Chomsky and UG, GG

Chomskys theory of learning: The metatheory of linguistics.

The combination of social and cognitive elements that serve as triggers to learning under

Chomskyan perspective is notable for giving more emphasis on the study of how the brain

works during the process of language acquisition. This leads to the creation of the linguistic

theory. For this focal reason, Chomsky views the theory of linguistics as a metatheory

where mental, psychological, and cognitive processes supersede a mere behavioral input.

Chomsky argues that language is comprehensive: It involves listening, accepting and rejecting

information, conceptualizing the input, organizing it, and producing further language within

the parameters of the social context where the language takes place is being shared, and

within the limits of our natural capabilities. However, there is an additional dimension that

ultimately separated Chomsky from his contemporaries, and it is the idea that all these

processes occur in a part of the brain where a proposed apparatus enables all this to occur:

The Language Acquisition Device.

The Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

The metatheory of linguistics, or language learning, according to Chomsky consists of

two premises: The first premise states that humans are born with an already-established body

of common grammatical knowledge, or intelligence which can also be described as a capacity,

or a competence for language. This intelligence, which he calls linguistic corpus, is triggered

by social discourse and interaction. As interaction takes place and new language is acquired,

the second premise of Chomskys theory states that a specific place in the brain which he calls

the Language Acquisition Device or LAD. Chomsky proposes that the LAD exists inside

the brain. It is, theoretically speaking, a congenital organ that enables the skill of acquiring

language. This organ would allow individuals to use minimal rules and regulations of

language to create more words, and more sentences.

The premise of his philosophy lays Chomskys observations of children, and his

preoccupation about how steadfastly children acquire language. Chomsky observed that the

manner in which children acquire language, make similar mistakes, and develop further

words, must obey a general mechanism that with a specific tendency of operation. These

social and cognitive components of the process of language learning imply Chomskys

integration of psychology, human development, and linguistics as part of his theory. That is

the way that Chomsky defines learning. Yet, once the learning takes place by the means

that he suggested, what happens to the acquired knowledge? Concisely, how does he define

the term intelligence?

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Chomsky on intelligence: Generative grammar, universal grammar

The general definition of intelligence is the ability to learn facts and skills and apply

them, especially when this ability is highly developed. In a Chomskyan linguistic

perspective, intelligence is defined a foundation of language that all humans already possess

as part of our biological make-up. This innate body of knowledge is what he calls universal

grammar or the linguistic corpus. This body of language knowledge changes through time,

as the individual makes additional social connections, acquires new words, or decides how to

make use of language depending on the circumstances in which it is required. This ability to

transform the language and change it through time makes it generative in nature.

The process of transformation of universal to generative grammar

The concept of universal grammar could be described cognitively as an innate foundation

and a capacity for language usage and production. It is found within the brain, where the

Language Acquisition Device (LAD) proposed by Chomsky would be triggered into action

when the individual is exposed to language. This exposure leads to the acquisition of new

words which, as they are learned, fall unequivocally in a pattern of use that is general to the

group who is speaking. An example of this pattern would be the subject-verb-predicate

model. The implication rests in that, as we socialize, our internal capacities already in place

will act as a word catcher that will automatically place the words in a pre-set order shared

everyone within our own language system and will continue to grow and expand. The process

of establishing the language rules, and expanding language further through time and level of

complexity leads to deem it as generative grammar

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