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Evolved structure of language shows lineage-specific trends in word-order universals

Date

Authors

Dunn, Michael

Greenhill, Simon

Levinson, Stephen C.

Gray, Russell

Publisher

Macmillan Publishers Ltd

Abstract

Languages vary widely but not without limit. The central goal of linguistics is to describe the diversity of human languages and explain the constraints on that diversity. Generative linguists following Chomsky have claimed that linguistic diversity must

Keywords

Keywords: evolutionary theory; language; learning; phylogenetics; article; cultural anthropology; human; language development; linguistics; phylogeny; priority journal; Biological Evolution; Cultural Evolution; Humans; Language; Linguistics; Phylogeny

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/1885/78622

Collections

ANU Research Publications

Source

Nature

Type

Journal article

DOI

10.1038/nature09923

Restricted until

2037-12-31

Downloads

File

Description

01_Dunn_Evolved_structure_of_language_2011.pdf (261.22 KB)