Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T03:26:26.931Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Case-marking systems evolve to be easy to learn and process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

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

Christiansen & Chater (C&C) suggest that language is itself an evolutionary system, and that natural languages “evolve” to be easy to learn and process. The tight economy of the world's case-marking systems lends support to this hypothesis. Only two major case systems occur, cross-linguistically, and noun phrases are seldom overtly case-marked wherever zero-marking would be functionally practical.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 5 , October 2008 , pp. 534 - 535
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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. (1977) Case marking in Australian languages. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar
Blake, B. J. (2001) Case, 2nd edition.Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Breen, J. G. (1976) Ergative, locative and instrumental inflections in Wangkumara. In: Grammatical categories in Australian languages, ed. Dixon, R. M. W., pp. 336–39. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar
Comrie, B. (1989) Language universals and linguistic typology, 2nd edition.Blackwell.Google Scholar
Comrie, B. (2005) Alignment of case marking. In: The world atlas of language structures, ed. Haspelmath, M., Dryer, M. S., Gil, D. & Comrie, B., pp. 398–401. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jäger, G. (2007) Evolutionary game theory and typology: A case study. Language 83:74–109.Google Scholar