Towards an agenda to investigate language development in an indigenous group in the Amazon

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31513/linguistica.2021.v17n1a55123

Keywords:

quantification and numeracy skills, number systems and conceptual development, language acquisition, language and cognition, Amazonian languages.

Abstract

The present work advances a research agenda within the broader field of language and cognition for the study of the expression of numerical concepts in early development.  Lying at the core of the proposed agenda is the question of the relationship between the acquisition of the first language and the expression of numerical concepts in infancy.  Two processes exist to explain the expression of numerical information in languages. The first takes place through the grammatical structure of language (its quantificational system). The second is the direct expression of number with the use of number language expressions. The first process is called “grammatical number”, the second, “linguistic number”. In an attempt to raise questions that lie beyond previous investigations, and to expand linguistic and cognitive considerations, the proposal includes discussions regarding various numerical abilities in differing linguistic contexts in light of conceptual development of number systems. We hope this proposal will raise interesting cognitive and linguistic issues within the scope of languages spoken by native Amazonian peoples.

Author Biographies

Claudia Uller, Kingston University

Claudia Uller was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She obtained her PhD in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was a postdoctoral fellow with Alan Leslie at the Rutgers Centre for Cognitive Science and Department of Psychology, where she lectured as visiting assistant professor. Claudia moved to the United Kingdom to take a post in the University of Essex. She was invited to work as senior lecturer at the University of Cambridge, after which she became Head of Department of Psychology at Kingston University, where she is now associate professor. Claudia's research interests lie in the origins of knowledge in babies, and the evolutionary/comparative cognitive underpinnings in other species.

Marília Facó Soares, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)

Marília Facó Soares is Full Professor of Linguistics at the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and Researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Brazil). She works in postgraduate courses in the areas of Linguistics, Social Anthropology and Archeology. PhD in Linguistics (UNICAMP, 1992), with a Dissertation on Tikuna, a language spoken by one of the largest indigenous groups in Brazil, which also has speakers in Peru and Colombia. In addition to her continued work on Tikuna, her research activities have also included languages of the Tupi-Guarani and Pano language families. For over thirty years she has worked directly with indigenous populations, advising projects in the field of indigenous education. She coordinated, for eight years, collaborative projects with French teams within the framework of an agreement between Brazil and France. She also coordinated and executed linguistic works focused on archives and research collections and received, in Brazil, awards for projects focused on indigenous languages. As part of her academic education, while still an undergraduate student (UFRJ), she studied literature and music, the latter of which included and preceded her own graduation. Her work with indigenous peoples and languages has encompassed both Amazonian and Central Brazilian groups. Her main research interests are in linguistic theory and analysis, indigenous languages, historical linguistics and applied linguistics.

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Published

2021-04-12

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 1 (2021): Linguistics, indigenous languages, and analysis from a formal perspective

Section

Articles

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