Classifiers in non-European languages and semantic impairments in western neurological patients have a common cognitive structure

•Categories in classifier languages and category-specific semantic deficits overlap.•The patients were not imbued with these semantic categories through their languages.•The semantic categories are dispersed across macro-areas and language typologies.•The commonality of classifiers and impairments suggests a universal semantic system.•The frequencies of overlapping categories correlate in classifiers and impairments.