Universal grammar: are we born knowing the rules of language? – Science weekly podcast
by Presented by Nicola Davis and produced by Max Sand from on (#28EZG)
Do all human languages share a universal grammar? And can science shed light on a schism that's divided the world of linguistics for over half a century?
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In the 1960s, world-renowned MIT linguist Professor Noam Chomsky declared his theory of Universal Grammar (UG). Often defined as "a system of categories, mechanisms and constraints, shared by all human languages and considered to be innate", Chomsky's idea that children are somehow born with access to rules of language is, to this day, vehemently refuted. But what's the evidence for and against UG? And what are some of the alternatives?
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