Chomsky posited a Language Acquisition Device as a "mental organ."  It was that that made rapid acquisition possible.  As the theory of Universal Grammar began to take shape, it was seen as fleshing out the LAD.  Chomsky's position was that we are genetically endowed not just with a capacity for language learning, something that most cognitivists would agree with, but rather with a knowledge of Language, not of a specific language but of the principles by which all human language operates.  One of the best recent presentations of the innatist view is Mark Baker's The Atoms of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules of Grammar (Basic Books 2002).

Herb

Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of English
Ball State University
Muncie, IN  47306
[log in to unmask]
________________________________________
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Patricia Lafayllve [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: December 9, 2008 10:22 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Mixed construction (was A short note on...)

Janet asks a good question, and one I have been wracking my brain around...

My assumption has always been that language is innate, and the potential to
acquire grammar is *(probably)* innate, but that grammar in and of itself
needs to be learned...

Or am I remembering all that wrong? *wink*  It is possible!

-patty

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Castilleja, Janet
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 6:47 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Mixed construction (was A short note on...)

Just out of curiosity, did Chomsky ever actually say that grammar was
innate?  Or did he say the potential to acquire grammar was innate?
Wouldn't that be a very different thing?

Janet Castilleja

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/