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1. Absolute universals
Absolute universals apply to all languages of the world and they are few in number. For example all languages have nouns verbs and consonants and vowels. These kinds of linguistic features are referred to as absolute universals.
2. Implicational universals
An implicational universal applies to all languages with a particular feature that is always accompanied by another feature. In other words the presence of one feature implies the presence of another feature. Many of the typological universals are expressed in terms of implications, such that if a language has feature X; it will also have feature Y. thus, the presence of one feature implies the presence of another.
Example
If a language has prepositions, then the genitive (in bold) will follow the noun (in italics).’ In the data below all the four languages confirm this claim:
Le chein de mon ami French
The dog of my friend English
Mbwa wa rafiki yangu Kiswahili
EI perro de mi amigo Spanish
3. Universal tendencies
These are a group of linguistic features that occur in majority of the languages of the world. Such features are considered to be far too common to be a result of chance. They occur in a majority of languages but not in all languages. Dahl (1979) gives the example of the negator. In this study, it is proposed that there is a universal tendency for the negator to have a definite position relative to the finite element. That the negator (e.g. ‘not’ in English) tends to take a pre-verbal rather than a post verbal position. Is this true?
You could test this claim by carrying out a cross linguistic analysis of data from English, Kiswahili and your LI and try to find out whether ‘not’ occurs pre- verbally or post verbally in the three languages. You might come up with examples closer to the following:
l do not love you English
Mimi sikupendi Kiswahili
francis1897 answered the question on March 9, 2023 at 05:42
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