On statistical universals

May 17, 2011 by

In yesterday’s posting, we’ve come to a conclusion that statistical universals (e.g., “Languages with both adjective-noun and noun-numeral orders are extremely rare”) are useless for a learner trying to...

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On "universal truths" — part 2

May 17, 2011 by

In a recent posting, I discussed the research by Michael Dunn and his colleagues that questions there being any universals about human language. Another recent study, this one conducted by Jennifer Culbertson, who worked as a...

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