Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1469: Original In an overwhelming majority of languages, if some form denotes the metaperson ‘hearer(s) + non-participant(s)’, then it cannot include among its meanings…

Universal 1485: Incl/Excl (Tr) ⇒ Incl/Excl (Du) & Incl/Excl (Pl) Original If in a language there is an opposition of the metapersons ‘speaker + hearer(s)’…

Universal 1501: Original If there are anomalous allophones of any phonemes in onomatopoetic and expressive forms of a language, then allophones of this type are…

Universal 1517: OS ⇒ prepositions Original Subject-final languages are generally prepositional rather than postpositional. Standardized IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases,…

Universal 1533: verb-initial ⇒ Comp Stand Original In verb-initial languages the comparative form precedes the standard. Standardized IF word order is verb-initial, THEN the comparative…

Universal 1549: verb-initial ⇒ N Gen Original With great regularity possessor NPs follow the head NP in verb-initial languages. Standardized IF word order is verb-initial,…

Universal 1565: non-modal RC ⇒ modal RC Original Within the class of deagentive reflexive constrictions the following implications may be assumed: if there are non-modal…

Universal 1581: Original If there are productive complex affixes among the causative affixes, then by means of them causatives can also (or only) be derived…

Universal 1597: headless relative clause ⇒ verb-final Original Languages with headless relative clauses seem always to be verb-final, often strictly so. Standardized IF there are…

Universal 1613: VO & ModifierN ⇒ Modifier-N agreement Original Concord is common among VO languages, particularly when the order of constituents is modifier-Noun and thus…