Definition:
The system of categories, operations, and principles shared by all human languages and considered to be innate. See also:
Etymology:
The concept of universal grammar has been traced to the observation of Roger Bacon, a 13th-century Franciscan Friar and philosopher, that all languages are built upon a common grammar. The expression was popularized in the 1950s and 1960s by Noam Chomsky and other linguists.Observations:
- "In cracking the code of language, . . . children's minds must be constrained to pick out just the right kinds of generalizations from the speech around them. . . . It is this line of reasoning that led Noam Chomsky to propose that language acquisition in children is the key to understanding the nature of language, and that children must be equipped with an innate Universal Grammar: a set of plans for the grammatical machinery that powers all human languages. This idea sounds more controversial than it is (or at least more controversial than it should be) because the logic of induction mandates that children make some assumptions about how language works in order for them to succeed at learning a language at all. The only real controversy is what these assumptions consist of: a blueprint for a specific kind of rule system, a set of abstract principles, or a mechanism for finding simple patterns (which might also be used in learning things other than language)."
(Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature. Viking, 2007) - "Generative grammarians believe that the human species evolved a genetically universal grammar common to all peoples and that the variability in modern languages is basically on the surface only."
(Michael Tomasello, Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition. Harvard Univ. Press, 2003)
Also Known As: UG, generative-transformation linguistics
Alternate Spellings: Universal Grammar
