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Squeezing through the Now-or-Never bottleneck: Reconnecting language processing, acquisition, change, and structure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2016

Nick Chater  and
Morten H. Christiansen
Nick Chater
Affiliation:
Behavioural Science Group, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom nick.chater@wbs.ac.uk
Morten H. Christiansen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 christiansen@cornell.edu The Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT 06511.
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Abstract

If human language must be squeezed through a narrow cognitive bottleneck, what are the implications for language processing, acquisition, change, and structure? In our target article, we suggested that the implications are far-reaching and form the basis of an integrated account of many apparently unconnected aspects of language and language processing, as well as suggesting revision of many existing theoretical accounts. With some exceptions, commentators were generally supportive both of the existence of the bottleneck and its potential implications. Many commentators suggested additional theoretical and linguistic nuances and extensions, links with prior work, and relevant computational and neuroscientific considerations; some argued for related but distinct viewpoints; a few, though, felt traditional perspectives were being abandoned too readily. Our response attempts to build on the many suggestions raised by the commentators and to engage constructively with challenges to our approach.

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Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e91
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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