Noah Chomsky-Nativist Theroist Flashcards
What did Chomsky say we were born with?
LAD-Language Acquisition Device; Says that we are born with knowledge of preset rules of grammar which is why and how we learn our first language so quickly
What are virtuous errors
Syntactic errors made by young children e.g. ‘Runned’ instead of ‘Ran’
What do virtuous errors show?
Children produce language they have never heard e.g. use ‘goed’ instead of ‘went’ showing they have learnt a syntactical rule
What is a study to support Chomsky’s innateness theory?
The ‘Wug Test’ where children were able to apply generalised grammar rules to made-up examples of pictures, which supports the idea of a ‘universal grammar’
What do virtuous errors further reinforce?
That they are evidence that children do not learn exclusively by imitating the environment as adults do not make these mistakes
