Volume 10, Issue 1

Proceeding from the assumption that all languages are equally complex, there exists a corollary, widely held but poorly documented, herein referred to as the negative correlation hypothesis. It states: If one component of language is simplified then another must be elaborated. Here, this assumption is reformulated in terms of a scientific hypothesis and subjected to statistical analysis. Thirty-two geographically diverse languages representing thirty language families and two isolates are tested for syllable count and inflectional synthesis on the verb as a means of rating their phonological and morphological complexity, respectively. The correlation between these measures is found to be slightly positive (r=0.0704), but statistically insignificant (p>0.05), indicating that the negative correlation hypothesis, if it is to be retained, still awaits scientific confirmation.

Pamean languages have been considered to be outside of the Mesoamerican linguistic area. However, the number systems of Pamean show typical Mesoamerican structures: order of constituents Multiplier-Base-Addend, and systems with bases 10 and 20. Pamean languages have a typologically unusual, but consistent base 8. The present study presents a formal characterization of Pamean number systems. The distribution and peculiarities of Pamean number systems are explained as a result of their location at the border of a major linguistic area. Northern Pame has 8 as the only productive base, whereas Central Pame and Southern Pame show a greater influence of Mesoamerican traits.

In response to Verstraete (2005), where the focus was on non-Pama-Nyungan Australian languages, attention is drawn to the wider crosslinguistic spread of the composite expression of counterfactuality, and to relevant previous work. Such phenomena are then shown to raise important questions for linguistic categories in relation to cognitive categories.

In good science one expects experiments to be reproducible and their results to be replicable. Results are only accepted if researchers other than those who designed and ran the original experiment and thereby obtained results rousing the scientific community to (re-)action can independently repeat the same experiment and obtain the same results, over and over again.

Sonia Cristofaro and Paolo Ramat (eds.), Introduzione alla tipologia linguistica . Roma: Carocci, 1999, 306 pages, ISBN 88-430-1291-6, EUR 27.80. (Frans Plank) Teresa Moure, Universales del lenguaje y lingua-diversidad . Barcelona: Ariel, 2001, 222 pages, ISBN 84-344-8241-X, EUR 14. (Frans Plank)