Category: Universals Archive

Universal 969: Original If there are analogical changes in their inflectional paradigms, then the number of synonymous morphemes (stems and affixes) is more likely to…

Universal 985: allative comparative ⇒ absolute posterior consecutive deranking & total identity deletion Original Languages with an allative comparative are languages with absolute posterior consecutive…

Universal 1001: Original Front vowels predominantly correspond to diminutive and associated categories. Standardized Front vowels predominantly correspond to diminutive and associated categories. Keywords iconicity Domain…

Universal 1017: verb-initial ⇒ N Gen Original … verb-initial languages do exhibit a clear preference for N Gen order. Standardized IF basic order is verb-initial,…

Universal 1033: Original When stress is phonologically predictable and automatic (i.e., always on the same syllable), it may only fall on initial, final, or penultimate…

Universal 1049: Original We would expect that a system which stresses the initial syllable as the elsewhere case (i.e., if words lack a long vowel,…

Universal 1065: Original No language has a rule which (i) places stress on antepenultimate syllables, but (ii) fails to place a stress on words consisting…

Universal 1081: Original Where contrastive aspiration is neutralized before liquids and nasals, the occurring phone is not aspirated or if released not to the same…

Universal 1097: Original If a language has to maintain a high number of vowel distinctions which are perceptually close to each other, then the addition…

Universal 1113: special marking in yes-no questions ⇔ no syntactic wh-movement Original Wh-in-situ languages have special markings in yes-no questions, and languages with special markings…