Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1098: ¬ consonant clusters ⇒ word-final minimum contrast Original If a language has no consonant clusters, the position of minimum contrast is word-final. Standardized…

Universal 1114: VO ⇒ CompS; Original VO languages are exceptionlessly Comp-initial. OV languages exemplify both final complementizers and initial complementizers. Standardized IF basic word order…

Universal 1130: Original If a 3rd person pronoun can be incorporated when a corresponding absolute noun is present, then it can also be incorporated when…

Universal 1146: imperfective passive ⇒ perfective passive Original If a language has any passives it has ones which can be used to cover the perfective…

Universal 1162: indefinite article (plural nouns) ⇒ indefinite article (singular nouns) Original If the indefinite article determines plural nouns, then it is also used for…

Universal 1178: Original The notion ‘muscle’ is expressed predominantly by using small mammals as structural templates. As in the case of English muscle (which is…

Universal 1194: inflection (aspect v tense) ⇒ past v perfective gram Original With a few exceptions, if a language has inflectional tense or aspect, it…

Universal 1210: Original After incorporation of the noun the verb becomes intransitive (if it was not already so). From this follows that other syntactic phenomena…

Universal 1226: Original If there are cases differentiating where to relations other than terminative or prosecutive, then there will very likely be a terminative or…

Universal 1242: Original The likelihood of initial clusters is greater for languages with final consonants than for languages without final consonants, even greater for languages…