Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1893: Original A lexical item whose meaning is verbal can never be included in the set of borrowed properties. Standardized A lexical item whose…

Universal 1909: Original If a language allows for the marker of predicative possession to be part of the range of functions covered by the marker…

Universal 1925: Original If a language has two modifier constructions that differ in linear order and in linguistic distance, the construction with a prenominal modifier…

Universal 1941: Original If an infix has an alternative position outside the word, that external position is always at the edge of the word to…

Universal 1957: Original … the hypothesis that a language which has CiCj clusters will also have CiCj stems … Standardized IF there are consonant clusters…

Universal 1973: Original A grammatical element is less likely to be omitted the greater the ambiguity which would result from its omission. Standardized A grammatical…

Universal 1989: Original simplification … in the typologically expected direction …In the process of category-collapsing, we normally expect as well as find the non-human or…

Universal 2005: Original The type of gender resolution system found is constrained by the [gender] assignment system of the language. Languages with strict semantic assignment…

Universal 2021: Original (i) In all languages, people can describe cognitively based feelings via observable bodily “symptoms” (that is, via some bodily events regarded as…

Universal 5: SOV & N Gen ⇒ N Adj Original If a language has dominant SOV order and the genitive follows the governing noun, then…