Fascinating article! I wonder whether the core of the language is in the prosody, and the phonemes are customary ways of adding connotation and detail. In European-origin languages, words and larger constructs are collections of phonemes, and tone adds information that aids comprehension, but isn't strictly necessary to communicate.
As for the question of why it is that Pirahã breaks Chomsky's rules, one possible explanation that preserves Chomsky is that the universal grammar exists, but the places where Pirahã diverge from it are learned behaviors. By analogy, in many languages, double negatives are emphasis (Spanish for example), but in some languages, double negatives are positives (English for example). One might hypothesize that "double negatives are emphasis" is present in brain grammar, but it's easy to learn "double negatives are positives" as a learned behavior. So, in most languages, recursion is present because it's part of brain grammar, but the Pirahã language disregards it because it doesn't fit into Pirahã culture.
no subject
Fascinating article! I wonder whether the core of the language is in the prosody, and the phonemes are customary ways of adding connotation and detail. In European-origin languages, words and larger constructs are collections of phonemes, and tone adds information that aids comprehension, but isn't strictly necessary to communicate.
As for the question of why it is that Pirahã breaks Chomsky's rules, one possible explanation that preserves Chomsky is that the universal grammar exists, but the places where Pirahã diverge from it are learned behaviors. By analogy, in many languages, double negatives are emphasis (Spanish for example), but in some languages, double negatives are positives (English for example). One might hypothesize that "double negatives are emphasis" is present in brain grammar, but it's easy to learn "double negatives are positives" as a learned behavior. So, in most languages, recursion is present because it's part of brain grammar, but the Pirahã language disregards it because it doesn't fit into Pirahã culture.