Rethinking universality

For a discrete infinity of reasons, Ian Roberts is to be celebrated. Here we discuss
how his important work has caused us to rethink what could be, arguably, the
most unbelievable and extraordinary aspect of language: its universality. In partic-
ular, we proffer Roberts’ theory of parameter hierarchies to corroborate an
economy thesis – a thesis implying that the quiddities of language transcend human
language, and would obtain of any language anywhere in the universe.