Category: Universals Archive

Universal 90: Original The object agreement marker in all languages where it exists bears a significant relationship to some pronouns of that language which is…

Universal 106: Original Agreement loss, at least with class and number as agreement features, diffuses lexically, at least as far as adjectival targets are concerned.…

Universal 122: Original If in a language the same verbal meaning is expressible either through a construction where a complement of the verb is in…

Universal 138: Original If a language has de-verbal case markers at all, it is likely to have a de-verbal Locative case marker. Standardized IF there…

Universal 154: Original If the same adposition is used as a marker for both object and dative, including such non-prototypic datives as projected recipient, then…

Universal 170: Original If a language has case affixes on nouns, they are almost always suffixed. Standardized IF there are case affixes on nouns, THEN…

Universal 186: declension classes ⇒ cumulation (case & number);separation (case & number) ⇒ ¬ declension classes Original If there are declension classes (with different classes…

Universal 202: Original No set of case marking elements are both independent morphemes and express subject-object relations. Standardized IF a relational marker (case, adposition) is…

Universal 218: mellow fricative ⇒ strident fricative Original Standardized IF there are mellow fricatives, THEN there are corresponding strident fricatives. Keywords mellow, strident, fricative Domain…

Universal 234: inflectional expansion: number inflection ⇒ case inflection ⇒ gender inflectioninflectional reduction: gender inflection ⇒ case inflection ⇒ number inflection Original In times of…