Nativism

Question 1

Who invented nativism?

Answer 1

Chomsky

Question 2

Language is…

Answer 2

Innate. We are pre-programmed to acquire it

Question 3

We possess an…

Answer 3

innate grammatical ability

Question 4

Children have an inbuilt…

Answer 4

LAD (Language Acquisition Device) which enables them to enact the rules of language from the words and structures they hear

Question 5

Language is an…

Answer 5

innate faculty. Which means that we are born with a set of rules about language

Question 6

What is poverty of stimulus?

Answer 6

• Children only ever come into contact with a very limited amount of speech and hear only a small sample of structures as adults do not always talk in grammatically complete sentences
• Therefore, children are exposed to very little correctly formed language yet children still manage to organise and structure speech in their mind

Question 7

What is universal grammar?

Answer 7

The concept that human languages, as superficially diverse as they are, share some fundamental similarities and that these are attributable to innate

Question 8

What are virtuous errors?

Answer 8

Applied to the mistakes children make when developing their language (e.g. mouses instead of mice or runned instead of ran)

Question 9

What’s the significance of virtuous errors?

Answer 9

They support nature over nurture. Children wouldn’t have heard these wrong words from their parents so it shows they must have an innate grasp on language.

Question 10

What is over-extension?

Answer 10

Believing everything in one category is called on thing. For example: calling all men daddy / calling all dogs Bark etc.

Question 11

What is under-extension?

Answer 11

Believing only a word can only describe one thing. For example: calling their brother ‘boy’ but not calling other boys ‘boy’ / believing only their teddy bear is called bear etc.

Question 12

Give three criticisms of nativism

1st Criticism

Answer 12

Nativists place too much emphasis on what’s built in and not enough importance of interaction between child and carer

Question 13

Give three criticisms of nativism

2nd Criticism

Answer 13

Behaviourists point to children’s development of regional accents and imitation of vocabulary as evidence that innateness isn’t the only elements of child language acquisition

Question 14

Give three criticisms of nativism

3rd Criticism

Answer 14

There’s been rare cases where children have been badly abused or raised by animals who cannot speak