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“if there is a way to understand sentences without displacement at any level, abstract or otherwise, then perhaps grammar is less important than we imagined.”

“Although Pirahã nouns are simple, Pirahã verbs are much more complicated. Each verb can have as many as sixteen suffixes—that is, up to sixteen suffixes in a row. Not all suffixes are always required, however. Since a suffix can be present or absent, this gives us two possibilities for each of the sixteen suffixes—2^16, or 65,536, possible forms for any Pirahã verb.”