Nativism

Question 1

What is nativism?

Answer 1

Nativism is the belief that language is innate
Nativists theorists believe that children are born with an inherent ability to be able to understand and organise the laws and structures of language

Question 2

Who proposed nativism

Answer 2

• Chomsky, 1965, he proposed the Language Acquisition Device citing universal grammar which allows a child’s brain to select the correct grammar of the language they are exposed to.
• he argued a child’s LAD is triggered once they hear speech

Question 3

What is the purpose of universal grammar

Answer 3

It enables a child to learn a language through the environment around them

Question 4

Property of the stimulus

Answer 4

Chomsky argued that the LINGUISTIC INPUT received by young children is often insufficient for them to learn the complexities of their native language solely through imitation or reinforcement
Yet, children rapidly and consistently master their native language, pointing to inherent cognitive structures

Question 5

Arguments in support of nativism

Answer 5

• evidence for the LAD can be seen by the fact that children learn the appropriate word order from a young age
• most children follow the same stages of development : a uniform schedule regardless of quality of exposure hints at an INNATE UNDERLYING CAUSE
• Marcus (1993) suggested internal factors and an innate knowledge must be crucial to constraining a child’s generalisation
• jean Berko created ‘the wug test’ which uses words that children will not have seen before and so proves that children learn the rule and do not imitate

Question 6

Support of berkos research

Answer 6

• cruttenden 1979 defined the ‘u-shaped curve’
  
  • at point 1, the child applies the rule and gets it right
  • at point 2, the child applies the rule everywhere and gets it wrong
  • at point 3, the child learns that the rule only works in certain situations

Question 7

Pinker and ‘the language instinct’

Answer 7

• pinker (1994) agrees with language being an instinct and suggests its purpose was to meet the reliance on knowledge that would have been crucial to the continued survival of hunter-gatherer societies.
• like Chomsky, he argues that all languages are built on the same universal grammar, and that a language mechanism is built into the human brain, therefore basic structures of language are a part of OUR BIOLOGICAL INHERITANCE