A new study reveals that approximately one-third of long-held theories about universal grammar – patterns believed to exist across all human languages – are statistically supported when examined with advanced evolutionary methods. This finding, published in Nature Human Behaviour, offers a more nuanced understanding of linguistic constraints and the underlying forces shaping human communication.
The Challenge of Linguistic Universals
For decades, linguists have sought to identify patterns that transcend individual languages, hoping to uncover fundamental cognitive or communicative principles. The idea is that certain grammatical structures aren’t random but emerge repeatedly because they reflect how the human mind processes information or how efficiently humans convey meaning. However, proving these universals has been difficult. Previous attempts often struggled to account for the fact that languages aren’t independent entities; they evolve through contact, borrowing, and shared ancestry.
A New Approach: Accounting for Linguistic Relationships
The research, led by Annemarie Verkerk (Saarland University) and Russell D. Gray (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology), tackled this problem head-on. The team analyzed 191 proposed linguistic universals across a database of over 1,700 languages, using a technique called “Bayesian spatio-phylogenetic analysis.” This method is critical because it explicitly considers how languages are related—both through shared history (genealogy) and geographic proximity.
Previous studies often tried to bypass dependencies by sampling widely separated languages. While this reduces some bias, it doesn’t eliminate it entirely and can reduce statistical power. The new approach offers a much higher level of rigor.
Key Findings: What Holds Up?
The analysis confirmed that around one-third of the tested universals showed strong statistical support. These patterns primarily involve:
- Word Order: The consistent tendency for certain arrangements of verbs and objects in sentences across diverse language families.
- Hierarchical Universals: The predictable ways languages structure dependencies in grammatical agreement, such as how modifiers relate to the words they describe.
These supported universals aren’t simply coincidences; they appear to evolve repeatedly across the world’s languages, suggesting deep-rooted constraints on how humans structure communication.
Why This Matters: Beyond Random Evolution
The study’s authors emphasize that languages don’t evolve randomly. Instead, shared cognitive and communicative pressures push them toward a limited set of preferred grammatical solutions. This isn’t about a single “universal grammar” hardwired into the human brain; it’s about the constraints imposed by how we process information and interact with others.
As Russell Gray noted, the team debated framing the results as a “glass half-empty” or “glass half-full” scenario. Ultimately, they chose to highlight the patterns that do hold up, demonstrating that certain grammatical solutions are repeatedly favored by evolutionary forces.
Looking Ahead: Narrowing the Focus
By identifying which universals withstand evolutionary scrutiny, the study narrows the field for future research. The goal now is to investigate the cognitive and communicative foundations that drive these patterns. What specific aspects of human cognition or social interaction favor certain grammatical structures over others?
This research doesn’t prove the existence of a single, universal language blueprint. It does suggest that human communication is shaped by underlying constraints, and that the diversity of languages isn’t entirely random. Instead, it’s a reflection of how we adapt to the cognitive and social pressures that shape how we communicate
