Sunday, 24 June, one of Hong Kong's English newspapers (South China Morning Post) printed an article on page 9 of the international section titled Shaking language to the core. The article reports on the research of Daniel Everett, associated with Illinois State University. His 30 year long field research with a tiny Brazilian tribe, the Piraha, has discovered that at least one group of human beings on this plant do not use recursives, in spite of Chomsky's tenet that this is one of the things hardwired into humans' ability to learn and use language.
I do not want to start a fire fight here. I am not interested in your opinions on Chomsky. What I do want to know is what anyone else has learned about this phenomenon, and your sources.
Taking on Chomsky?
Moderator: Joe