Nativism

Nativism is a theory developed by Noam Chomsky, and takes up the ‘nature’ side of the ‘nature vs nurture’ debate.

Poverty of stimulus

Chomsky's theory states that children cannot learn through the imitation of their caregivers because they provide a ‘poverty of stimulus’, which essentially states that the caregivers of children do not provide a good enough standard of language (and often break the rules).
So he states that children must have something inbuilt within their brains to help them learn language – he calls this the ‘Language Acquisition Device’ or the LAD.

Language Acquisition Device

Within the LAD is a knowledge of language structures (universal grammar) and the knowledge becomes activated through experience.
Chomsky also claims that around the age of seven, the LAD switches off and then it becomes difficult to learn languages.
He states that children will often resist corrections to their mistakes – in this sense, the LAD is instructing them that their way of using language is correct and that the caregivers is wrong.

Virtuous errors

Within his theory, Chomsky states that children make virtuous errors (errors which are made with good intentions e.g. ‘I hurted his feelings’.)

Universal grammar

In addition, he states that children have a universal grammar which states a set of rules on how to structure language.
His theory is supported by the fact that many languages follow the SVO (subject-verb-object) syntax – Brown’s research states that 75% of languages use this syntax.

Support for Chomsky (Nativism)

The following studies support Chomsky's nativism theory:

'The Wug Test'

Jean Berko Gleason created what is called ‘The Wug Test’.
In this, children were given a picture of a bird-like creature called a ‘wug’ and then asked to state things like what two of these creatures would be called (‘wugs’). The test invented nouns and verbs to test pluralisation and over-generalisation.

Findings of 'The Wug Test'

76% of 4-5-year olds and 97% of 5-7-year olds could correctly use the -s ending for ‘wug’.
The test used words that children will not have encountered before and so proves that children learn the rule and do not imitate.

Cruttenden

This research was supported by some research by Cruttenden in 1979 in which he defined the ‘u-shaped curve’:
- At point 1, the child applies the rule and gets it right.
- At point 2, the child applies the rule everywhere and gets it wrong.
- At point 3, the child learns that the rule only works in certain situations.

Case study: Genie

In the 1970s, a 13-year-old girl was found by authorities. When authorities found her, she was withered and held her hands like a rabbit.
At first, welfare officers assumed she was autistic, but further probing discovered she could barely speak (limited to a very small number of words).
Her father had trapped her in a room since she was a toddler, detaining her in a straight-jacket and tying her to a chair. He growled at her if she cried or made any other noise.

Case study: Genie (cont.)

Linguists worked extensively with Genie, but because she had passed the critical period, she could not properly acquire language.
This case study supports Chomsky. As Genie had passed the critical age, Chomsky would argue that the LAD has expired and so cannot be activated.
This case study also supports the idea that children cannot learn language by interaction with caregivers alone.

Other supporting arguments

Children often produce grammatically non-standard utterances, and so they cannot be copied.
Inflectional mistakes (Berko Gleason) prove an application of a set of rules.
Pinker – every utterance is practically unique – children produce utterances they’ve never heard before.
Culture is not a barrier – all cultures acquire language at a similar age.
Children notice mistakes (Berko and Brown).
Non-standard grammatical constructions can make sense.

Criticisms of Chomsky (Nativism)

There has been some debate over Chomsky’s thoughts. It can be argued that children make lexical mistakes in the sense they miss out words rather than syntactical mistakes.

Tomasello

Chomsky’s theory is often dismissed by critics because it is based on hypothetical thinking rather than real-life children.
- Leading linguistics like Tomasello have dismissed Chomsky as an ‘armchair linguist’.
- This criticism of Chomsky’s research throws into question the validity of his theory.

Pinker

As Pinker points out, nearly every utterance a child produces is a brand-new combination of words, and so he questions whether a child can learn from imitation.

Overall limitation

Overall, Chomsky’s theory is limited by not having scientific evidence, but is still very important in considering how a child learns language.

