Month: May 2020

Universal 1185: Original Terms for deictic orientation may themselves serve as models for developing nomenclatures for cardinal orientation, but not vice versa. Standardized When terms…

Universal 1184: Original Expressions for deictic orientation may derive from terms for body parts or environmental landmarks but never from terms for celestial or atmospheric…

Universal 1183: OS ⇒ #V Original Basic word orders OSV and OVS do not occur at all, while SVO, SOV, VSO, and VOS are all…

Universal 1182: terms for individual toes ⇒ terms for individual fingers Original In all languages known so far there appear to be labels for ‘toe’…

Universal 1181: ‘foot’ ⇒ ‘hand’ Original If there is a separate term for ‘foot’, then there is also one for ‘hand’, but not vice versa.…

Universal 1180: ‘leg’ ⇒ ‘arm’ Original If in a given language there is a separate term for ‘leg’ (as opposed to ‘foot’), then there is…

Universal 1179: Original For the concept ‘testicle’, by far the most widespread source is provided by terms for ‘egg’, alternative options being ‘stone’, ‘pebble’, ‘seed’,…

Universal 1178: Original The notion ‘muscle’ is expressed predominantly by using small mammals as structural templates. As in the case of English muscle (which is…

Universal 1177: Original There are contrasting transfer patterns for thumbs and big toes on the one hand and the remaining digits on the other: Whereas…

Universal 1176: Original Terms for ‘pupil (of the eye)’ are most likely to be derived from nouns denoting a small human like a baby, or…