Why are there different languages? A common explanation is that different languages arise
from the gradual accumulation of random changes. Here, we argue that, beyond these …

Since the 1990s, the field of sign language typology has shown that sign languages exhibit
typological variation at all relevant levels of linguistic description. These initial typological …

Memory is fleeting. New material rapidly obliterates previous material. How, then, can the
brain deal successfully with the continual deluge of linguistic input? We argue that, to deal …

Many recent proposals claim that languages adapt to their environments. The linguistic
niche hypothesis claims that languages with numerous native speakers and substantial …

The rise and success of large language models undermines virtually every strong claim for
the innateness of language that has been proposed by generative linguistics. Modern …

In this paper, we provide quantitative evidence showing that languages spoken by many
second language speakers tend to have relatively small nominal case systems or no …

Understanding worldwide patterns of language diversity has long been a goal for
evolutionary scientists, linguists and philosophers. Research over the past decade has …

La exponencia múltiple (o extendida) es la ocurrencia de múltiples realizaciones de una
sola característica morfosemántica, conjunto de características o categoría derivativa dentro …

This paper argues that the origins of language can be detected one million years ago, if not
earlier, in the archaeological record of Homo erectus. This controversial claim is based on a …

The prevalence of redundancy in the world languages has long puzzled language
researchers. It is especially surprising in light of the growing evidence on speakers' …