Month: May 2020

Universal 605: Original If a language has a derivational morpheme whose distributional characterization makes reference to objects, it will also make reference to intransitive subjects…

Universal 604: N Poss ⇒ N Rel;equivalently: Rel N ⇒ Poss N Original If the possessive adjective follows the noun, then the relative clause follows…

Universal 603: Original If in a language the definiteness of a class of noun phrases is an order-significant property, this class will include both objects…

Universal 602: Original No accusative language has only ergative-type verb agreement in person or number or gender. Standardized IF alignment is accusative for some/many purposes,…

Universal 601: Original If there is agreement between the verb and some of its noun phrase complements with respect to “affectedness” or quality, the noun…

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 599: Original In all languages where causative verbs take complement noun phrases that have an accusative case-marker, the range of noun phrases that occur…

Universal 598: VO ⇒ Person & Number inflection v. ¬inflection Original VO languages are evenly divided between those with no inflection and those with the…

Universal 597: Original The evaluative adjective always precedes the affective adjective. Standardized When evaluative and affective adjectives occur in the same construction, the evaluative adjective…

Universal 596: Original The possessive adjective is not separated from the head noun by any constituent except another genuine determiner, i. e. the determiner. Standardized…