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Enduring constraints on grammar revealed by Bayesian spatiophylogenetic analyses
Annemarie Verkerk1, Olena Shcherbakova2, Hannah J Haynie3
1Department of Language Science and Technology, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany. annemarie.verkerk@uni-saarland.de.
Nature Human Behaviour
|November 18, 2025
Summary
Human languages exhibit patterns, with about a third of proposed linguistic universals statistically supported. Evolutionary analyses reveal languages converge on preferred word order and hierarchical structures due to cognitive and communicative pressures.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Evolutionary Biology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Human languages display significant diversity but also recurring patterns, known as grammatical universals.
- The extent and causes of these linguistic universals have been a long-standing debate in linguistics.
- Previous research has proposed numerous grammatical universals, but empirical testing has been limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To empirically test a large number of proposed linguistic universals using a comprehensive dataset.
- To investigate the evolutionary pressures that may drive languages towards specific grammatical patterns.
- To determine the statistical validity of proposed grammatical universals, considering language history and geography.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the Grambank database, a comprehensive collection of grammatical features from world languages.
- Applied Bayesian analyses to test 191 proposed linguistic universals.
- Incorporated methods accounting for both genealogical descent and geographical proximity in evolutionary analyses.
Main Results:
- Found statistical support for approximately one-third of the 191 proposed linguistic universals.
- The majority of supported universals relate to word order and hierarchical structures.
- Evolutionary analyses indicated a tendency for languages to change in ways that converge on these preferred patterns.
Conclusions:
- Linguistic evolution is not entirely random; languages tend towards specific grammatical solutions.
- Cognitive and communicative pressures likely drive this convergence towards preferred linguistic patterns.
- The findings support the existence of constraints on grammatical diversity, favoring certain universal structures.
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