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Language Universals are bound to theunification of language facts, identifying common/similar features specific to systems of all or separate language groups.
The notion of Language Universals appeared in 1961 at the Congress of Linguists in New York where Joseph Greenberg, J. Jenkins, and I. Osgood proposed a Memorandum on Language/Linguistic Universals". They defined it as follows: "A Linguistic Universal is a certain feature specific to all languages of the world or the language per se."
There are many general universals concerning all languages of the world.
They are:
Wherever humans exist, language exists.
There are no "primitive" languages - all languages are equally complex and equally capable of expressing any idea in the world.
The vocabulary of any language can be expanded to include new words for new concepts.
All languages change through time.
The relationship between the sounds and meanings of spoken languages and between the gestures (signs) and meanings of sign languages are for the most part arbitrary.
All human languages utilize a finite set of discrete sounds (or gestures) that are combined to form meaningful elements or words, which themselves form an infinite set of possible sentences.
All grammars contain rules for the formation of words and sentences of a similar kind.
Every spoken language includes discrete sound segments like p, n, or a, which can be defined by a finite set of sound properties or features.
Every spoken language has a class of vowels and a class of consonants.
Similar grammatical categories (for example, noun, verb) are found in all languages.
There are semantic universals, such as "male" or "female," "animate" or "hu- man," found in every language in the world.
Every language has a way of referring to past time, forming questions, issu- ing commands, and so on.
Speakers of all languages are capable of producing and comprehending an infinite set of sentences.
The universals may be classified according to various principles. For example, according to the statistic principle, there are unrestricted (absolute or full) universals opposed to restricted (relative, partial) universals (some scholars prefer the term "tendency" instead of "universal"). According to language hierarchy, there are phonetic, morphological, syntactic and lexical universals. Other types include deductive and inductive; synchronic and diachronic universals; universals of speech and universals of language.
For example, universals related to the levels of language hierarchy: