The discovery of “linguistic universals”, the properties that all languages havein common, is a fundamental goal of linguistic research. Linguists face the task of accounting for why languages, which apparently differ so greatly fromone another on the surface, display striking similarities in their underlyingstructure. This volume brings together a team of leading experts to show howdifferent linguistic theories have approached this challenge. Drawing on workfrom both formal and functional perspectives, it provides a comprehensiveoverview of the most notable work on linguistic universals, with chapterson syntax, semantics, phonology, morphology, and typology, and explores arange of central issues, such as the relationship between linguistic universalsand the language faculty, and what linguistic universals can tell us about ourbiological make-up and cognitive abilities. Clear, succinct, and fully up-todate,it will be invaluable to anyone seeking a greater understanding of thephenomenon that is human language.