Language Reflects "Core" Cognition: A New Theory About the Origin of Cross-Linguistic Regularities. Strickland, B. Cognitive Science, 41(1):70–101, January, 2017.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
The underlying structures that are common to the world's languages bear an intriguing connection with early emerging forms of "core knowledge" (Spelke & Kinzler, 2007), which are frequently studied by infant researchers. In particular, grammatical systems often incorporate distinctions (e.g., the mass/count distinction) that reflect those made in core knowledge (e.g., the non-verbal distinction between an object and a substance). Here, I argue that this connection occurs because non-verbal core knowledge systematically biases processes of language evolution. This account potentially explains a wide range of cross-linguistic grammatical phenomena that currently lack an adequate explanation. Second, I suggest that developmental researchers and cognitive scientists interested in (non-verbal) knowledge representation can exploit this connection to language by using observations about cross-linguistic grammatical tendencies to inspire hypotheses about core knowledge.
@article{strickland_language_2017,
	title = {Language {Reflects} "{Core}" {Cognition}: {A} {New} {Theory} {About} the {Origin} of {Cross}-{Linguistic} {Regularities}},
	volume = {41},
	issn = {1551-6709},
	shorttitle = {Language {Reflects} "{Core}" {Cognition}},
	doi = {10.1111/cogs.12332},
	abstract = {The underlying structures that are common to the world's languages bear an intriguing connection with early emerging forms of "core knowledge" (Spelke \& Kinzler, 2007), which are frequently studied by infant researchers. In particular, grammatical systems often incorporate distinctions (e.g., the mass/count distinction) that reflect those made in core knowledge (e.g., the non-verbal distinction between an object and a substance). Here, I argue that this connection occurs because non-verbal core knowledge systematically biases processes of language evolution. This account potentially explains a wide range of cross-linguistic grammatical phenomena that currently lack an adequate explanation. Second, I suggest that developmental researchers and cognitive scientists interested in (non-verbal) knowledge representation can exploit this connection to language by using observations about cross-linguistic grammatical tendencies to inspire hypotheses about core knowledge.},
	language = {eng},
	number = {1},
	journal = {Cognitive Science},
	author = {Strickland, Brent},
	month = jan,
	year = {2017},
	pmid = {26923431},
	keywords = {Cognition, Core knowledge, Cross-linguistic regularities, Humans, Knowledge, Language, Models, Theoretical, Visual perception},
	pages = {70--101}
}

Downloads: 0