Category: Universals Archive

Universal 408: (person marker (possessee) = (person marker (INTR (non-perfective))) ⇒(person marker (possessee) = person marker (INTR (perfective))) Original If person marking is phonologically identical…

Universal 424: Original There is no language where, given a constituent class some members of which are immediate constituents of the sentence at the point…

Universal 440: SOV ⇒ SO Neg V v SOV Neg Original In SOV languages the negation is commonly placed before or after the verb. Standardized…

Universal 456: /h/ occurs in syllable-initial position ⇒ /h/ occurs in relative initial position ⇒/h/ occurs in absolute initial position; or $hV ⇒ #hV=>##hV Original…

Universal 472: ergative/nominative (noun) ⇒ ergative/nominative (3 person &, V Dem) Original If in a language nouns have the opposition “ergative/nominative”, then with a high…

Universal 488: Original In declarative sentences with nominal subject and object, the dominant order is always one in which the subject precedes the object. Standardized…

Universal 504: only suffixes ⇒ postposition;only prefixes ⇒ preposition Original If a language is exclusively suffixing, it is postpositional; if it is exclusively prefixing, it…

Universal 520: Original In more than one language, but not in all, the adnominal and pronominal demonstratives stems are fully or partially identical. Standardized It…

Universal 536: Original If in a language, in any sum the smaller addend precedes the larger, then the same order holds for all smaller numbers…

Universal 552: Original If there is variation in Noun Quantifier order depending on the identity of the numeral, one of the two orders is used…