Four arguments for “the language instinct”

1. L is universal

2. all have similar structure

3. The rapidity and similarity of acquisition

4. Biological evidence

Consider each of these four arguments in detail

A1. language is universal (26)

• No human culture ever reported without a language

• Little correlation between sophistication of culture with sophistication of Language

• "Stone age societies ...but not Stone age languages..27”

• There’s no serious distinction between language and dialect.

• All languages are dialects of universal human language.

• "A Language is a dialect with an army and navy." (Weinrich)

A2. L is similar in structure everywhere

• A stream of speech

• Sequence of syllables

• Sequence of phonological segments (phonemes)

• Sequence of words (morphemes)

• Hierarchically organized phrases

• Recursive structures, e.g phrases in phrases

• Hierarchically organized clause(s)

• Meaningful linguistic expression

The same descriptive terms apply to all Ls

But not all universals qualify as "instincts."

• Why should we think language is an instinct? We must try to rule out common experiences and universal cognition/perception as much as possible.

• Piaget, for example, believed Language was just “clothes” we put on thoughts, labels with no functional structure themselves.

• For Piaget and others, language itself was not that interesting beyond its general functions.

• We also should worry about cultural transmission of knowledge from generation to generation. This is surely a part of language, but is it ALL?? Here are several reasons for thinking "No!”

A3 language acquisition suggests

instinct• Humans acquire language

uniformly under a range of environments and intelligences; smart non-humans (e.g. apes) don't.

• normal acquisition by children is predictable

• They have "structure dependent knowledge" p.40-43– What the aphasic woman in video

lacked!– “The bird that the cat watched was

hungry.”– Word comprehension & order alone

won’t do!

Which one has the “instinct?”

an instinct implant?

Universal stages of acquisition

• Little correlation between acquisition and intelligence in humans other than in “content” word vocabulary. This is due to intelligence and culture.

Lexical growth

atypical acquisition suggests instinct

• acquisition of sign by deaf children, e.g. NSL (video)

• Creation of Creoles from pidgins by children (video)

A4. biological evidence for the "LI”

• Universal brain and vocal tract - one can speak any language

• Localization and independence of functions

• Specific language impairments (SLI)

• Recent genetic comparisons with apes

localization and independence of

functions• Penfield’s brain “labels”

• aphasia case p.46 and video

• split-brain cases (Gazzaniga)

• Much evidence for specific functional impairments - cognition without language or partial language.

• A case of language without cognition?

Penfield’s brain labels

• Image of labeled living brain

specific biological language impairments

(SLI) 48• 1. Gopnik's family (“grammar

genes”)

• 2. Williams syndrome (video)

• 3. Autism??

Vocal tract diagram

Universal “alphabet” of sounds

Question: What do you see?

production

Answer!

• “Dogs”

Missing parts?

Could Pinker (and I) be wrong?

• Not all dialects have been studied– The claims about Piraha

• Could Piaget be right? Cognitive structures are directly reflected in language structures?

• Could language have been invented once or even several times, and learned by each person by their general learning processes?

The Piraha

• Read -- Colapinto, J. (2007). The interpreter: Has a remote Amazonian tribe upended our

understanding of language? The New Yorker, 83(8), 119-137.