Category: Universals Archive

Universal 482: DO morphologically marked ⇒ IndO morphologically marked Original If the direct object is morphologically marked in a sentence, then the indirect object is…

Universal 498: OV ⇒ Subordinate-Main verb Original If the nominal object always precedes the verb, then verb forms subordinate to the main verb also precede…

Universal 514: Original A language never has more gender categories in non-singular numbers than in the singular. Standardized IF there are n genders in the…

Universal 530: Original The largest value of L in numeral systems with only simple lexical representation is 5 and the smallest is 2. Standardized IF…

Universal 546: Original In languages in which the expression of plurality is facultative in the noun, the singular may be used with numerals designating numbers…

Universal 562: Du (¬natural pair noun) ⇒ Du (natural pair noun) Original If there is a dual with nouns other than those denoting natural pairs,…

Universal 578: Original If stacked targets (such as attributive adjective and a determiner) may differ in agreeing on a referential-semantic or a syntactic basis, the…

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 >…