Editing Linguistic universal (section)

== Counterarguments ==
[[Nicholas Evans (linguist)|Nicolas Evans]] and [[Stephen Levinson|Stephen C. Levinson]] are two linguists who have written against the existence of linguistic universals, making a particular mention towards issues with [[Noam Chomsky|Chomsky]]'s proposal for a [[Universal grammar|Universal Grammar]]. They argue that across the 6,000-8,000 languages spoken around the world today, there are merely strong tendencies rather than universals at best.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=Evans|first1=Nicolas|last2=Levinson|first2=Stephen C.|date=2009|title=The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science|journal=Behavioral and Brain Sciences|publisher=Cambridge University Press|volume=32|issue=5|pages=429–492|doi=10.1017/S0140525X0999094X|pmid=19857320|doi-access=free|hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-0012-C29E-4|hdl-access=free}}</ref> In their view, these arise primarily due to the fact that many languages are connected to one another through shared historical backgrounds or common lineage, such as group [[Romance languages]] in Europe that were all derived from ancient [[Latin]], and therefore it can be expected that they share some core similarities. Evans and Levinson believe that linguists who have previously proposed or supported concepts associated with linguistic universals have done so "under the assumption that most languages are English-like in their structure"<ref name=":1" /> and only after analyzing a limited range of languages. They identify [[ethnocentrism]], the idea "that most cognitive scientists, linguists included, speak only familiar European languages, all close cousins in structure,"<ref name=":1" /> as a possible influence towards the various issues they identify in the assertions made on linguistic universals. With regards to Chomsky's universal grammar, these linguists claim that the explanation of the structure and rules applied to UG are either false due to a lack of detail into the various constructions used when creating or interpreting a grammatical sentence, or that the theory is unfalsifiable due to the vague and oversimplified assertions made by Chomsky. Instead, Evans and Levinson highlight the vast diversity that exists amongst the many languages spoken around the world to advocate for further investigation into the many cross-linguistic variations that do exist. Their article promotes linguistic diversity by citing multiple examples of variation in how "languages can be structured at every level: [[Phonetics|phonetic]], [[Phonology|phonological]], [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphological]], [[Syntax|syntactic]] and [[Semantics|semantic]]."<ref name=":1" /> They claim that increased understanding and acceptance of linguistic diversity over the concepts of false claims of linguistic universals, better stated to them as strong tendencies, will lead to more enlightening discoveries in the studies of human cognition.