2008 Annual Lecture: Marina Nespor (Universitá degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca)
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Sala Gran, Faculty of Philosophy, c/Montalegre 6, University of Barcelona
Marina Nespor (Universitá degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca)
Communication and grammar do not rely on the same cognitive system
Abstract:
Two word orders are responsible for the distribution of subject, object and verb in the great majority of the world’s languages: SOV and SVO. While the choice between the two is traditionally considered a choice within the syntactic component of grammar, I will propose that the two orders arise because of opposite preferences in two distinct cognitive systems. Both production and perception experiments will be presented to substantiate this view. Conclusions will be drawn on the origin of the two types of languages.