Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1985: Original The negative of past tense forms of Ex and/or Cop tends to be more regular in formation than the present-tense negative. Standardized…

Universal 2001: Original It appears likely that there are generalizations [concerning “neutral agreement”] of the type “if infinitive phrases are are non-prototypical then so are…

Universal 2017: Original All languages have words comparable, though not necessarily identical in meaning, with cry and smile; that is words referring to bodily expression…

Universal 3: ergative alignment ⇒ also accusative alignment Original Grammatical systems with ergativity tend to have ergative-accusative splits. Standardized IF alignment is ergative for some…

Universal 17: SA head-present ⇒ SA head-missing Original If Suffixaufnahme occurs with the head present, it also occurs with the head missing. Standardized IF Suffixaufnahme…

Universal 33: SA ⇒ external case without internal case Original If a language has Suffixaufnahme, it also has the external case occurring without the internal…

Universal 49: Original Case and number agreement of attributive adjectives are determined independently: number agreement is controlled by head nouns; case is distributed among the…

Universal 65: SOV ⇒ (A N ⇒ G N) Original If a language has SOV word order, then if the adjective precedes the noun, the…

Universal 81: Original There is no language in which an accusative object must be first demoted via dative-shift before it can be relativized. Standardized Relativization…

Universal 97: Prep ⇒ (A Adv ⇒ A Mark Stand) Original If a language has Prep word order, then if the adverb follows the adjective…