Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1408: Original The higher the number of principle phonemes, the higher the probability of redundancy. Standardized The higher the number of principle phonemes, the…

Universal 1424: Original Secondary oral stops, apart from borrowings, are the results of diachronic developments from clusters. Standardized Secondary oral stops, apart from borrowings, are…

Universal 1440: Original In no language are there pronominal forms differentiating the number of elements within a metaperson, e.g. special forms for ‘hearer + hearer…

Universal 1456: Original In an overwhelming majority of languages, if the metaperson ‘non-participant’ in the singular is not the only meaning denoted by some pronominal…

Universal 1472: Original In an overwhelming majority of languages, there is no special form to denote the metaperson ‘speaker + hearer(s) + non-participant(s)’. Standardized In…

Universal 1488: Original In ditransitive constructions, the theme/direct object may incorporate, but the goal/indirect object may not. Standardized In ditransitive constructions, the theme/direct object may…

Universal 1504: Original The endpoint configuration prediction:Any language which has a lexeme denoting motion out of or motion through some configuration will also have a…

Universal 1520: OS ⇒ N Gen Original In possessive constructions subject-final languages always present full noun phrase possessors after the head (the possessed) noun phrase.…

Universal 1536: Original In verb-initial languages, there is a tendency for many types of subordinate clauses to be finite. Standardized IF word order is verb-initial,…

Universal 1552: Original In verb-initial and verb-final languages, but not in verb-medial ones, relative pronouns which code the case of the position relativized are rare.…