Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T10:15:58.200Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

If language is a jungle, why are we all cultivating the same plot?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Maggie Tallerman
Maggie Tallerman
Affiliation:
Centre for Research in Linguistics and Language Sciences (CRiLLS), Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, United Kingdom. maggie.tallerman@ncl.ac.ukhttp://www.ncl.ac.uk/elll/staff/profile/maggie.tallerman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Evans & Levinson (E&L) focus on differences between languages at a superficial level, rather than examining common processes. Their emphasis on trivial details conceals uniform design features and universally shared strategies. Lexical category distinctions between nouns and verbs are probably universal. Non-local dependencies are a general property of languages, not merely non-configurational languages. Even the latter class exhibits constituency.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 5 , October 2009 , pp. 469 - 470
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blake, B. J. (2001) The noun phrase in Australian languages. In: Forty years on: Ken Hale and Australian languages, ed. Nash, D., Laughren, M., Austin, P. & Alpher, B., pp. 415–25. Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, B. (2008) Word and sentence structure in Nuuchahnulth. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Linguistics Section, Newcastle University, United Kingdom.Google Scholar
Hale, K. L. (1973) Person marking in Warlpiri. In: A Festschrift for Morris Halle, ed. Anderson, S. A. & Kiparsky, P., pp. 308–44. Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.Google Scholar
Nordlinger, R. (2006) Spearing the Emu drinking: Subordination and the adjoined relative clause in Wambaya. Australian Journal of Linguistics 26:5–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swadesh, M. (1939) Nootka internal syntax. International Journal of American Linguistics 9:78–102.Google Scholar