Editing Linguistic universal (section)

{{Short description|Universally-occurring linguistic pattern}}
{{Not to be confused with|Universal grammar}}
A '''linguistic universal''' is a pattern that occurs systematically across [[natural language]]s, potentially true for all of them. For example, ''All languages have [[noun]]s and [[verbs]]'', or ''If a language is spoken, it has [[consonant]]s and [[vowel]]s.'' Research in this area of [[linguistics]] is closely tied to the study of [[linguistic typology]], and intends to reveal generalizations across languages, likely tied to [[cognition]], [[perception]],  or other abilities of the mind. The field originates from discussions influenced by [[Noam Chomsky]]'s proposal of a [[universal grammar]], but was largely pioneered by the linguist [[Joseph Greenberg]], who derived a set of [[Greenberg's linguistic universals|forty-five basic universals]], mostly dealing with [[syntax]], from a study of some thirty languages.

Though there has been significant research into linguistic universals, in more recent time some linguists, including [[Nicholas Evans (linguist)|Nicolas Evans]] and [[Stephen Levinson|Stephen C. Levinson]], have argued against the existence of absolute linguistic universals that are shared across all languages. These linguists cite problems such as [[ethnocentrism]] amongst [[Cognitive science|cognitive scientists]], and thus linguists, as well as insufficient research into all of the world's languages in discussions related to linguistic universals, instead promoting these similarities as simply strong tendencies.