Restrictions on the free use of the different lexemes in all the existing function are probably to be found everywhere, but in many cases this may result from the specific meaning of some lexeme: a thing may not be used as an agent; some predicates cannot be passively orientated. But what may be peculiar to some languages and therefore typologically relevant are wholesale restrictions resulting in splitting the lexical repertory into neatly contrasting classes.
- Martinet (1962), a pag.100