full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Cameron Morin: What do all languages have in common?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


As more liigsnut data was gathered and analyzed, it became clear that languages around the wrlod differ widely, challenging the theory that there were uisravenl grammar rules. In the 1980s, Chomsky rveesid his theory in an attempt to accommodate this variation. According to his new hypothesis of principles and parameters, all languages shared certain grammatical ppileicrns, but could vary in their parameters, or the application of these principles. For example, a principle is “every sentence must have a subject," but the parameter of whether the subject must be explicitly stated could vary between languages.

Open Cloze


As more ________ data was gathered and analyzed, it became clear that languages around the _____ differ widely, challenging the theory that there were _________ grammar rules. In the 1980s, Chomsky _______ his theory in an attempt to accommodate this variation. According to his new hypothesis of principles and parameters, all languages shared certain grammatical __________, but could vary in their parameters, or the application of these principles. For example, a principle is “every sentence must have a subject," but the parameter of whether the subject must be explicitly stated could vary between languages.

Solution


  1. revised
  2. universal
  3. world
  4. linguist
  5. principles

Original Text


As more linguist data was gathered and analyzed, it became clear that languages around the world differ widely, challenging the theory that there were universal grammar rules. In the 1980s, Chomsky revised his theory in an attempt to accommodate this variation. According to his new hypothesis of principles and parameters, all languages shared certain grammatical principles, but could vary in their parameters, or the application of these principles. For example, a principle is “every sentence must have a subject," but the parameter of whether the subject must be explicitly stated could vary between languages.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
universal grammar 3
noun phrase 3
chomsky proposed 2
human brain 2
grammar rules 2
grammar rule 2
verb phrases 2
proposed universal 2
language faculty 2


Important Words


  1. accommodate
  2. analyzed
  3. application
  4. attempt
  5. challenging
  6. chomsky
  7. clear
  8. data
  9. differ
  10. explicitly
  11. gathered
  12. grammar
  13. grammatical
  14. hypothesis
  15. languages
  16. linguist
  17. parameter
  18. parameters
  19. principle
  20. principles
  21. revised
  22. rules
  23. sentence
  24. shared
  25. stated
  26. subject
  27. theory
  28. universal
  29. variation
  30. vary
  31. widely
  32. world