1. Introduction: Nativism in Linguistic Theory

  1. Alexander Clark,
  2. Shalom Lappin

Published Online: 21 MAR 2011

DOI: 10.1002/9781444390568.ch1

Book Title

Linguistic Nativism and the Poverty of the Stimulus

Linguistic Nativism and the Poverty of the Stimulus

Additional Information

How to Cite

Clark, A. and Lappin, S. (2011) Introduction: Nativism in Linguistic Theory, in Linguistic Nativism and the Poverty of the Stimulus, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK. doi: 10.1002/9781444390568.ch1

Publication History

  1. Published Online: 21 MAR 2011
  2. Published Print: 7 JAN 2011

ISBN Information

Print ISBN: 9781405187848

Online ISBN: 9781444390568

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CHAPTER TOOLS

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Keywords:

  • nativism in linguistic theory;
  • human beings, innate, genetically specified cognitive endowment - acquiring natural language, a matter of scientific controversy;
  • debate, between opposing perspectives - not concerning existence of innately specified cognitive capacities;
  • concept of innateness, acutely problematic - lacking an agreed biological or psychological characterization;
  • environment of the child, important influence - on linguistic abilities, he/she acquires;
  • nativism and cognitive modularity;
  • neural networks, simple statistical learning mechanisms - resembling neural architecture of the brain;
  • humans, exhibiting domain-general learning capabilities - learning skills like chess;
  • Chomsky, prominent advocate of linguistic nativism - over the past 50 years;
  • Minimalist Program (MP) - Chomsky, revising the P&P framework

Summary

This chapter contains sections titled:

  • Historical Development

  • The Rationalist–Empiricist Debate

  • Nativism and Cognitive Modularity

  • Connectionism, Nonmodularity, and Antinativism

  • Adaptation and the Evolution of Natural Language

  • Summary and Conclusions

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