In Cinque 2013 I considered one potential argument for Universal Grammar. One stemming from the limited number of functional notions that are grammatically encoded in the languages of the world. What we find is that only a fraction of our cognitive concepts and distinctions seems to receive a grammatical encoding, where by ‘grammatical encoding’ I mean encoding in one of the closed classes of categories (affixes, particles, auxiliaries, clitics, etc.) that belong to the functional rather than the substantive lexicon of languages. Most cognitive concepts and distinctions do not find any such encoding.If one considers emotions one finds that only a tiny subset is grammatically encoded, and universally so, it appears.

Selective grammatical encoding of emotions in language

Guglielmo Cinque
2024-01-01

Abstract

In Cinque 2013 I considered one potential argument for Universal Grammar. One stemming from the limited number of functional notions that are grammatically encoded in the languages of the world. What we find is that only a fraction of our cognitive concepts and distinctions seems to receive a grammatical encoding, where by ‘grammatical encoding’ I mean encoding in one of the closed classes of categories (affixes, particles, auxiliaries, clitics, etc.) that belong to the functional rather than the substantive lexicon of languages. Most cognitive concepts and distinctions do not find any such encoding.If one considers emotions one finds that only a tiny subset is grammatically encoded, and universally so, it appears.
2024
A Cartesian dream: A geometrical account of syntax In honor of Andrea Moro.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10278/5082355
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