In language , the universal standards are expected for ethnologists’ differences to rise. Through the analysis of Pihara language, there is a lack of sound structure, recursion, quantification, and numbers and numerals among others because it is constrained by culture making its model weakened. The Pihara language also uses a lot of singing and whistling and does not follow concrete rules like word and sound structure, number, numerals, pronoun system and verbal aspects of universal language standards.
The Pihara language extensively makes use of whistling, singing and humming for communication. However, its traditional areas of language are triggered when there is a need for certain subjects to learn the universal rules of grammar but not when a task involving the instructions that are consistent with it. A good example is putting a negative word after the third word in a phrase (Bambini et al., 2006). On the basis of universal grammar, the results are likely to suggest the presence of a neurobiological foundation. The Piraha language has no words for individual fingers; it occasionally refers to their fingers collectively as “hand sticks,” but only when asked by an insistent linguist. By the same reasoning, there is no word for “last.” Piraha cultural constraint on grammar and living, a profound cultural value, leading to an explanation for the persistent monolingualism. Despite the communicative purpose of the features used in Pihara language, it does not fully meet the standards of universal language.
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In some examples, Pihara language has a recursion system which is not embedding. The declarative Pihara utterances mostly consist of only assertions which are directly related to the moment of speech. The utterances are experienced as per Pihara evidential range by a speaker. Regarding the lack of numbers and numerals, Pihara lacks all the recursion. These are skills that have wider application and immediate experience; however, in Pihara language, they are not available. There is also an absence of relative clauses defined in terms other than the moments of speech. They are unavailable for the reason of that relative tenses involve recursion. Pihara language lacks abstract nouns which are a vital tool for the grammar of the universal language (Everett et al., 2005). Similarly, it cannot eliminate the semantic set of nouns since all languages should have terms representing terms and articles providing information about the languages.
Pihara language has some unique features which affect the way the speakers think. The language lacks words for numbers and colours. The absence of the words in Pihara have effects on how the speakers think. Speakers of Pihara language do not use numbers to count things and properties, they instead a very simple numeral system consisting of words like many, one and two. It is surprising because most of the languages in the world use numbers to define their thoughts, unlike Pihara community whose members cannot even tell the number of children they have. The Pihara do not count because they do not have number words. Having a numeral system in a language is important, and it can change an individual’s perception of the word and the way they think. As Regier et al. (2010) allude that coming up with words describing colours may also be difficult to them, but they can use their minds to relate the things they see in reality like the colour red can be related to blood making it easier for them to identify.
Other factors that play a role in how cognition and culture are developed for the speakers include emotions, social behaviour, spirituality and environment. For example, the Pihara culture has that involves hunting which helps them to understand their environment well through their cognition and social behaviours. They have also mastered techniques of adapting to their Amazon ecosystem through cognition and how they are able to identify their locations and important plants. Spiritually the Pihara have a culture that does not believe in the existence of God. Everett (2005) in his book explains how he went to the Amazon with his family on a mission to learn the Pihara language and to translate the bible. After he spends years with the Pihara community, he ended up being influenced by the tribe and he lost his faith by adapting the Pihara way of life.
References
Bambini, V., Gentili, C., Pietrini, P., & Everett, D. (2006). On cultural constraints on Pirahã grammar. Current Anthropology , 47 (1), 143-145.
Everett, D., Berlin, B., Gonalves, M., Kay, P., Levinson, S., Pawley, A., ... & Everett, D. (2005). Cultural constraints on grammar and cognition in Pirahã: Another look at the design features of human language. Current anthropology , 46 (4), 621-646.
Regier, T., Kay, P., Gilbert, A. L., & Ivry, R. B. (2010). Which Side Are You on, Anyway?. Words and the Mind , 165.
