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Does kinship terminology provide evidence for or against universal grammar?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2010

Christina Behme
Christina Behme
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4P9, Canada. Christina.Behme@dal.ca
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Abstract

Jones introduces an intricate machinery of kin classification that overcomes limitations of previous accounts. I question whether such a machinery is plausible. Because individuals never need to learn the entire spectrum of kin terminology, they could rely on data-driven learning. The complexity of Jones's machinery for kin classification casts doubt on the existence of innate structures that cover the complete linguistic domain.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 33 , Issue 5 , October 2010 , pp. 381 - 382
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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