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Line 1: The manner in which a child acquires [[language]] is a matter long debated by [[linguists]] and [[Developmental Psychology\|child psychologists]] alike. The "father" of most [[nativist]] theories of language acquisition is [[Noam Chomsky]], who brought greater attention to the innate capacity of children for learning language, which had widely been considered a purely cultural phenomenon based on imitation. Nativist linguistic theories hold that children learn through their natural ability to organize the laws of language, but cannot fully utilize this talent without the presence of other humans. This does not mean, however, that the child requires formal tutelage of any sort. Chomsky claims that children are born with a hard-wired '''language acquisition device''' (LAD) in their brains. They are born with the major principles of language in place, and with some parameters to set (such as whether sentences in the language they are to acquire must have explicit subjects). According to nativist theory, when the young child is exposed to a language, their LAD makes it possible for them to set the parameters and deduce the grammatical principles, because the principles are innate.

Language acquisition: Difference between revisions