Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1095: mono-valent resultative formed from bi-valent verb ⇒ bi-valent resultative formed from tri-valent verb Original If there are mono-valent resultatives formed from bi-valent verbs…

Universal 1111: ¬ inflectional morphology ⇒ fixed word order of nominal arguments; Original Lack of inflectional morphology implies fixed word order of direct nominal arguments.…

Universal 1127: Original When nouns and pronouns can be incorporated, they have a special incorporated form (uninflected in the case of nouns) as distinct from…

Universal 1143: Original A causative can become a passive, but a passive cannot become a causative. Standardized A causative can become a passive, but a…

Universal 1159: Original Indefinite articles are generally short – that is, they never have more than two syllables. Standardized Indefinite articles are generally short; that…

Universal 1175: ‘north’ &/v ‘south’ ⇒ ‘east’ &/v ‘west’ Original Languages having terms for ‘north’ and/or ‘south’ typically have terms for ‘east’ and/or ‘west’ but…

Universal 1191: Original If a reflexive/reciprocal can be an indirect object and/or circumstantial, then a reflexive/reciprocal can also be either direct object or possessive. Standardized…

Universal 1207: Original Dual quantifier universal:If a natural language has a basic determiner for each of D and d then these are semantically equivalent to…

Universal 1223: Original If there is a local case other than locative, then there will also be a locative. Standardized IF there is a local…

Universal 1239: Original Word-Terminal Condition: if an intersyllabic sequence is divisible into occurring word-initial and word-final clusters, then the perceived boundary does not fall between…