Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1088: Original Nasal systems with more than two place of articulation contrasts usually have a palatal or velar nasal, or both. Standardized IF a…

Universal 1104: Original If any case has zero realization, or a zero allomorph, it will be absolutive or nominative. Standardized If any case has zero…

Universal 1120: Original The nominal dual is likelier to be restricted to natural pairs if the pronominal dual is unrestricted than if it is restricted…

Universal 1136: Original If the dual is conceived of as a paucal limited to two referents, it will extend to all persons of the pronoun…

Universal 1152: numerability ⇒ definitizability ⇒ pronominalizability Original For any given noun phrase, numerability implies definitizability, and definitizability implies pronominalizability. Standardized For any given noun…

Universal 1168: Original If a language possesses simple and distributive-key universal quantifiers, and the two are morphologically related, then the distributive-key quantifier is derived from…

Universal 1184: Original Expressions for deictic orientation may derive from terms for body parts or environmental landmarks but never from terms for celestial or atmospheric…

Universal 1200: dislocation of non-NPs ⇒ dislocation of NPs Original Dislocated phrase universal:If a language allows phrases to occur in a dislocated position associated with…

Universal 1216: local postpositions ⇒ case (noun) Original If there are (local) postpositions, then there will also be nominal case inflection (not necessarily including local…

Universal 1232: Original Diachronically, local cases tend to acquire temporal meanings; in particular, a terminative local case is predestined to acquire temporal meaning. Standardized Diachronically,…