Category: Universals Archive

Universal 805: Original The opposition of a stop and an affricate in the languages of the world implies the presence of a fricative in the…

Universal 821: Rel N ⇒ gapping Original While both prenominal and postnominal relative clauses may be formed by gapping, gapping is the overwhelmingly dominant mode…

Universal 837: VSO ⇒ Person & Number inflection Original VSO languages tend to have Person-Number inflection. Standardized IF basic order is VSO, THEN there is…

Universal 853: Original An unvoiced stop in initial clusters is never preceded immediately by a stop differing only by voicing, and in final systems is…

Universal 869: Original In initial clusters, the existence of at least one sequence consisting of voiced obstruent + nasal implies the existence of at least…

Universal 885: front rounded vowel ⇒ back rounded vowel Original There are no languages with rounded front vowels but without rounded back vowels. Standardized IF…

Universal 901: Original The more firmly individuated (definite, human, etc.) the agent and the object and/or the more complete (semantically pregnant, perfective, real. etc.) the…

Universal 917: Original Consistent OV languages are consistently left-branching (placing phrasal constituents before nonphrasal ones) while consistent VO languages are consistently right-branching. Standardized IF OV…

Universal 933: Original Standardized If there is the syllabic laryngeal ÷§ then there are syllabic obstruent stops. Keywords laryngeal, obstruent, syllabic, consonant Domain phonology Type…

Universal 949: Original If direct and indirect/non-direct objects can be distinguished paradigmatically, then they can be distinguished syntagmatically as well (but not necessarily the reverse).…