Innate Nature of Linguistic Knowledge

The purpose of this research is to examine the proposition that much of linguistic knowledge is innate. The plan of the research will be to set forth the basis for that claim, and then to discuss arguments for and against it, with a view toward reaching a determination as to the extent of its validity, based on the evidence and character of debate in the literature.

The concept that linguistic knowledge is innate is connected to theories of how language can be acquired in early childhood. The professional literature makes clear that the name linguistic theory is given to the idea that language acquisition occurs because human beings have, built in to their physical and psychological makeup from birth, the absolute possession of the ability to refine their language and communication skills. Thus understanding language becomes a matter of sorting out or syntactically organizing linguistic structures so as to arrive at meaning. This internal or "generative" grammar comprises certain patterns of linguistic rules that are basic to human consciousness and "discoverable from the raw linguistic data provided by the environment" (Bohannon and Warren-Leubecker, 1989, p. 196). The linguistic view is that environment is less important to language development than simple exposure to speech that may be duplicated by the human being whose language is developing.

The theory that linguistic knowledge is by and large innate appears to be based primarily on the work of Noam Chomsky,

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use (Wood, 1976, pp. 103-5). For example, a four-year old may not know why we call a quarter a quarter. If one asks, he might answer: "Because!"--a common explanation at that age. A five-year-old, however, might well explain the use of the quarter: "We do laundry with it." A six-year old is likely to have more insight: "It's money" or even "It's twenty-five cents." What has happened is that the older child, whose knowledge of the quarter still may not be abstract enough to identify a quarter as one-fourth part of a dollar, has nevertheless associated quarter with an increasingly abstract, generalized, and utilitarian meaning for the word. But is the increasing abstraction more rational or physical, and if it is chiefly physical, to what extent, if any, does rational process take over in future processes? This answer seems to elude the Piaget-like theorists because the moments of rational abstraction from sensor-motor functions do not appear to be isolated. The answer seems to be made easier if, in the manner of Chomsky, one asserts that increasing abstraction is rational, and that it is so because of the psychology of communication (i.e., internal grammar) innate in all human beings. However, the weakness of this theory is

Category: Psychology - I