Skip to content

Universal 1391:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1391:

Original
The chronological ordering of tense neutralization in a subjunctive or semantically comparable category is always unidirectional: the future-nonfuture contrast is neutralized first, the past-nonpast last.
Standardized
IF past-nonpast contrast is neutralized in a subjunctive or semantically comparable category, THEN future-nonfuture contrast is neutralized as well.
Keywords
tense, past, nonpast, future, nonfuture
Domain
inflection
Type
implication
Status
diachronic
Quality
absolute
Basis
sample of 50 languages in Ultan 1972, Ultan 1978a
Source
Ultan 1972, Ultan 1978a: 95
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP
    1. May 2020

Comments are closed.