Category: Universals Archive

Universal 259: primary topicalization ⇒ accusative alignment Original In ergative and active languages only secondary topicalization, by means of changing the word order in the…

Universal 275: category X (Trial) ⇒ category X (Dual) Original In all languages: if there is any grammatical opposition in the forms of Trial, the…

Universal 291: ezâfe ⇒ possessive declension V article Original If there are ezâfe constructions, there is possessive declension (pronominal enclitics or proclitics with the meaning…

Universal 307: Original If active and passive voices differ in verb form, then the corresponding constructions differ from each other in form of at least…

Universal 323: Original If the verb agrees with subject and object and there are forms with the following arrangement of agreement affixes: s-o-V and o-V-s,…

Universal 339: Original If number is expressed in a prefixal part of a confix, then it is also expressed in its suffixal part. Standardized IF…

Universal 355: (o-V-s) & ¬(s-V-o) ⇒ dominant order is SOV Original In the languages where the verb agrees with subject and object, if there are…

Universal 371: VO ⇒ main stress in a Verb Phrase is to the right of Verb;OV ⇒ main stress in a Verb Phrase is to…

Universal 387: h V [ +high ] ⇒ h V [ +low ] Original /h/ occurs more frequently preceding a low vowel than a high…