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Against taking linguistic diversity at “face value”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

David Pesetsky
David Pesetsky
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139. [email protected]://web.mit.edu/linguistics/people/faculty/pesetsky/index.html
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Abstract

Evans & Levinson (E&L) advocate taking linguistic diversity at “face value.” Their argument consists of a list of diverse phenomena and the assertion that no non-vacuous theory could possibly uncover a meaningful unity underlying them. I argue, with evidence from Tlingit and Warlpiri, that E&L's list itself should not be taken at face value – and that the actual research record already demonstrates unity amidst diversity.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 5 , October 2009 , pp. 464 - 465
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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