Nativism Noam Chomsky Nativism n Main question what

Nativism: Noam Chomsky

Nativism n Main question: what is the cognitive code? n Infant is born with complete world knowledge n n Infants count Infants have a concept of objects Infants have physics concepts Infants have language

Nativism n Evidence for the claim of complete world knowledge n n n Youngsters learn an extremely complex system (language) effortlessly Youngsters learn an extremely complex system (language) in a short amount of time Youngsters do not need instruction to learn their mother tongue

Nativism n n Do youngsters who are born deaf can learn an impoverished language at a level that is higher than the level they hear? Youngsters develop Creole from pidgin Infants do not hear grammar; they hear a string of words and infer the syntactic rules language (impoverishment of the stimulus) Infants often hear ungrammatical sentences, yet they learn the grammar

Nativism: Learning Paradox n n n Fodor’s learning paradox: one learns something only if one knows it in advance To learn a language you have to know that language in advance What you know is at a higher level than what you learn

Nativism n In the case of language, infants are born with: n n a universal grammar (UG) - a data base of grammar language acquisition device (LAD) - hypothesis tester

Nativism n If the child is born with a LAD and no UG, he doesn’t have anything to hypothesize on n If the child is born with a UG and no LAD, he cannot hypothesize about the language

Nativism n The UG is the cognitive code. n n Unique to humans Universal for humans n If one can describe it, one has cracked the cognitive code.

Nativism n Relations between learning and development n n n Only learning (deductive) No development Similar to classical behaviorism

Nativism: Language Acquisition Device n hypothesize the grammar in the language you are exposed to n see if the hypothesis fits the grammar n if yes, continue with the hypothesis n if no, make a new hypothesis

Nativism n If that is how children learn language, it is impossible, in principle, to develop to a higher level n n How can you hypothesize something that is not already there? Nativists say you cannot

Nativism n As a consequence, it is best to build the most powerful system so that it is there in infancy

Argument between Piaget and Chomsky n n CHOMSKY’S POINT: Chomsky: One cannot construct more powerful structures because hypothesis testing cannot take place at a level that is higher than one’s highest level e. g. , conservation: a child cannot hypothesize conservation if he is at the intuitive stage

Argument between Piaget and Chomsky n Chomsky: One cannot construct more powerful structures because hypothesis testing cannot take place at a level that is higher than one’s highest level n Fodor’s learning paradox e. g. , conservation: a child cannot hypothesize conservation if he is at the intuitive stage

Piaget Rebuttal n n Piaget: I don’t have to accept hypothesis testing as the mechanism for learning I believe children learn and develop through disequilibrium

Piaget Rebuttal n I can describe learning and development in n Child development (ontogeny) History of disciplines (Piaget & Garcia; Kuhn) My system allows me to describe two disparate developments: ontogeny and historical development

Piaget Rebuttal n n You, the nativists cannot describe the development of disciplines in history in terms of innate modules within humans Bottom line: n n I can describe two developments and you can describe one I don’t believe the description you give to language acquisition

Nativism: Modularity 1. Encapsulation - it is impossible to interfere with the inner workings of a module. 2. Unconscious - it is difficult or impossible to reflect on the operations of module. 3. Speed - modules are very fast. 4. Shallow outputs - modules provide limited output, without information about the intervening steps that led to that output.

Nativism: Modularity 5. Obligatory firing - modules operate reflexively, providing predetermined outputs for predetermined inputs regardless of the context. 6. Ontogenetic universals - modules develop in a characteristic sequence. 7. Localization - modules are mediated by dedicated neural systems.

Nativism: Modularity 8. Pathological universals - modules breakdown in characteristic fashion following insult to the system. 9. Domain specificity - as discussed above.