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Conceptual structure is constrained functionally, not formally

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2010

Richard Hudson
Richard Hudson
Affiliation:
University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom. dick@ling.ucl.ac.uk www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/home.htm
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Abstract

Kinship systems are best explained functionally, in terms of the conflicting needs of the society concerned, rather than in terms of universal constraints, whether Optimality Theory or other; but OT is particularly unsuitable as it rules out taxonomies. A conceptual analysis of kinship terminology shows, not that “grammar” extends to kinship, but that general cognition has the formal power to handle grammar.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 33 , Issue 5 , October 2010 , pp. 387
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

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