This article seeks to shed more light on the well-studied, yet still challenging, dative alternation. It starts from the cognitive-typological suggestion of Croft (2001, 2003) that language-internal variation is subject to the same constraints as cross-linguistic variation (the semantic map model), and that careful languagespecific research may therefore reveal facts about language in general. ...

This paper explores the mereology of structural universals, using the structural richness of a non-classical mereology without unique fusions. The paper focuses on a problem posed by David Lewis, who using the example of methane, and assuming classical mereology, argues against any purely mereological theory of structural universals. The problem is that being a methane molecule would have to co...

It is the basic tenet of the functional approach to typology that at least some linguistic universals may be explained by appealing to features of language use. But the mechanics of the mapping between function and distribution are seldom made explicit. In this paper, a theory of linguistic adaptation is set out in which universals are treated as phenomena of the third kind in Keller’s (1994) t...

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The behavior of speech sounds involves a large number of “natural”, panchronic processes that take place at different points in time and space, in unrelated languages. More or less subtle synchronic, dialectal, stylistic, or allophonic variations may progressively become full-fledged sound changes. An overview of these sound changes brings out preferences for “natural” sounds, that are easier t...

Language universals have long been attributed to an innate Universal Grammar. An alternative explanation states that linguistic universals emerged independently in every language in response to shared cognitive or perceptual biases. A computational model has recently shown how this could be the case, focusing on the paradigmatic example of the universal properties of colour naming patterns, and...

We introduce a language-independent strategy for inducing part of speech tags from corpora. Unlike other techniques that use language-specific lexicons, rulesets, and so forth to tag, our algorithm bootstraps only from cluster properties and language universals. We describe the theory and illustrate an introductory experiment which verifies the feasibility of this nearknowledge-free tag inducti...

One of the most obviously striking features of human language, especially in comparison with all other communication systems in nature, is syntax. More precisely, language is unique in providing an open-ended system for relating signals and meanings, one which has its own internal structure. The particular structure of the mapping between meanings and signals varies from language to language, a...

The paper considers the topical issue of contemporary Intercultural Communication, Linguoculturology, Psycholinguistics, Psychology, dealing with importance an individual’s awareness cultural factors different nations, specificity national thinking (stereotypical in particular), ability languages to reflect reality differently, as well establishing their interrelation. findings prove close (int...