title: Language Reflects "Core" Cognition: A New Theory About the Origin of Cross-Linguistic Regularities.
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.
authors.affiliation: The Normal Superior School (ENS)/French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Jean Nicod Institute/Laboratory for the Psychology of Perception (LPP).
authors.forename: Brent
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Strickland
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D007802:Language; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D014796:Visual Perception
keywords: Cognitive development; Core knowledge; Cross-linguistic regularities; Visual perception