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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 15, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

Published on: April 19, 2017

Many important language universals are not reducible to processing or cognition.

David P Medeiros¹, Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini², Thomas G Bever³

¹Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0028. medeiros@email.arizona.edu

The Behavioral and Brain Sciences

|August 27, 2016

Summary

Linguistic universals exist beyond processing constraints, challenging the idea that grammar is solely a learned skill. The authors argue that claims of historical and cultural basis for language evolution lack supporting data.

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Area of Science:

Linguistics
Cognitive Science
Evolutionary Biology

Background:

Theories of language acquisition often focus on cognitive and processing constraints.
Christiansen & Chater (C&C) propose that grammar is primarily an acquired language processing skill.
This perspective may overlook inherent, universal properties of language.

Purpose of the Study:

To present linguistic universals not reducible to processing or cognitive constraints.
To challenge C&C's claim that grammar is merely an acquired skill.
To critique the assertion that non-processing-based universals are solely historical and cultural.

Main Methods:

Analysis of linguistic universals.
Comparative linguistic analysis.
Theoretical critique of existing language evolution models.

Main Results:

Identification of linguistic universals independent of processing or cognitive limitations.
Demonstration that C&C's model fails to account for these universals.
Critique of C&C's evolutionary claims due to lack of empirical data.

Conclusions:

Grammar acquisition involves more than just processing skills.
Linguistic universals suggest innate or fundamental properties of language.
C&C's evolutionary framework for language requires further empirical validation.