Since the beginnings of humanity, the study of different linguistic types has fascinated people. If they had not been completely deciphered and catalogued, languages would have become an insurmountable barrier to the development of humanity, as no communication would be possible.
In search of more answers in this area, a group of 45 researchers from the University of East Anglia, in England, made a surprising discovery: there are two words that are present in all of the more than 7 thousand languages that they exist.
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In the study, experts observed the interaction between around 1,000 people who speak 29 languages different, noting that the words “this” and “that” were present in the vocabulary of all of them.
Of course, each person spoke the words in their own language, but that doesn't make this fact any less surprising.
Professor Kenny Coventry, one of the study's main authors, spoke of the importance of this discovery.
“The extent to which languages share properties that reflect the non-linguistic constraints of the speakers who speak them is fundamental to the debate about the relationship between language and cognition,” he said.
According to information released by University From East Anglia to IFL Science, study volunteers were positioned at tables with different objects. In addition to different shapes and sizes, the objects had colors that distinguished them.
After a certain period of observation, the volunteers were invited to describe, using indicative pronouns, what those objects were.
At this point, it was possible to see the correlation between languages and identify “this” and “that” in practically all answers.
“We found that in every language we tested, there is a word for objects that are within reach. speaker, like ‘it’ in English, and a word for objects out of reach – ‘that’”, highlighted Kenny Coventry.
“This distinction may explain the early evolutionary origin of demonstratives as linguistic forms,” he concluded.
Graduated in History and Human Resources Technology. Passionate about writing, today he lives the dream of working professionally as a Web Content Writer, writing articles in several different niches and formats.
