Re: Never violate a universal unless it seems like a good idea at the time

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian Spackman" <ianspackman@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 3:46 PM
Subject: Re: Never violate a universal unless it seems like a good idea at
the time


> At 12:54 05/09/03, Robert Wilson wrote:
> >On Fri, 5 Sep 2003 05:50:38 -0400 Harald Stoiber <stoiberh@...>
> >writes:
> > > On Thu, 4 Sep 2003 12:14:28 +0200, Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > Hm... my native natlang German violates universal #2. How universal
> > > are these universals?
> >
> >well, i'm sure that there is at least one natlang that violates each
> >universal, so they aren't truly universal, but they are good guidelines
> >as far as what is common in natlangs.
>
> I propose a universal: all languages violate at least one universal. :)
It seems to me that a lot of Germanic languages violate #2. English,
Swedish, and at least bits of German.

> Ian
>