1Language Levels

1.1Assessment Objectives

1.1.1Assessment Objectives

1.2Lexis

1.2.1Introduction

1.2.2Common, Proper, Abstract & Concrete Nouns

1.2.3Collective Nouns

1.2.4Adjectives

1.2.5Main, Auxiliary & Copular Verbs

1.2.6Dynamic & Stative Verbs

1.2.7Transitive, Intransitive, Active & Passive Verbs

1.2.8Mood of Verbs

1.2.9Adverbs

1.2.10Personal, Possessive & Reflexive Pronouns

1.2.11Relative & Demonstrative Pronouns

1.2.12Determiners

1.2.13Conjunctions

1.2.14Synonyms, Antonyms & Phonological Features

1.2.15End of Topic Test - Lexis

1.3Grammar

1.3.1Morphology

1.3.2Clauses

1.3.3Phrases

1.3.4Present Tense

1.3.5Past Tense

1.3.6Future Tense

1.3.7End of Topic Test - Grammar

1.4Semantics & Pragmatics

1.4.1Semantics

1.4.2Pragmatics

1.5Discourse Structure, Graphology & Orthography

1.5.1Discourse Structure

1.5.2Graphology & Orthography

1.5.3End of Topic Test - Semantics, Graphology etc.

2Language, The Individual & Society

2.1Children’s Language Development

2.1.1The Exam

2.1.2Phonemes, Vocal Tract & Articulation

2.1.3Writing About Phonemes

2.1.4Phonological Simplification

2.1.5A Child's First Year & Consonant Acquisition

2.1.6Beginning Stages of Language

2.1.7Lexical Development

2.1.8Stages of Development

2.1.9End of Topic Test - Child Language Development

2.2Children's Language Development - Theories

2.2.1Behaviourism

2.2.2Interactionism

2.2.3Challenging Interactionism

2.2.4Nativism

2.2.5Nativism - Exam Answer

2.2.6Cognitivism

2.2.7Social Constructionism

2.2.8Writing About Spoken Acquisition

2.2.9End of Topic Test - Development Theories

2.3Literacy Development: Reading

2.3.1Introduction

2.3.2Phonics vs Whole Word

2.3.3Debates in Reading

2.3.4Modelling Reading Acquisition

2.3.5Other Reading Theories

2.3.6End of Topic Test - Reading

2.4Literacy Development: Writing

2.4.1Orthography

2.4.2Kroll's Theory

2.4.3Barclay's Theory

2.4.4Creativity vs Accuracy

2.4.5Other Writing Theories

2.4.6The Exam

2.4.7End of Topic Test - Writing

3Language Diversity & Change

3.1The Importance of Gendered Language

3.1.1Writing About Gender

3.1.2Dominance Theory

3.1.3Interruptions - Zimmerman & West

3.1.4Deficit Theory

3.1.5Difference Model

3.1.6Difference Model - Men

3.1.7Diversity Model

3.1.8End of Topic Test - Gendered Language

3.2Social Groups

3.2.1Writing About Social Groups

3.2.2Social Class

3.2.3Social Class 2

3.2.4Age

3.2.5Age - Teen Speak

3.2.6Milroy’s Belfast Study

3.2.7Labov’s Martha’s Vineyard Study

3.2.8End of Topic Test - Social Groups

3.3Occupational Groups

3.3.1Writing About Occupational Groups

3.3.2Jargon

3.3.3Conversations

3.3.4Hierarchy & Power

3.3.5End of Topic Test - Occupational Groups

3.4Accents & Dialects

3.4.1Writing About Accent & Dialect

3.4.2Introduction to Accents & Dialects

3.4.3Accents - Matched Guide Experiment

3.4.4Accents - Received Pronunciation & Brummie

3.4.5Dialects - Dialectal Variations

3.4.6Accent & Dialect Case Study - London

3.4.7End of Topic Test - Accents & Dialects

3.5Language Change

3.5.1Writing About Language Change

3.5.2Modelling Change

3.5.3Modelling Change 2

3.5.4Lexical Change

3.5.5Semantic Change

3.5.6End of Topic Test - Language Change

3.6History of English

3.6.1Old English

3.6.2Old English 2

3.6.3Middle English

3.6.4Middle English 2

3.6.5Early Modern English

3.6.6Late Modern English

3.6.7Present Day English

3.6.8Global English

3.6.9American English

3.6.10Modelling Global English

3.6.11End of Topic Test - History of English

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