Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1609: Original Cross-linguistically, languages would not be expected to exhibit phonological constrasts such as [-nasal] laryngeal segments and [+nasal] laryngeal segments. Standardized Languages would…

Universal 1625: Original In languages with double numeral systems, the set of numerals labelled as A tends to be associated with singular(s) as the unmarked…

Universal 1641: transitive > objective > subjective Original Syntactic functions of reflexive markers fall into an implicational hierarchy: transitive > objective > subjective function. If…

Universal 1657: Original All systems distinguish male and female parent by separate terms even though very frequently other kin types are included in the referents…

Universal 1673: VSO ⇒ no question particle in Wh word questions Original In most VSO languages, the question particle (corresponding to the English if/whether) does…

Universal 1689: posterior consecutive deranking & VSO ⇒ absolute deranking Original If a language has posterior consecutive deranking and its word order is VSO, then…

Universal 1705: Original The Weight Law (aka Stressed Syllables Law or Prokosch’s Law):In stress accent languages an accented syllable is the more preferred, the closer…

Universal 1721: Original If the article co-occurs with the noun that is accompanied by an adjacent possessor, it also co-occurs with the noun if the…

Universal 1737: Original If the adnominal demonstrative or possessive occurs with a noun that is accompanied by the definite article at one point in time…

Universal 1753: Original Whenever only one (cardinal or ordinal) numeral differs from all others in its ordering relative to the noun, it will be that…