No specific claim was made regarding the specific location of the LAD in the brain. Such brain structures are presumably present in human brains, but absent in nonhuman brains. However, neither has been able to master the intricacies involved in construction of grammatically correct sentences.Ĭhomsky’s view of the LAD is consistent with there being specific structures in the brain involved in language learning and language processing. Washoe the chimpanzee and Koko the gorilla have each learned hundreds of signs and can use them to refer to concrete objects and concepts, such as hungry. Chimpanzees and gorillas have learned to use signed languages, such as American Sign Language (ASL). Furthermore, attempts to teach nonhuman species language have yielded mixed results. Nonhuman primates and other species do not spontaneously learn human languages. The process of language development is envisioned as one in which the child discovers which grammar rules contained within universal grammar apply to the language that the child is learning.Īccording to Chomsky, humans are born with the LAD, but other species are not. The term universal grammar has been used to describe the knowledge contained in the LAD. Included in this innate knowledge must be details of important characteristics of all the world’s languages. Chomsky argued that all humans are born with the knowledge of what makes a human language. The language acquisition device (LAD) was proposed by Noam Chomsky to explain how children, when exposed to any human language, are able to learn it within only a few years following birth.
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