Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1398: Original No language has adverbial predicates which are expressed as argument-internal clitics that are postposed to the constituents that they are bound to.…

Universal 1414: Original No language has constructions whose function is to place new topics at the end of the sentence. Standardized New topics are never…

Universal 1430: possessive suffixes on nouns ⇒ ¬ (overt copula form (of “to be”) in the present tense) Original If a language has possessive suffixes…

Universal 1446: Original In all languages, if some form denotes the metaperson ‘hearer’ in the singular, it cannot denote the metaperson ‘speaker’. Standardized IF some…

Universal 1462: Original In an overwhelming majority of languages, if some form denotes the metaperson ‘speaker + hearer(s)’ and/or ‘speaker + non-participant(s)’, it cannot denote…

Universal 1478: Original If in a language there are no special forms distinguishing the metapersons ‘speaker’ and ‘speaker + hearer(s)’ or ‘speaker’ and ‘speaker +…

Universal 1494: non-configurational ⇒ agglutinative Original Non-configurational languages are agglutinative, but not vice versa. Standardized IF syntax is non-configurational, THEN morphology is agglutinative, but not…

Universal 1510: Direct object (two-place verb) > Direct object (bitransitive verb) > Coargument NP > Non-coargument NP > NP in a non-finite subordinate clause >…

Universal 1526: OS ⇒ Neg Verb Original Negative elements precede the verb in subject-final languages. Standardized IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun…

Universal 1542: verb-initial ⇒ prefixal case-marking Original In verb-initial languages, where affixal case marking occurs, it is more likely to be prefixal than in verb-final…