic languages, where morphemes are comparatively short,…

Universal 668: SOV ⇒ SentQ Original Most question particles occur in sentence-initial (or enclitic to the initial constituent) or in sentence-final position. Question particles almost…

Universal 684: morphological negation ⇒ verb-initial order v. free word order Original Morphological Negation — in particular suffixal Neg — is more common in verb-final…