Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1123: Original If nouns for alienable possession can incorporate their possessive pronouns, then nouns for inalienable possession can too. Standardized IF nouns for alienable…

Universal 1139: verb morpheme (reflexive & passive use) ⇒ verb morpheme (anticausative use) Original If a verbal morpheme has both the reflexive and the passive…

Universal 1155: Original For any language, an obligatorily definite identical noun phrase in the preposed main sentences of a relative construction implies the same in…

Universal 1171: Original If a language uses a morphosyntactic process P to form a distributive-share universal quantifier, it also uses P to form distributive-share numerals,…

Universal 1187: Original In all cultures/languages, there is a hierarchy of terms referring to the animal and plant kingdoms (and perhaps other domains of folk…

Universal 1203: Original Monotonicity constraint:The simple NPs of any natural language express monotone quantifiers or conjunctions of monotone quantifiers. Standardized Monotonicity constraint:The simple NPs of…

Universal 1219: Original If a case is governed by a local postposition, then this case will preferably also be used to express possession (i.e., genitive).…

Universal 1235: argumentless passives and unaccusatives > expletive of displaced NPs > expletives of displaced CPs (S´) > weather predicates > referential NPs Original Hierarchy…

Universal 1251: Original When consonant gradation plays a role in the grammar, it serves the function to identify nouns. Standardized IF consonant gradation plays a…

Universal 1267: SVO ⇒ ¬ ergative; ergative ⇒ ¬ SVO Original Ergative systems are found only in SOV and VSO languages. SVO languages are never…