some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements

joseph h. greenberg, 1963

"Appendix III
Universals Restated
1. In declarative sentences with nominal subject and object, the dominant order is almost always one in which the subject precedes the object.
2. In languages with prepositions, the genitive almost always follows the governing noun, while in languages with postpositions it almost always precedes. [English is an exception. French holds to the rule.]
3. Languages with dominant VSO order are always prepositional.
4. With overwhelmingly greater than chance frequency, languages with normal SOV order are postpositional.

7. If in a language with dominant SOV order there is no alternative basic order, or only OSV as the alternative, then all adverbial modifiers of the verb likewise precede the verb. (This is the "rigid" subtype of III."

29. If a language has inflection, it always has derivation.
30. If the verb has categories of person-numer or if it has categories of gender, it always has tense-mode categories.

32. Whenever the verb agrees with a nominal subject or nominal object in gender, it also agrees in number.

34. No language has a trial number unless it has a dual. No language has a dual unless it has a plural."