Category: Universals Archive

Universal 594: Original If in a language the temporal order of syntactic constituents that describe events symbolizes anything about the actual order in which these…

Universal 610: Original When the Switch-Reference marker is a suffix the Marking clause precedes theReference clause; when the Switch-Reference marker is a verbal prefix, the…

Universal 626: Original Sonority Hierarchy: liquids > glides > nasals > fricatives > stops Standardized Sonority Hierarchy: vowels > liquids > glides > nasals >…

Universal 642: Original In languages in which variation of person in pronominal reference is used to show degrees of respect or social distance, the 3rd…

Universal 658: Original There is no reduplication pattern where the number of repetitions is freely chosen from the set of all numbers. Standardized There is…

Universal 674: Original With few exceptions, postnominal relative clauses in VSO languages contain either (a) an initial relative particle or pronoun or (b) a special…

Universal 690: Original The occurrence of consonant-combinations in initial and final position of words implies their possibility in medial position, between vowels, but not vice…

Universal 706: nasal vowels ⇒ as many or more oral vowels Original The number of vowels in a nasal vowel system is equal to or…

Universal 722: complex contour tones ⇒ simple contour tones Original A language with complex contours also has simplex contours. Standardized IF there are complex tonal…

Universal 738: Original The Adjective Hierarchy:Human Propensity / Physical / Dimension, Colour / Value, Age, Form / Material, Gender The first aim of this hierarchy…