Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1546: Original In verb-initial languages, there is probably less agreement of adjectives with common nouns than in verb-final languages, especially case agreement. Standardized The…

Universal 1562: Rel N ⇒ ¬ relative pronouns;N Rel & strict verb-initial ⇒ ¬ relative pronouns Original There are no relative pronouns (i.e., no strong…

Universal 1578: Original If both the reflexive marker and the causative marker in a language are affixes, both are: (a) either prefixes (cf. Abkhaz, Amharic,…

Universal 1594: body part /body parts > artefacts Original There will be no language in which the linguistic distance between possessor and possessum is greater…

Universal 1610: Original In languages with verb agreement, patient verb agreement appears more frequently in verb-peripheral languages [i.e. verb-initial and verb-final languages] than in verb-medial…

Universal 1626: Original There is no language where the double object causative would be the only possible causative construction. Standardized IF there is a double…

Universal 1642: subordinating serial verb structures ⇒ SVO Original Nearly all of the examples of subordinating serial verb structures (V+V) are found in SVO languages.…

Universal 1658: Original Whenever there are two terms differing in generation which are true reciprocals, or there is one which is a self-reciprocal term with…

Universal 1674: Original Standardized IF there is a phoneme all of whose allophones are variants of /x/, THEN there is a phoneme whose characteristic variant…

Universal 1690: absolute consecutive deranking ⇒ SOV v VOS Original Languages with absolute consecutive deranking have either SOV or VSO word order. Standardized IF there…