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The best-supported language universals refer to scalar patterns deriving from processing cost

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Martin Haspelmath
Martin Haspelmath
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. haspelmath@eva.mpg.dehttp://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/staff/haspelmath/home.php
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Abstract

Conditional universals have always interested linguists more than unrestricted universals, which are often impossible to demonstrate empirically because categories cannot be defined in a cross-linguistically meaningful way. But deep dependencies have not been confirmed by more recent empirical research, and those universals with solid empirical support mostly relate to scalar patterns that can plausibly be related to processing cost.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 5 , October 2009 , pp. 457 - 458
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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