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Universal 364: agglutinative ⇒ long inflectional affixes;
flexive ⇒ short inflectional affixes

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 364: agglutinative ⇒ long inflectional affixes;
flexive ⇒ short inflectional affixes

Original
Inflectional affixes tend to be longer in agglutinative languages than in flective languages.
Standardized
IF morphology is agglutinative, THEN inflectional affixes tend to be longer.
IF morphology is flexive, THEN inflectional affixes tend to be shorter.
Keywords
affix, complexity, agglutination, flexion
Domain
inflection
Type
mutual implication
Status
achronic
Quality
statistical
Basis
unspecified
Source
Dressler 1985, adapted from Skalicka: Plank 1996, Plank 1998, Moravcsik 1994a: 41
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    Implications presumably intended as mutual: “mutually conducive traits”.For a tabular summary of Skalicka’s typological “constructs” see Plank 1998: 204-205.Presumably the claim is about average length of inflectional affixes. Alternatively, it could be read as being about affixes of corresponding categories: e.g., dative plural, if cumulated, is shorter than dative plus plural, if not cumulated. Or even, … than dative on its own and plural on its own, if not cumulated.

    1. May 2020

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