"This is an impressive collection of work on Universals of Language as seen from a wide spectrum of disciplinary perspectives. It will surely play a significant role in the re-orientation of such research from the mere accumulation of cross-linguistic regularities to the search for the organizing principles of human cognition that give rise to those regularities. The breadth and depth of the studies here show that Universals research is finally moving toward a genuinely scientific status."-Stephen R. Anderson, Dorothy R. Diebold Professor of Linguistics and Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Yale University
"Despite enormous diversity, there are striking similarities across languages. Why do languages take the forms they do, and only those forms? This question has long been both a puzzle and the source of enormous controversy. Is it just coincidence? Is there something about the shared human experience? Or the biology common to our species? Is there some internal logic to language that makes only some languages viable? These are enormously challenging questions. This collection, by some of the most prominent scholars in the field, presents a rich and diverse set of possibilities. This is a fascinating and an important book, and significantly advances our progress toward understanding why only our species has language."-Jeffrey L. Elman, Dean, Division of Social Sciences, University of California, San Diego