Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1369: Original The smaller the number of classifiers in a language, the more likely they are to be configurational rather than material. Standardized The…

Universal 1385: Original No language with free word order will have a clause final auxiliary. Standardized IF basic word order is free, THEN an auxiliary…

Universal 1401: Original If a language has either of the orderings (S ADV V X) or (S V X ADV), then it will have both…

Universal 1417: Original If there are separate forms for narrative and non-narrative past contexts, the non-narrative forms tend to be more highly marked than the…

Universal 1433: perfect ⇒ plusquamperfect Original The presence of the perfect almost always implies the presence of the plusquamperfect. Standardized IF there is perfect, THEN…

Universal 1449: Original In no language is there a special form to denote the metaperson ‘hearer’ in the non-singular. Standardized In no language is there…

Universal 1465: Original If some form denotes the metaperson ‘speaker + non-participant(s)’, then(a) in some languages it cannot include among its meanings any other metaperson;(b)…

Universal 1481: Original If a language lacks a form with the meaning ‘hearer’ and/or ‘hearers’ and/or ‘hearer(s) + non-participant(s)’, then it has a special form…

Universal 1497: Original All languages name ‘(finger)nail’ and ‘(toe)nail’. Standardized All languages name ‘(finger)nail’ and ‘(toe)nail’. Keywords body part Domain lexicon Type unconditional Status achronic…

Universal 1513: VOS (basic) ⇒ SVO (alternative) Original SVO is a grammatical (although marked) word order in all VOS languages. Standardized If basic word order…