Language is innate of human beings

Alberto Vazquez Alb Rodrigo Sanzana

Many theories may be related or state that the language is an innate characteristic of humans. In this
work we are going to support the idea that only the people have the natural skills to learn a
language, these skills obviously must be developed along their entire life in order to achieve all the
elements that are involved in the language. For that, we are going to deep in some of the theories
that we have found on the first chapter of the text essential linguistics (D Freeman. !he main idea
is to support our arguments on "homsky#s theory and the cognitive approach, furthermore
proposing the social relationship as one of the important components of the language ac$uisition as
in the text appears %insights from sociology, anthropology and education&. 'll of those points
clearly disagree with the educational focus of skinner and his behaviorism, the stimulus and
response proved on animals is a core issue to separate human proficiency to ac$uire a language
against the alleged animal skills.
(kinner#s theory is without any doubts an important way to understand people#s development, even
thought we have some resentments because of the critics of many authors to him, about the simply
way in which he considers the language ac$uisition (Freeman, )**+. Also he argued that
language acquisition is like any kind of cognitive behavior it is learnt by reinforcement and
shaping. He also calls this operant conditioning where the child goes through trial-and-error, in
other words, where the child tries and fails to use correct language until it succeeds with
reinforcement and shaping provided by their parents gestures !smiles, attention and approval"
which are pleasant to the child.# ("ommunity ,!! (martare
-n the other hand, "homsky talks about generative grammar, and his view differ from a structural
theory. According to him, generative grammar should render e$plicit the implicit knowledge of
the speaker.% He proposed a set of well-defined rules to generate required sequence of words.
&ndividuals instantly decipher that a certain combination of words make sense and different
combination does not make sense. 'he e$planatory theory of generative grammar is beautifully
demonstrated by the rules of the (nglish au$iliary system.# (Ivillage Family 'nother of the
important ideas that we can find on "homsky, and one in which we are going to support our
statement is that one which explains the existence of a .anguage 'c$uisition Device (.'D, inside
people#s brain.
!he theories of (kinner and "homsky are contradictory, while (kinner suggested that the behavior
of language is learnt like any other cognitive behavior, "homsky holding a stand of language being
innate, he said that children born with the ability to ac$uire a language.
'n additional perspective is the social interactionist theory which gave us a social point of view that
does not exclude the "homsky#s theory.
"homsky ideas can be related to the (ocial Interactions theories/ 0 the (ocial Interactions can be
placed on a socio1 constructivist view0 where the ac$uisition of language has its roots in the earliest
infant1caregiver conversations. 2otwithstanding, all of these theories are involved with some form
of mechanism 0 either child directed speech, language ac$uisition device or language ac$uisition
support system.
's a conclusion, we will discard completely the skinner statement, because as we have exposed,
people and animals have entirely different cognitive processes, that is the main reason why humans
can ac$uire a language and why animals cannot learn a language, they can only be conditionated by
stimulus. 2onetheless to educate, to ac$uire certain knowledge as "homsky says implies another
physiological process or biological characteristics (.anguage 'c$uisition Device which belong
only to human nature.
3e might also continue numerating reasons, as the sociological view. 3e are able to develop a
language socially, and societies, sharing culture are also practiced only by humans. (o we cannot
deny the preponderant role of society in the construction of knowledge and language. In contrast
than animals, those cannot accumulate knowledge neither share experiences or share a language
system. In this point, we may conclude that language is innate to human being/ there are cognitive
process and social patterns that cannot be founded on any other species in the world.
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