From Daniel Harbour, Department of Linguistics, Queen Mary, University of London
Christine Kenneally’s provocative article is a welcome airing of scientific work on human language (29 May, p 32). However, it repeats an error from Evans and Levinson’s original paper: that the Native American language Kiowa has a suffix meaning “unexpected number of”. In 10 years’ work on the language, I have yet to find it. The Kiowa do use a suffix to say “three or more young men”, or “not-two hairs” (togul+dau; aul+dau). But if dau meant “unexpected number of”, Kiowas would have to think that teenagers don’t hang around in groups and hairs come in pairs.
My response, published with Evans and Levinson, pointed out this error, as well as showing that Kiowa strongly supports the Chomskian concept of a universal grammar (Behavioural and Brain Sciences, vol 32, p 456).
The editor writes:
• Evans and Levinson have published a correction to the Kiowa example in the same issue of Behavioural and Brain Sciences (vol 32, p 472). The general point about plurals not being straightforward still stands, and can be exemplified with another language: Nen from Papua New Guinea – also cited in the original article. In Nen you take duals (for two) as the basic stem, with a derived non-dual (anything other than two), while the affixing system distinguishes singular versus non-singular (two or more). Plurals are then composed by combining non-singulars with non-duals (numbers for which there is neither one nor two). In a further twist, you get exhaustive plurals by combining the dual with the singular.
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From Robert Morley
Kenneally refers to some 200 languages as “critically endangered”, lamenting the loss of 115 more. Natural scientists inevitably seem to see change as detrimental, but surely if we all spoke the same language it would be a very positive outcome for humankind.
Language differences inevitably contribute to tribal behaviour in international relations, and even within nations: consider the cultural divide and financial burden of maintaining bilingualism. One global language please, and the sooner the better.
London, UK
London, UK
