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The discovery of language invariance and variation, and its relevance for the cognitive sciences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Luigi Rizzi
Luigi Rizzi
Affiliation:
CISCL (Interdepartmental Centre for Cognitive Studies on Language), University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy. rizzil@unisi.it
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Abstract

Modern linguistics has highlighted the fundamental invariance of human language: A rich invariant structure has emerged from comparative studies nourished by sophisticated formal models; languages also differ along important dimensions, but variation is constrained in severe and systematic ways. I illustrate this research direction in the domains of island constraints, word order restrictions, and the expression of referential dependencies. Both language invariance and language variability within systematic limits are highly relevant for the cognitive sciences.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 5 , October 2009 , pp. 467 - 468
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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