The Theory of Language Acquisition

Authors

  • Simi Nath Research Scholar, Department of English, University of Delhi

Keywords:

Psycholinguistics, Children, Language Acquisition, Grammar

Abstract

In 1957, American linguist Noam Chomsky published his iconoclastic book Syntactic Structures where he came up with a theory that human beings are born with an innate endowment for the capacity to learn language. This theory adheres to psycholinguistic school of criticism which deems the process of learning language as an important function of the mind. Chomsky claims that human brains have an inborn Language Acquisition Device, structured to acquire any language that they are exposed to. As the child grows up, certain maturation of this nervous system happens and the child is able to engage more with language. This theory put forth by Chomsky is ground-breaking because it subverts the age old theory of Tabula Rasa given by John Locke. The mind of the human child at birth is not a blank slate, rather it is endowed with some basic knowledge about grammatical rules.
Key Words: Psycholinguistics, Children, Language Acquisition, Grammar.

References

Higginbotham, James. “Noam Chomsky’s Linguistic Theory.” Social Research, vol. 49, no. 1, 1982, pp. 143–57. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40970856. Accessed 24 May 2022.

Allan, J.P.B. and Paul Van Buren. “Language Acquisition.” Chomsky: Selected Readings, Oxford University Press, London, 1971, pp. 127-148

Haegeman, Liliane. Introduction to Government and Binding Theory, Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Oxford, UK, 1994, pp. 4-17

Rosenberg, Sheldon. “Chomsky’s Theory of Language: Some Recent Observations.” Psychological Science, vol. 4, no. 1, 1993, pp. 15–19. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40062496. Accessed 25 May 2022.

Pinker, S. The language instinct: How the mind creates language. New York, NY: William Morrow & Company Inc. 1994

Lees, Robert B. Language, vol. 33, no. 3, 1957, pp. 375–408. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/411160. Accessed 25 May 2022.

Chomsky, Noam. Syntactic Structures, Mouton and Co. Publishers, The Hague, Paris, 6th edition, 1966.

Downloads

Published

31-03-2023

How to Cite

Simi Nath. (2023). The Theory of Language Acquisition. International Journal for Research Publication and Seminar, 14(1), 225–229. Retrieved from https://jrps.shodhsagar.com/index.php/j/article/view/363

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 1 (2023): Vol 14 | Issue 1 | January - March 2023

Section

Original Research Article

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Re-users must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as the original work is properly credited.