Language universals in human brains

@article{citeulike:2642792, abstract = {Do speakers know universal restrictions on linguistic elements that are absent from their language? We report an experimental test of this question. Our case study concerns the universal restrictions on initial consonant sequences, onset clusters (e.g., bl in block). Across languages, certain onset clusters (e.g., lb) are dispreferred (e.g., systematically under-represented) relative to others (e.g., bl). We demonstrate such preferences among Korean speakers, whose language lacks initial C1C2 clusters altogether. Our demonstration exploits speakers' well known tendency to misperceive ill-formed clusters. We show that universally dispreferred onset clusters are more frequently misperceived than universally preferred ones, indicating that Korean speakers consider the former cluster-type more ill-formed. The misperception of universally ill-formed clusters is unlikely to be due to a simple auditory failure. Likewise, the aversion of universally dispreferred onsets by Korean speakers is not explained by English proficiency or by several phonetic and phonological properties of Korean. We conclude that language universals are neither relics of language change nor are they artifacts of generic limitations on auditory perception and motor controlthey reflect universal linguistic knowledge, active in speakers' brains. 10.1073/pnas.0801469105}, author = {Berent, Iris and Lennertz, Tracy and Jun, Jongho and Moreno, Miguel A. and Smolensky, Paul }, citeulike-article-id = {2642792}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.0801469105}, journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, keywords = {general-linguistics}, month = {April}, number = {14}, pages = {5321--5325}, posted-at = {2008-04-08 21:58:34}, priority = {2}, title = {Language universals in human brains}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0801469105}, volume = {105}, year = {2008} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2642792 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2642792 TI - Language universals in human brains JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences VL - 105 IS - 14 SP - 5321 EP - 5325 N2 - Do speakers know universal restrictions on linguistic elements that are absent from their language? We report an experimental test of this question. Our case study concerns the universal restrictions on initial consonant sequences, onset clusters (e.g., bl in block). Across languages, certain onset clusters (e.g., lb) are dispreferred (e.g., systematically under-represented) relative to others (e.g., bl). We demonstrate such preferences among Korean speakers, whose language lacks initial C1C2 clusters altogether. Our demonstration exploits speakers' well known tendency to misperceive ill-formed clusters. We show that universally dispreferred onset clusters are more frequently misperceived than universally preferred ones, indicating that Korean speakers consider the former cluster-type more ill-formed. The misperception of universally ill-formed clusters is unlikely to be due to a simple auditory failure. Likewise, the aversion of universally dispreferred onsets by Korean speakers is not explained by English proficiency or by several phonetic and phonological properties of Korean. We conclude that language universals are neither relics of language change nor are they artifacts of generic limitations on auditory perception and motor controlthey reflect universal linguistic knowledge, active in speakers' brains. 10.1073/pnas.0801469105 KW - general-linguistics AU - Berent, Iris AU - Lennertz, Tracy AU - Jun, Jongho AU - Moreno, Miguel AU - Smolensky, Paul PY - 2008/04/08/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0801469105 ER -