IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v473y2011i7345d10.1038_nature09923.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Dunn

    (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Post Office Box 310
    Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Kapittelweg 29)

  • Simon J. Greenhill

    (University of Auckland
    Computational Evolution Group, University of Auckland)

  • Stephen C. Levinson

    (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Post Office Box 310
    Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Kapittelweg 29)

  • Russell D. Gray

    (University of Auckland)

Abstract

A third way with words Two prominent theories for how languages evolve suggest that certain grammatical structures should be widely conserved, either because they reflect the way the brain works (Chomsky) or because they are logically connected to other structures (Greenberg). Testing these theories conclusively has been difficult without reliable information on how languages are related. Applying phylogenetic methods to more than a third of the world's 7,000 extant languages, and focusing on word order, Dunn et al. show that most seemingly universal structures are shared only between languages within the same family. This suggests that cultural evolution, rather than either of the two previous theories, explains the majority of linguistic structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Dunn & Simon J. Greenhill & Stephen C. Levinson & Russell D. Gray, 2011. "Evolved structure of language shows lineage-specific trends in word-order universals," Nature, Nature, vol. 473(7345), pages 79-82, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:473:y:2011:i:7345:d:10.1038_nature09923
    DOI: 10.1038/nature09923
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09923
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature09923?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hongdi Ding & Sicong Dong, 2023. "Elevation and fog-cloud similarity in Tibeto-Burman languages," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Ferrer-i-Cancho Ramon & Hernández-Fernández Antoni & Baixeries Jaume & Dębowski Łukasz & Mačutek Ján, 2014. "When is Menzerath-Altmann law mathematically trivial? A new approach," Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology, De Gruyter, vol. 13(6), pages 633-644, December.
    3. Seán Roberts & James Winters, 2013. "Linguistic Diversity and Traffic Accidents: Lessons from Statistical Studies of Cultural Traits," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(8), pages 1-13, August.
    4. Ilja A. Seržant & George Moroz, 2022. "Universal attractors in language evolution provide evidence for the kinds of efficiency pressures involved," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:473:y:2011:i:7345:d:10.1038_nature09923. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.