Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1964: Original all languages exhibit the following property: if clusters of n Cs are possible syllable-initially, then clusters of n-1 Cs are also possible…

Universal 1980: Original rigid type III (verb-final) …Sequences of events of the ‘go, do, and return’ type appear as ‘having done, return’ rather than ‘go…

Universal 1996: Original Note that there are no syntactic systems [of gender assignment] [only semantic, morphological, and phonological systems of gender assignment]. Standardized Gender cannot…

Universal 2012: Original A system of switch-reference marking is found only in languages with an accusative syntax. Standardized IF there is switch-reference marking, THEN alignment…

Universal 2028: Original Generally agreed upon “facts” about contour tones (marked = more complex, rarer): (a) contour tones are more marked than level tones;(b) rising…

Universal 12: VO ⇒ flexion Original Consistent VO languages tend to be inflectional in their morphology. Standardized IF basic order is consistently VO, THEN the…

Universal 29: Original In all languages, if Suffixaufnahme occurs without pause between the head and the attributive nominal, it also occurs with it. Standardized IF…

Universal 45: verb agrees with attributive ⇒ verb agrees with Oblique Object ⇒ verb agrees with Indirect Object ⇒ verb agrees with Direct Object ⇒…

Universal 61: Standard-marker-adjective ⇒ postpositions;Adjective-marker-standard ⇒ prepositions Original If in comparisons of superiority the only order, or one of the alternative orders, is standard –…

Universal 77: Original Only languages in which (a) the accusative is unmarked, (b) in addition when a non-accusative is dative-shifted it loses its nominal case…