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#659 Nick Chater & Morten Christiansen - The Language Game; Language as a Game of Charades

The Dissenter

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Is There a Universal Grammar?

Noam Chomsky, Stephen Pinker and others have postulated a universal grammar. John Stanley's language says all languages have common patterns that can be explained. But there is no evidence for this in terms of how languages are shaped by the brain. Language over generations of cultural evolution has to be easy for the brain to learn. It has to reflect the natural values of human brain,. So I think our perspective would be that universal grammar, you can't quite rule it out as a priori, but it's just no reason why would you postulate it.

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