Month: May 2020

Universal 1215: Original Nouns denoting body parts are the preferred sources for the grammaticalization of local adpositions. Standardized Nouns denoting body parts are the preferred…

Universal 1214: local cases ⇒ SVO or SOV Original If there are local cases, then basic word order tends to be SVO or SOV. Standardized…

Universal 1213: extended system of local cases ⇒ extended system of local postpositions Original If there is an extensive system of local cases, then there…

Universal 1212: Original Local cases are preferably expressed by suffixes, and never by infixes. Standardized IF an affix expresses a local case, THEN it will…

Universal 1211: Original If there are predominantly prepositions rather than postpositions, then there will not be an extensive system of local cases. Standardized IF there…

Universal 1210: Original After incorporation of the noun the verb becomes intransitive (if it was not already so). From this follows that other syntactic phenomena…

Universal 1209: incorporation of indirect objects ⇒ incorporation of non-agental subjects ⇒ incorporation of direct objects Original If a language incorporates indirect objects, then it…

Universal 1208: incorporation of instruments and/or locations ⇒ incorporation of patients of intransitive verbs ⇒ incorporation of patients of transitive verbs Original If a language…

Universal 1207: Original Dual quantifier universal:If a natural language has a basic determiner for each of D and d then these are semantically equivalent to…

Universal 1206: Original Constraint on negating self-dual and monotone decreasing quantifiers:If a language has a syntactic construction whose semantic function is to negate a quantifier,…