Why do animals have 'legs' and tables too? This is how all the world's languages reuse words
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Laura Serra
1d ago
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AraWhy do animals have 'legs' and tables too? This is how all the world's languages reuse wordsara.catMost of the world's languages use the same patterns when naming the things around us. An international study led by Pompeu Fabra University and published in Nature Human Behaviour states that languages tend towards lexical economy and, therefore, try to reuse known words or parts of words, as long as the context allows and does not generate confusion. According to the researcher from the Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Thomas Brochhagen, language economy is "a cognitive bias" that over time shapes all languages, which speakers do not do consciously or plannedly. The brain tends to seek the fastest routes for communication.
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