Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1531: verb-initial ⇒ prefixes Original Verb-initial languages evidence significant prefixing, though normally there is some suffixing as well. There is a possibility of ambi-fixing…

Universal 1547: Original In verb-initial languages, the presence of definite articles distinct from demonstratives is much more common than in verb-final languages. Standardized IF word…

Universal 1563: Original In all languages with over 60% order overall, VS word order is statistically correlated with temporally sequenced clauses. In languages with less…

Universal 1579: Original If there are causative affixes in a language which serve to form causative verbs from transitives, then this language also has causative…

Universal 1595: Original If some element is a member of the set AUX*, there is reasonable likehood that it will be bound to some adjacent…

Universal 1611: verb-patient agreement ⇒ verb-agent agreement Original All languages with verb-patient agreement, regardless of type, also have verb agreement with the agent as well.…

Universal 1627: Original If a language has the order VOS, OVS, OSV and has a double object construction, the patient in that clause should precede…

Universal 1643: VSO ⇒ ¬ subordinating serial verb phrase structures Original VSO languages with subordinating serial verb phrase constructions are not attested. Standardized IF basic…

Universal 1659: distinction of sex in the second descending generation ⇒ distinction of sex in the second ascending generation Original Distinction of sex in the…

Universal 1675: Original Standardized IF there is a phoneme all of whose allophones are variants of /†/, THEN there is a phoneme whose characteristic variant…