July 28, 2025Open Access

Linguistic evolution minimizes the amount of syntactic hierarchy in grammar

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Phylogenetic modeling reveals that languages exhibit a bias toward minimizing hierarchical syntax, indicating cultural variation.

Languages tend to minimize hierarchical structures in grammar, contrary to traditional assumptions.
Phylogenetic modeling shows significant cultural variation across languages like Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan.
The research analyzes clause combining to uncover the hierarchical structure preferences in grammar.
These findings suggest a nuanced understanding of hierarchical syntax compared to animal communication.

Meloni et al. (2025) studied this question.

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