Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1264: assimilation of tense vowels ⇒ assimilation of lax vowels Original Assimilation of tense vowels implies assimilation of lax vowels. Standardized IF there is…

Universal 1280: Original If the direct object is marked when its referent is inanimate, it is also marked when its referent is animate; if the…

Universal 1296: unobservable > irreversible observable > monovalent reversible > bivalent locational Original In languages where both resultatives proper and derived statives have the same…

Universal 1312: Original Every minuend is a base of the system or a multiple of the base. Standardized In numeral systems, every minuend is a…

Universal 1328: Original A historical tendency toward phonological symmetry is universal. Standardized A historical tendency toward phonological symmetry is universal. Keywords phoneme inventory Domain phonology…

Universal 1344: VO ⇒ adjective-marker-standard;OV ⇒ standard-marker-adjective Original In comparative structures (e.g. ‘taller than John’) there’s a correlation betweenVO order and adjective-marker-standard order and between…

Universal 1360: Original Only a base is ever multiplied by 1. Standardized In numeral systems, only a base is ever multiplied by 1. Keywords numeral…

Universal 1376: FG (relative clause) on H(n) ⇒ FG (WH-question) on H(n) Original Relative Clause and WH-Question Filler: In languages that have filler-gap structures for…

Universal 1392: Original Deletion of past tenses in non-initial (or non-final) verbs of conjunctive series implies deletion of future tenses in the same environment. Standardized…

Universal 1408: Original The higher the number of principle phonemes, the higher the probability of redundancy. Standardized The higher the number of principle phonemes, the…