Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T02:43:57.594Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Universal grammar is dead

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Michael Tomasello
Michael Tomasello
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany. [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The idea of a biologically evolved, universal grammar with linguistic content is a myth, perpetuated by three spurious explanatory strategies of generative linguists. To make progress in understanding human linguistic competence, cognitive scientists must abandon the idea of an innate universal grammar and instead try to build theories that explain both linguistic universals and diversity and how they emerge.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 5 , October 2009 , pp. 470 - 471
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Tomasello, M. (2003a) Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2008) The origins of human communication. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar