Re: Language "laws"?

Roger Mills wrote:
> This site has a huge listing of "universals", near-universals, possible
> universals etc etc.--
>
> http://ling.uni-konstanz.de/pages/proj/sprachbau.htm
>
> IMO "universals" should really be called _tendencies_, which may be strong
> or weak. Almost none, I think, are absolute.
Indeed.  The very first one I came across which mentioned Swedish
was wrong as far as Swedish is concerned: genitives precede their
head noun in Swedish, so can one trust the rest?

--

/BP 8^)
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch at melroch dot se

         Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant!
                                             (Tacitus)