Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1570: Original If there are (a) passive verb forms with reflexive marker and (b) special (e.g., participial) verb forms for the passive voice, it…

Universal 1586: possession regularly head-marked ⇒ opposition alienable/inalienable possession;¬ opposition alienable/inalienable possession ⇒ possession regularly dependent-marked Original An opposition of “alienable” and “inalienable” possession is…

Universal 1602: nasal, voice, prenasalized stop, sonorant Original Languages that manifest the dependency of nasality on voicing normally have prenasalized stops. Standardized IF the feature…

Universal 1618: Edible: Manner of Ingestion, State of Food;Nonedible : Value, Purpose/Function Original The implicational hierarchy of semantic distinctions for possessive classifier systems: The primary…

Universal 1634: polysynthesis ⇒ ¬ nonfinite verb forms Original IF there is polysynthesis (essentially, noun incorporation and bound agreement/cross-reference markers for subject and object(s) on…

Universal 1650: Original If L is a rigid verb-final language in its basic word order, the rhematic focus of a sentence of L is most…

Universal 1666: Original In languages with an initial marker of subordination, sentential NPs cannot occur in clause-internal position, but such is the case in languages…

Universal 1682: Original In languages that make an extensive use of conjunctions converbs play a minor role or are completely absent. Conversely, in languages that…

Universal 1698: Original The Rhyme Law (conjectured):There must be degrees of preference for combinations of nuclei with codas. For instance, offgliding nuclear speech sounds often…

Universal 1714: Original General Syllabication Law:A syllabication is the more preferred: (a) the better the resulting syllable contact is and (b) the better that syllable…