Nativism: Noam Chomsky

Nativism
 Main question: what is the cognitive code?

 Infant is born with complete world knowledge

 Infants count
 Infants have a concept of objects
 Infants have physics concepts
 Infants have language
 Nativism
 Evidence for the claim of complete world
knowledge

 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
 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
 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
 In the case of language, infants are
born with:

 a universal grammar (UG) - a data base of

grammar
 language acquisition device (LAD) -
hypothesis tester
 Nativism
 If the child is born with a LAD and no
UG, he doesn’t have anything to
hypothesize on

 If the child is born with a UG and no

LAD, he cannot hypothesize about the
language
 Nativism
 The UG is the cognitive code.

 Unique to humans
 Universal for humans

 If one can describe it, one has cracked

the cognitive code.
 Nativism
 Relations between learning and
development

 Only learning (deductive)

 No development

 Similar to classical behaviorism

 Nativism: Language
Acquisition Device
 hypothesize the grammar in the language you
are exposed to

 see if the hypothesis fits the grammar

 if yes, continue with the hypothesis

 if no, make a new hypothesis

 Nativism

 If that is how children learn language, it

is impossible, in principle, to develop to
a higher level

 How can you hypothesize something that is

not already there?

 Nativists say you cannot

 Nativism
 As a consequence, it is best to build the
most powerful system so that it is there
in infancy
 Argument between
Piaget and Chomsky

 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

 Chomsky: One cannot construct more

powerful structures because hypothesis
testing cannot take place at a level that is
higher than one’s highest level

 Fodor’s learning paradox

e.g., conservation: a child cannot

hypothesize conservation if he is at the
intuitive stage
 Piaget Rebuttal
 Piaget: I don’t have to accept
hypothesis testing as the mechanism
for learning

 I believe children learn and develop

through disequilibrium
 Piaget Rebuttal
 I can describe learning and development in

 Child development (ontogeny)

 History of disciplines (Piaget & Garcia; Kuhn)

 My system allows me to describe two

disparate developments: ontogeny and
historical development
 Piaget Rebuttal
 You, the nativists cannot describe the
development of disciplines in history in
terms of innate modules within humans
 Bottom line:
 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.