Category: Universals Archive

Universal 491: Original If in a language with dominant SOV order there is no alternative basic order, or only OSV as the alternative, then all…

Universal 507: person-number (verb) V gender (verb) ⇒ tense-mood (verb) Original If the verb has categories of person-number or if it has categories of gender,…

Universal 523: Original In more than one language, and possibly in all, preposed demonstratives are peripheral to tautolateral numerals and adjectives; postposed demonstratives are most…

Universal 539: Original A link for addition is never initial in a numeral. Standardized A link for addition is never initial in a numeral. Keywords…

Universal 555: Original Absolute forms of cardinal numbers may have overt markers added to the contextual forms, but not vice versa. Standardized When there is…

Universal 571: Original Hierarchy of syntactic bondedness (stronger > weaker): article+noun > deictic+noun < interrogative+noun < quantifier/indefinite+noun < adjective+noun >> participle+noun > relative clause+noun. As…

Universal 587: gender inflection ⇒ flexive Original … eine höchst bemerkenswerte Erscheinung, die nur in flektierenden Sprachen anzutreffen ist, das ist das grammatische Geschlecht.(Grammatical gender…

Universal 603: Original If in a language the definiteness of a class of noun phrases is an order-significant property, this class will include both objects…

Universal 619: gapping for attributive ⇒ gapping for non-direct object ⇒ gapping for direct object = gapping for subject Original If a given language can…

Universal 635: SA ⇒ ergative V non-accusative alignment Original If a language has Suffixaufnahme, then (perhaps) it is predominantly of ergative or other non-accusative alignment.…