Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1961: Original Vowel co-occurrence displays an associative tendency.Consonant co-occurrence displays a dissociative tendency. Standardized Within words (or also relevant other domains, such as stems),…

Universal 1977: Original In a language with optional omission of a copula (under the conditions of , there is a tendency for the optional copula…

Universal 1993: Original Free forms are more easily susceptible to morphological replacement through analogical levelling or otherwise than bound forms. Standardized IF a bound form…

Universal 1994: Original Hier nun war es möglich, scheinbar sich sogar auf einen einzigen Gegenstand zu beschränken, nämlich DIE STELLUNG DES AFFIXLOSEN GENITIVS in bezug…

Universal 2025: Original the presence of a word-initial geminate in a given language implies that medial geminates are also present in that language. Standardized IF…

Universal 10: Common Proper ⇒ G N Original With much better than chance frequency, if in apposition the common noun usually precedes the proper noun,…

Universal 26: Original In all languages that mark a constituent preposed to the noun for inflectional categories such as number, gender, or case, constituents postposed…

Universal 42: Original If a language has Suffixaufnahme at one time and at some later point it does not, one possible successor construction is the…

Universal 58: Original When the general rule is that the descriptive adjective follows, there may be a minority of adjectives which usually precede, but when…

Universal 74: Prep ⇒ (N Num ⇒ N A) Original If a language has Prep word order, then if the numeral follows the noun, the…