Month: May 2020

Universal 245: free order ⇒ inflection (nominal); rigid order ⇒ ¬ inflection (nominal) Original If constituent order is free without limits, then nominal words are…

Universal 244: Original Inflectional systems either have all three of the following properties or none of them: (i) inflectional exponents are intimately joined to the…

Universal 243: Du (verb) ⇒ Du (noun) Original If verbs inflect for dual number, nouns inflect for dual number as well. Standardized IF verbs inflect…

Universal 242: inflectional expansion: Pl ⇒ Duinflectional reduction: Du ⇒ Pl Original During inflectional expansion, if there is a plural, there is also a dual.…

Universal 241: inflection ⇔ free order; ¬inflection ⇔ rigid order Original If there is segmental relation marking, word order is free, and vice versa.OR equivalently:If…

Universal 240: Erg ⇒ G N & N Adj Original If a language has ergative case marking, it will with far more than chance frequency…

Universal 239: free word order ⇒ declension for case, number, gender Original If constituent order is free, all potentially declinable kinds of nominal words in…

Universal 238: rigid word order ⇒ Subj Predicate & VO & PrepN & NAdj & NRel & N PP Original If constituent order is rigid,…

Universal 237: category X (adjective) ⇒ category X (noun) Original If adjectives inflect for any category, nouns inflect for this category as well. Standardized IF…

Universal 236: inflectional expansion: cases marking SUBJ, OBJ, ATTR ⇒ local cases;inflectional reduction: local cases ⇒ cases marking SUBJ, OBJ, ATTR Original During inflectional expansion,…