Are Humans Predisposed To Learn Language?

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Recommended: Chomsky theory of development of language and thought

For a number of years, Noam Chomsky has produced written artefacts relating to the use and acquisition of language. In his works, Chomsky argues that humans have an innate ability to learn how to use language. The question of an innate ability to learn language is a cross-disciplinary one, relating to the fields of psychology, philosophy and linguistics. This essay will review Chomsky’s claim of an innate predisposition to acquire language by first attempting to determine precisely what Chomsky means by this term, before looking at key arguments both supporting and refuting the claim. Finally, a conclusion will be reached as to whether Chomsky’s position can be held as valid based on the evidence reviewed to discuss the claim.

“We can know so much because in a sense we already knew it” (Chomsky, 1976 p.7). Within this quote are the foundations for Chomsky’s theory of an innate predisposition to learn language by his imagination of a mind that holds a priori knowledge. It is suggested by Chomsky (1976) that this innate knowledge is within the human mind at birth and is unlocked by experience. Essentially, Chomsky’s argument is that there is some sort of biological basis only evident within humans that permits the acquisition of language across different cultures, notwithstanding the complexities or differences between them. Christiansen and Chater (2008) provide for Chomsky’s position by noting that children can obtain their native language before being able to carry out tasks such as tying laces or riding a bicycle.

The analysis of Chomsky’s argument in Christiansen & Chater’s (2008) article suggests that there may be an innate universal grammar (UG), meaning that humans are born with the biological ability obtain...

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...l, or whether it relates to empirical learning.

Works Cited

Behme, C., & Deacon, S. H. (2008). Language Learning in Infancy: Does the Empirical Evidence Support a Domain Specific Language Acquisition Device? Philosophical Psychology, 21:5, 641-671. doi: 10.1080/09515080802412321

Chomsky, N. (1976). Reflections on Language. Glasgow: Fontana/Collins

Christiansen, M. H., & Chater, N. (2008). Language as shaped by the brain. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31, 489-558. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X08004998

Gregory, R. L. (Ed.). (2004). The Oxford Companion to the Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Trevarthen, C. (2002). Making Sense of Infants Making Sense. Intellectica, 1, 161-188

Trevarthen, C., & Malloch, S. (2000). The Dance of Wellbeing: Defining the Musical Therapeutic Effect. Norsk Tidsskrift for Musikkterapi, 9:2, 3-17. doi: 10.1080/08098130009477996

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