Concept

Language acquisition device

Résumé
The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is a claim from language acquisition research proposed by Noam Chomsky in the 1960s. The LAD concept is a purported instinctive mental capacity which enables an infant to acquire and produce language. It is a component of the nativist theory of language. This theory asserts that humans are born with the instinct or "innate facility" for acquiring language. The main argument given in favor of the LAD was the argument from the poverty of the stimulus, which argues that unless children have significant innate knowledge of grammar, they would not be able to learn language as quickly as they do, given that they never have access to negative evidence and rarely receive direct instruction in their first language. A summary explaining LAD by Chomsky states that languages are infinite pertaining to the sequence of word forms (strings) and grammar. These word forms organize grammatically correct sequences of words that can be pooled over a limited lexicon of each independent language. So, LAD is tasked to select from an infinite number of grammars the one which is correct for the language that is presented to an individual, for example, a child. Critics say there is insufficient evidence from neuroscience and language acquisition research to support the claim that people have a language acquisition device as described above, and for the related ideas universal grammar and poverty of the stimulus. It is also argued that Chomsky's purported linguistic evidence for them was mistaken. For such reasons, the mainstream language acquisition community rejected generative grammar in the beginning of the 21st century. The search for a language acquisition device continues, but some scholars argue it is pseudoscience.
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Concepts associés (7)
Pauvreté du stimulus
La pauvreté du stimulus est l'argument linguistique selon lequel le langage est inné à un certain degré vu que le langage que reçoit un enfant (le stimulus) ne suffit pas pour lui apprendre toutes les complexités de la grammaire de la langue. Cet argument relève d'une conception innéiste du langage par opposition à l'idée empiriste que l'on n'apprend le langage que par expérience. Cet argument se prête à la théorie de grammaire universelle qui propose des principes auxquels chaque langue se conforme.
Innateness hypothesis
In linguistics, the innateness hypothesis, also known as the nativist hypothesis, holds that humans are born with at least some knowledge of linguistic structure. On this hypothesis, language acquisition involves filling in the details of an innate blueprint rather than being an entirely inductive process. The hypothesis is one of the cornerstones of generative grammar and related approaches in linguistics. Arguments in favour include the poverty of the stimulus, the universality of language acquisition, as well as experimental studies on learning and learnability.
Nativisme (psychologie)
En psychologie, le nativisme est la théorie selon laquelle certaines compétences ou les habiletés sont des « innées » ou câblées dans le cerveau à la naissance. Cette théorie est en contraste avec l'empirisme, qui stipule que le cerveau a des capacités innées pour permettre l'apprentissage, mais ne contient pas de contenu inné en tant que tel (voir le débat inné versus acquis). Le nativisme a une histoire dans la philosophie. Schopenhauer (1788-1860) réduit le nombre de catégories innées à une seule catégorie, qui est la causalité.
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