according to Pinker what is `Universal Grammar`

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viridicus | 3 years, 2 months ago

Steve Pinker expands on Noam Chomsky's concept of "Universal Grammar" - a linguistic theory hypothesizing that all languages share common grammar principles which are innate to humans. Pinker postulates, however, that humans are born with the innate capacity for language but grammar (and vocabulary) principles are aquired through adaptation (i.e. the evolutionary mental module) to exposure to spoken language after birth.

source(s):
Pinker & Universal Grammar: http://tinyurl.com/b83xrh (goes to Google Books)

Evolutionary Mental Module: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_module

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seshankrishnan | 3 years, 2 months ago

-- Universal Grammar is actually a concept that was developed by Noam Chomsky. The concept was briefly explained by describing how Chomsky claimed that from a “Martian’s-eye-view all humans speak a single language” (pg. 238). In depth studies have shown that there are similar differences among languages. According to Pinker “there seems to be a common plan of syntactic, morphological, and phonological rules and principles, with a small set of varying parameters” (pg. 240), so languages despite seeming different, have subtle similarities. This further supports the concept of a language instinct because it seems to imply that the human brain is capable of creating numerous unique systems of communication, but ultimately since language is the product of the mind, they should all share certain basic qualities- which would account for the “universal grammar”.

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