Dan Everett (Bentley University)

Dark Matter and the Emergence of Language

Abstract: In this talk I examine data from the Pirahã language of the Brazilian Amazon, arguing that both phonological and grammatical data suggest  that culture is causally implicated in the size of the phonemic system, in linguistic free variation in the phonology, and in the lack of evidence for recursion in the grammar of the language. I suggest a methodology for the study of the role of culture in shaping linguistic structures.