Kornai, András (2014) Resolving the infinitude controversy. JOURNAL OF LOGIC LANGUAGE AND INFORMATION, 23 (4). pp. 481-492. ISSN 0925-8531 10.1007/s10849-014-9203-2

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Abstract

A simple inductive argument shows natural languages to have infinitly many sentences, but workers in the field have uncovered clear evidence of a diverse group of ‘exceptional’ languages from Proto-Uralic to Dyirbal and most recently, Pirahã, that appear to lack recursive devices entirely. We argue that in an information-theoretic setting non-recursive natural languages appear neither exceptional nor functionally inferior to the recursive majority.

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