Category: Universals Archive

Universal 261: ergative language ⇒ ObjectSubject markers Original In ergative languages personal verb affixes are arranged such that the object marker almost always precedes the…

Universal 277: VOS ⇒ ¬ verbal inflection Original If a language has VOS order, then it has no verbal inflection. Standardized IF basic order is…

Universal 293: verb agreement (DO) ⇒ verb agreement (SUBJ) Original In all languages: if the verb agrees with the direct object, it agrees with the…

Universal 309: Original In the overwhelming majority of languages the citation form belongs to the syntactical form of the nominative*. Standardized The citation form of…

Universal 325: Original If the verb agrees with subject and object and there are forms with the following arrangement of agreement affixes: s-o-V and V-s-o,…

Universal 341: Original If the dominant position of the subject with respect to the verb depends on their morphological characteristics, the dominant order in such…

Universal 357: Original If in a dominant word order VS the only possible forms are the forms of the V-s conjugation, then the forms like…

Universal 373: Original There is a positive correlation between higher syllable-per-sentence and syllable-per word ratios, simpler (or shorter) syllables, agglutinative morphology, and (S)OV basic word…

Universal 389: Original Aspirated consonants occur mostly prevocalically, then postvocalically, preconsonantally, and in (absolute) final position. Standardized IF aspirated consonants occur in absolute final position,…

Universal 405: agglutinative (to an extent) ⇒ inflections used cross-categorially Original If a language is (to an extent) agglutinating, at least some of its inflections…