Linguistic Universal (Noun)
Meaning
(linguistics) a grammatical rule (or other linguistic feature) that is found in all languages.
Classification
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents.
Examples
- Languages seem to have a linguistic universal that governs how grammatical subjects are formed.
- The existence of linguistic universals is still a topic of debate among linguists.
- All languages possess similar properties that validate the idea of linguistic universals.
- One well-known linguistic universal is that all languages differentiate between singular and plural forms.
- The presence of linguistic universals suggests that humans may be genetically predisposed to certain patterns of language.