Learnability of a Language :: learnability language child must achieve competence infinite based number heard sentences essence noam chomsky poverty stimulus argument originally presented made case nativism forcing empiricist theories explain such achievable stephen pinker development uses both challenge acquisition heuristic evaluating terrence deacon symbolic species while dismissive most chomskyan linguistics still sees problem any Foreign Language Education Essays Learnability of a Language

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Learnability of a Language

I.

A child must achieve competence with an infinite language based on a finite number of heard sentences. This is the essence of Noam Chomsky's "poverty of the stimulus" argument. As originally presented, it made a case for nativism, forcing empiricist theories to explain how such competence is achievable. In Stephen Pinker's Language Learnability and Language Development, he uses learnability both as a challenge to theories of language acquisition, and as a heuristic for evaluating them. Terrence Deacon, in The Symbolic Species, while dismissive of most of Chomskyan linguistics, still sees the learnability problem as a challenge to any theory that hopes to explain human linguistic knowledge. I will begin with a scrutiny of Pinker and Deacon's similar responses to the learnability problem, and will then examine Pinker's learnability criterion, which counters Deacon's aims.

II.

The views of Deacon and Pinker overlap to a surprising extent. Some shared ground, and potentially shared ground, are to be found in their views on learnability. Both fee... [to view the full essay now, purchase below]

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