For Friday 12/3, please read the following article, which can be downloaded from the Readings section of this website:

Colapinto, John. 2007, Aug. 16. The interpreter. The New Yorker.

As I mentioned in class, the article describes recent research investigating the language of the Piraha, an indigenous group of the Amazon.  In particular, it has been claimed that (1) the Piraha language poses serious problems for Chomsky’s theory of Universal Grammar, and (2) the Piraha language and people provide further evidence for linguistic determinism.  In our next few class meetings, we will investigate both of these claims more closely.