Category: Universals Archive

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…

Universal 1261: assimilation of vowels with high tone ⇒ assimilation of vowels with low tone Original Assimilation of vowels with high tone implies assimilation of…

Universal 1277: Original If the direct object is marked in the unitransitive clause, the indirect object will be marked in the bitransitive clause. Standardized IF…

Universal 1293: possessive resultative ⇒ subjective resultative ⇒ objective resultative Original The presence of possessive resultatives implies subjective resultatives, and this in turn implies objective…

Universal 1309: postposition ⇒ aspect affixes on V are suffixed Original If a language is postpositional, aspect affixes on verb (if any) are suffixed with…

Universal 1325: Original Every human language has a distinction between one-referent and two-referent predicators. Standardized Every human language has a distinction between one-referent and two-referent…

Universal 1341: verbal reciprocal/reflexive ⇒ verb agreement with subject Original If a language has a verbal reciprocal/reflexive, it must have an overt AGR marker. Standardized…

Universal 1357: Original A multiplicand in a pseudo-base is always smaller than its multiplier. Standardized In numeral systems, a multiplicand in a pseudo-base is always…

Universal 1373: Original Filler-Gap Complexity Hypothesis: If Filler-Gap Domain (FGD) of complexity n on a complexity hierarchy H is grammatical, then the FGDs for all…

Universal 1389: Original Retrospective languages tend toward finer temporal gradation in the past than in the future and prospective languages tend toward no or equal…