Category: Universals Archive

Universal 383: Original The more topic-prominent a language, the fewer subject-creating constructions it will have. Standardized The higher the topic-prominence, the fewer subject-creating constructions. Keywords…

Universal 399: inflectional number(1 &/V. 2 person pronoun ) ⇒ inflectional number (3 person pronoun) Original If a language indicates number in the 1st and/or…

Universal 415: Original Affixes are ordered so that their increasing distance from the stem reflects decreasing semantic relevance to it. Standardized Affixes are ordered so…

Universal 431: overt plural marker (non-human/inanimate NP) ⇒ overt plural marker (human/animate NP) Original The following correlation holds: overt marking of plurality in non-human (or…

Universal 447: verb-initial ⇒ preposition V case prefixes Original If a language has verb-initial word order, then it has prepositions or case prefixes. Standardized IF…

Universal 463: Original If a language has an opposition of intransitive verbs of action and state, then all (or almost all), verbs meaning “to move…

Universal 479: ¬past progressive form ⇒ ¬future progressive form Original There is never a special future progressive form unless there is a past progressive form…

Universal 495: VSO ⇒ no Q positioned relative to a particular word in the sentence Original Question particles or affixes, when specified in position by…

Universal 511: Tr ⇒ Du; ¬Du ⇒ ¬Tr;Du ⇒ Pl; ¬Pl => ¬Du Original No language has a trial number unless it has a dual.…

Universal 527: Original Zero is never expressed as part of the numeral system. Standardized Zero is never expressed as part of the numeral system. Keywords…