Every linguist is struck by similarities among even the most different and most culturally isolated human languages. It is natural to assume that some of these common properties, these language universals, might reflect something about the way people can learn and use languages. In some relevant sense, some of these properties may arise and be maintained even in culturally isolated languages be...

The structure of the human brain reflects multifarious random influences terrestrial and phylogenetic history, yet higher mental functions correlated with this unique cerebral neurophysiology are generally assumed to embody universals common intelligences independent biological substrate.

I present the so-called Verb-Object Constraint as a serious proposal for a true linguistic universal. It provides an example of the kind of abstraction in linguistic analysis that seems warranted, of how different languages can confirm such a universal in different ways, and why approaches that avoid all abstractness miss important linguistic generalizations.

It has long been recognized that temporal anaphora in French and English depends on the aspectual distinction between events and states. For example, temporal location as well as temporal update depends on the aspectual type. This paper presents a general theory of aspect-based temporal anaphora, which extends from languages with grammatical tenses (like French and English) to tenseless languag...

This series of books on the semantics of natural language contains collections of original research on selected topics as well as monographs in this area. computer-scientists and cognitive psychologists are brought together to promote interdisciplinary and international research. ® Printed on acid-free paper which falls within in the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability. S...