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

• “Dogs”
Answer!

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.