Number, Language, and Cognition: The Case of the Pirahã People
Introduction
Edward Gibson has remarked that the Pirahã, an Amazonian people, lack words for exact counting—even for “one.” This observation is consistent with decades of linguistic and cognitive research, which has shown that the Pirahã language does not contain lexical items for precise numbers. While this claim is essentially accurate, it requires nuance to avoid misconceptions about Pirahã cognition. This article reviews empirical findings on Pirahã numerical language, discusses the broader implications for theories of linguistic relativity and cognition, and situates these results in the wider study of Pirahã culture and grammar.
The Pirahã People and Language
The Pirahã are a small indigenous community of approximately 400 individuals who live along the Maici River, a tributary of the Amazon in Brazil. Their language, Pirahã, belongs to the Mura family and is typologically unusual in many respects:
- No fixed number words: Instead of terms for “one,” “two,” or higher numbers, Pirahã speakers use approximate quantifiers.
- Restricted phoneme inventory: The language has one of the world’s smallest known sound systems, with around 10–11 phonemes.
- No recursion (debated): Daniel Everett has argued that Pirahã lacks recursive syntactic structures, challenging claims about recursion as a universal feature of human language.
- Cultural immediacy: Pirahã cultural practices emphasize lived experience in the present moment. This “immediacy of experience principle” has been proposed as influencing the absence of certain abstract linguistic categories, including numerals.
Absence of Exact Number Words
Empirical Evidence
- Gordon (2004)
- Conducted matching tasks with Pirahã speakers using objects such as spools of thread.
- Found that participants could approximately match small sets, but accuracy decreased dramatically with sets larger than three.
- Concluded that the Pirahã lacked linguistic resources for exact number representation.
- Frank, Everett, Fedorenko & Gibson (2008)
- Showed that Pirahã participants performed well in tasks requiring approximate numerical reasoning.
- Argued that number words serve as a “cognitive technology” that enables precise representation, which the Pirahã lack.
Approximate Quantifiers
The Pirahã use terms such as:
- hói — “small amount” or “one-ish”
- hoí — “a bit more”
- baágiso — “many” or “a lot”
These words are flexible, context-dependent, and not consistently applied to exact quantities.
Cognitive Implications
The absence of exact numerals does not imply that Pirahã speakers are incapable of recognizing small sets or perceiving differences in quantity. Rather, they rely on the Approximate Number System (ANS), a core cognitive capacity shared across cultures and species. However, without number words, their performance in tasks requiring exact enumeration (e.g., distinguishing between seven vs. eight objects) is impaired.
This challenges the assumption that numerical cognition is universal and independent of language. Instead, the Pirahã case suggests that precise number concepts are scaffolded by linguistic and cultural tools.
Broader Linguistic and Cultural Features
Beyond numerals, Pirahã exhibits other striking linguistic and cultural characteristics:
- Pronoun borrowing: Some Pirahã pronouns appear to have been borrowed from Portuguese and neighboring languages.
- Absence of creation myths: Pirahã culture emphasizes lived, firsthand experience, and lacks traditional mythologies or oral histories extending beyond living memory.
- Restricted kinship terms: Kinship categories are limited compared to many other languages.
These features reinforce the view that Pirahã culture prioritizes the here-and-now, shaping both language and cognition.
Conclusion
Edward Gibson’s claim that the Pirahã lack number words, even for “one,” is accurate but simplified. The Pirahã language does not contain lexicalized exact numerals; instead, speakers use approximate quantifiers. This linguistic gap constrains precise numerical cognition, offering a unique case study for the interaction between language, culture, and thought. While the Pirahã can perceive and approximate quantities, their lack of numerical lexicon illustrates how cognitive technologies like number words profoundly shape human reasoning.
References
Everett, D. L. (2005). Cultural constraints on grammar and cognition in Pirahã. Current Anthropology, 46(4), 621–646.
Gordon, P. (2004). Numerical cognition without words: Evidence from Amazonia. Science, 306(5695), 496–499.
Frank, M. C., Everett, D. L., Fedorenko, E., & Gibson, E. (2008). Number as a cognitive technology: Evidence from Pirahã language and cognition. Cognition, 108(3), 819–824.