Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1101: ergative syntactically ⇒ ergative morphologically Original Any language that is syntactically ergative will also have some ergative characteristics at the morphological level. Standardized…

Universal 1117: passive with agent phrases ⇒ passive without agent phrases Original If a language has passives with agent phrases then it has them without…

Universal 1133: Original If only two persons differentiate a dual, the 1st is much likelier to be one of them than the 3rd. Standardized IF…

Universal 1149: sentential objects can be passivized ⇒ lexical NP objects can be passivized Original If a language can passivize transitive verb phrases taking sentential…

Universal 1165: Original Whenever order correlates with definiteness, the definite element tends to be placed at the beginning of the sentence. Standardized Whenever order correlates…

Universal 1181: ‘foot’ ⇒ ‘hand’ Original If there is a separate term for ‘foot’, then there is also one for ‘hand’, but not vice versa.…

Universal 1197: more analytic ⇒ more regular phraseology Original Other things being equal, the more analytic a language is, the more regular is its phraseological…

Universal 1213: extended system of local cases ⇒ extended system of local postpositions Original If there is an extensive system of local cases, then there…

Universal 1229: posterior local case ⇒ superior & inferior local case Original If there are posterior local cases, then there will also be both superior…

Universal 1245: Original The complete elimination of a language’s initial vowels, whether by loss or by consonant problems, is less likely than the complete elimination…