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Universals in cognitive theories of language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Paul Smolensky  and
Emmanuel Dupoux
Paul Smolensky
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218-2685. [email protected]://www.cogsci.jhu.edu/faculty/smolensky.html
Emmanuel Dupoux
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Département d'Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 75005 Paris, France. [email protected]://www.lscp.net/persons/dupoux.html
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Abstract

Generative linguistics' search for linguistic universals (1) is not comparable to the vague explanatory suggestions of the article; (2) clearly merits a more central place than linguistic typology in cognitive science; (3) is fundamentally untouched by the article's empirical arguments; (4) best explains the important facts of linguistic diversity; and (5) illuminates the dominant component of language's “biocultural” nature: biology.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 5 , October 2009 , pp. 468 - 469
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

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