Innateness hypothesis

Innateness hypothesis

The innateness hypothesis is a linguistic theory of language acquisition which holds that at least some linguistic knowledge is extant in humans at birth. Facts about the complexity of human language systems, the universality of language acquisition, the facility that children demonstrate in acquiring these systems, and the comparative performance of adults in attempting the same task are all commonly invoked in support. The idea that there may be an age by which this learning must be accomplished is known as the critical age hypothesis.

See also

Language acquisition


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  • innateness hypothesis — Psycholinguistics. the theory that humans are biologically equipped with a knowledge of certain universal elements of language structure that is brought into play in the course of native language acquisition. Also called nativism. * * * …   Universalium

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