Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Towards an integrated science of language

  • Comment
  • Published:

From Nature Human Behaviour

View current issue Submit your manuscript

It has long been assumed that grammar is a system of abstract rules, that the world's languages follow universal patterns, and that we are born with a ‘language instinct’. But an alternative paradigm that focuses on how we learn and use language is emerging, overturning these assumptions and many more.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Haack, S. Evidence and Inquiry (Blackwell Publishers, 1993).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Moore, R. K. Results from a survey of attendees at ASRU 1997 and 2003. In Proc. INTERSPEECH 117–120 (2005).

  3. Evans, N. & Levinson, S. C. Behav. Brain Sci. 32, 429–448 (2009).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Goldberg, A. Constructions At Work: The Nature of Generalization in Language (Oxford Univ. Press, 2006).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Behrens, H. (ed.) Trends in Corpus Research: Finding Structure in Data (TILAR Series, John Benjamins, 2008).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Christiansen, M. H. & Chater, N. Creating Language: Integrating Evolution, Acquisition, and Processing (MIT Press, 2016).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  7. Christiansen, M. H. & Chater, N. Behav. Brain Sci. 39, e62 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Darwin, C. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex Vol. 1 (John Murray, 1871).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  9. Scott-Phillips, T. C. & Kirby, S. Trends Cogn. Sci. 14, 411–417 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Culicover, P. W. Syntactic Nuts: Hard Cases, Syntactic Theory, and Language Acquisition (Oxford Univ. Press, 1999).

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

N.C. was supported by ERC grant 295917-RATIONALITY, the ESRC Network for Integrated Behavioural Science (grant number ES/K002201/1), the Leverhulme Trust (grant number RP2012-V-022), and Research Councils UK Grant EP/K039830/1.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, 14853, New York, USA

    Morten H. Christiansen

  2. Behavioural Science Group, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

    Nick Chater

Authors
  1. Morten H. Christiansen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nick Chater
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Morten H. Christiansen.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Christiansen, M., Chater, N. Towards an integrated science of language. Nat Hum Behav 1, 0163 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0163

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0163

  • Springer Nature Limited

Search

Navigation