Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1274: Original The same nuclear tagmeme which occurs initially in the unitransitive dominant order will occur initially in the bitransitive order. Standardized IF an…

Universal 1290: definite article (possessed NPs) ⇒ definite article (non-possessed NPs) Original If possessed NPs show the definite article, then so do non-possessed NPs. Standardized…

Universal 1306: SOV ⇒ Mood affixes on V are suffixed Original If a language has SOV, mood affixes on verb (if any) are suffixed with…

Universal 1322: Original No human language has a grammatically homogeneous vocabulary. Standardized No human language has a grammatically homogeneous vocabulary. Keywords vocabulary Domain lexicon Type…

Universal 1338: VO ⇒ flexion Original The more marked the position in which a word appears, the stronger the tendency for this word to present…

Universal 1354: Original The maximum number of sporadic addends is two. Standardized In numeral systems, the maximum number of sporadic addends is two. Keywords numeral…

Universal 1370: Original Intra-locative classifier languages have no quanta classifiers at all. Standardized IF there are intra-locative classifiers, THEN there are no quanta classifiers. Keywords…

Universal 1386: Original No language will exist where auxiliary does not potentially include tense; that is, in a sentence with tense and an auxiliary, tense…

Universal 1402: Original If a language has adverbial predicates which are analyzable into a noun and a case affix, then any postposed arguments of such…

Universal 1418: Original It is almost always possible to use the least marked indicative verb from in a narrative context. Standardized It is almost always…