Human evolution; Chomsky Everett language fight II (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, September 14, 2020, 18:02 (1310 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Had another thought. The argument is really from a different direction. Yes kids learn their native language by mimicking what their hear. However, as inventive as humans have turned out to be the claim is that all languages have the same basic structure with different words. That means something is innate.

dhw: Different languages have different words AND different structures. But some languages have similar structures to those of other languages. What is innate is the desire and ability to communicate, as it is in all our fellow animals. The only basic structure that I know which is common to all human languages is that they consist of different words that are joined together in different ways. However, I am thinking of applying for a research grant to record the sounds newborn babies make all over the world, because although I do not believe in a universal grammar, I am developing a theory that all newborn babies start life with the same innate basic vocabulary.

You and I are not linguists. But their majority theory is that is an innate language structure existing for humans.