Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1070: Original If in a language phonemic stress co-exists with phonemic quantity, one of the two elements is subordinate to the other, and three,…

Universal 1086: Original We have not found a single instance in which a nasalized low vowel is lower than the corresponding oral vowel, whereas the…

Universal 1102: Original Yet all human languages classify actions into two basic types: those involving one obligatory participant, which are described by intransitive clauses, and…

Universal 1118: ¬Du (3 person pronoun ) ⇒ ¬Du (noun) Original If the pronominal dual does not extend to the 3rd person, there very likely…

Universal 1134: Original If a dual, or any other number, is differentiated for a particular person of non-pronominal agreement forms, there will be a dual,…

Universal 1150: distributive-share word ⇒ distributive-share numeral word Original If a language has a distributive-share word, it has a distributive-share numeral word. Standardized IF there…

Universal 1166: Original For any particular language, definiteness contrast obligatorily expressed for any noun phrase implies such contrast in the object noun phrase. Standardized IF…

Universal 1182: terms for individual toes ⇒ terms for individual fingers Original In all languages known so far there appear to be labels for ‘toe’…

Universal 1198: Original Much of the morphology of languages with predominantly verbal affixation does in fact describe aspects of events and states, rather than persons…

Universal 1214: local cases ⇒ SVO or SOV Original If there are local cases, then basic word order tends to be SVO or SOV. Standardized…