Category: Universals Archive

Universal 600: ergative verb agreement ⇔ perfective sentences;non-ergative verb agreement ⇔ imperfective sentences Original If in a language there are two classes of sentences such…

Universal 616: NPrel as a pronoun for subject ⇒ NPrel as a pronoun for direct object ⇒ NPrel as a pronoun for non-direct object ⇒…

Universal 632: SA ⇒ agglutinative Original If a language has Suffixaufnahme, then it has agglutinative nominal inflection. Standardized IF there is Suffixaufnahme, THEN nominal inflection…

Universal 648: Original In a language in which categories of definiteness are employed to show degrees of respect or social distance, the one used as…

Universal 664: yes-no question inversion ⇒ SV (=subject precedes verb) Original The presence of yes-no question inversion implies a basic order type in which subject…

Universal 680: Original If a language has dummy auxiliary Negative construction, then there must be another way of negation in this language. Standardized IF there…

Universal 696: Original Standardized IF there are more than four vowels, THEN / ε / and generally also / C / will be among them.…

Universal 712: Original Standardized IF there is no opposition of front and back fricatives, THEN the s-sound is not sharply differentiated from an ∫-articulation. Keywords…

Universal 728: Original Vowels on rising tones are longer than those on falling tones, other things being equal. Standardized IF a vowel is on a…

Universal 744: Original The Nominal-Switch Universal (part 1):In cases where a nominal Nominal/Locational-switch is motivated by conditions of Time-Stability, the nominal strategy will encode the…