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A Pirahã man participates in a new experiment that, researchers say, indicates that his language contains no number words, even for the number one.
Grasping numbers without words Studies challenge theories that link language and thought
Brazil’s Pirahã people can’t count on using words for the number one or for any other number to describe exact quantities, a team led by MIT cognitive scientist Edward Gibson suggests (SN: 7/19/08, p. 5). The denizens of the Amazon rainforest are the first group anywhere reported to lack an expression for the number one. But Pirahã adults can still identify the number of items placed in front of them by picking out a matching number of items, the team concludes.