Innateness Theory - created from Mind Map

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Definition:

Chomsky's Theory

Tabula Rasa (Blank Slate)

Critical Period

Existing in a person before birth, an essential part of their character and isn't learned.

An expression created by Hilary Putnam which refers to the theory that some linguistic knowledge about language existing in humans from birth. Later proposed by Noam Chomsky.

Children are born with ability to learn any language.

Linguistic structures are already printed on the child's mind and every child has LAD which encodes the major principles of language and it's grammatical structures into their brain.

He believes they can't learn a language from just imitation alone, because the spoken language around them is irregular and sometimes ungrammatical.

Babies don't comprehend the words that are being said to them, but they do posses an inmate ability to understand the sound of the human voice and to discriminate between languages.

For example: Experiments have been done on babies to show that the recognise phonemes. 'Mom' and 'Mop' was understood by a baby who didn't know what these words meant, this states that children are born with innate ability to understand language.

Individuals are not born with the ability to use language and it is all learnt through experience.

Empiricists share the view that there is no such thing as innate knowledge and that it is earned through experience. They think that the mind is a blank space and all knowledge is learned through life.

Rationalists believe that there is innate knowledge. They differ in that they choose between objects such as mathematical concepts, moral concepts or colour. They believe that the mind is a computer and already has functions.

When you are younger, it is easier to pick up language compared to when you are older. There is an ideal time (the first few years of life) when you can acquire language and understand it fluently.

If the language input does not occur until after the critical period, the individual will never achieve a full command of language and grammatically struggle.