Four arguments for the language instinct

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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

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Consider each of these four arguments in detail
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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

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• Theres 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)

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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

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The same descriptive terms apply to all Ls
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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.

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• 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!

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A3 language acquisition suggests instinct

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

10

• 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 wont do!

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Which one has the instinct?
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an instinct implant?
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Universal stages of acquisition
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• Little correlation between acquisition and
  intelligence in humans other than in content
  word vocabulary. This is due to intelligence and
  culture.

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Lexical growth
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atypical acquisition suggests instinct

• acquisition of sign by deaf children, e.g. NSL
  (video)
• Creation of Creoles from pidgins by children
  (video)

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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

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localization and independence of functions

• Penfields 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?

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Penfields brain labels

• Image of labeled living brain

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specific biological language impairments (SLI) 48

• 1. Gopnik's family (grammar genes)
• 2. Williams syndrome (video)
• 3. Autism??

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Vocal tract diagram
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Universal alphabet of sounds
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Question What do you see?
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production
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Answer!

• Dogs

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Missing parts?
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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?

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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.