It’s an extremely fascinating area of study. I must admit that whenever I see the name Chomsky my brain sort of goes into overload and I start wondering whom I can beg for mercy. So, failing a safe haven, I resort to nitpicking the journalist. These two sentences caught my attention. I’d have said “caught my eye” but that always conjures up images of a fish hook at the end of a line being cast.
Such a system would account for why, of the nearly infinite number of languages that are possible — imagine, for instance, a language in which verb conjugation changes randomly; it is possible — relatively few actually exist.
I’m trying to imagine a language in which one would choose to express thoughts in this way.
After all, even if culture and circumstance shapes language evolution, it’s still working with a limited set of possibilities.
Culture and circumstance. It’s a human thing.
And all in all it’s a good article. There, I think the nice-pill is taking effect.
