Lakhasly

The term nativist is derived from the fundamental assertion that language acquisition is innately determined, that we are born with a genetic capacity that predisposes us to a systematic perception of the language around us, resulting in the construction of an internalized system of language.Noam Chomsky claims that children are biologically programmed for language and that language develops in the child in just the same way that other biological functions develop.Once it is activated, the child is able to discover the structure of the language to be learned by matching the innate knowledge of basic grammatical relationships to the structures of the particular language in the environment.The environment makes a basic contribution in this case - the availability of people who speak to the child.The child, or rather, the child's biological endowment, will do the rest.?

The term nativist is derived from the fundamental assertion that language acquisition is innately determined,
that we are born with a genetic capacity that predisposes us to a systematic perception of the language around
us, resulting in the construction of an internalized system of language.
Noam Chomsky claims that children are biologically programmed for language and that language develops
in the child in just the same way that other biological functions develop. Children are born with a special
ability to discover for themselves the underlying rules of a language system.
The environment makes a basic contribution in this case - the availability of people who speak to the child. The
child, or rather, the child’s biological endowment, will do the rest.
Nativist Approach
❖ For the LAD to work, the child needs access only to samples of a natural language. These language samples serve
as a trigger to activate the device. Once it is activated, the child is able to discover the structure of the language to
be learned by matching the innate knowledge of basic grammatical relationships to the structures of the particular
language in the environment.
❖ LAD is the imaginary “black box” which exists somewhere in the brain. It is thought to contain all and only the
principles which are universal to all human languages.
❖ P. 28
The Language Acquisition Device (LAD):
❖ More recently, Chomsky and his followers no longer use the term LAD, but refers to the child’s innate endowment
as Universal Grammar (UG)
❖ Chomsky drew attention to the fact that children seem to develop language in similar ways and on a similar
schedule.
❖ Environmental differences may be associated with some variation in the rate of acquisition.