Universal Grammar

Idham Hakimi Bin HamdanFirlland Alvie Ali

Mohammad Firdaus Bin Abu Bakar

Definition

• Universal Grammar is a theory in linguistics, usually credited to Noam Chomsky, proposing that the ability to learn grammar is hard-wired into the brain. The theory suggests that linguistic ability manifests itself without being taught, and that there are properties that all natural human languages share.

• The system of categories, operations, and principles shared by all human languages and considered to be innate.

• A system of grammatical rules and constraints believed to underlie all natural languages.

History• The idea can be traced to Roger Bacon's observation that all

languages are built upon a common grammar, substantially the same in all languages, even though it may undergo accidental variations, and the 13th century speculative grammarians who, following Bacon, postulated universal rules underlying all grammars.

• The concept of a universal grammar or language was at the core of the 17th century projects for philosophical languages. Charles Darwin described language as an instinct in humans, like the upright posture.

• The idea rose to notability in modern linguistics with theorists such as Noam Chomsky and Richard Montague, developed in the 1950s to 1970s, as part of the "Linguistics Wars".

Introduction

• It adopts cognitive approach.– the study of processes by means of which what

human beings get to know the world– that is humans know how to form and interpret

expressions in their native languages. – they know but they may not explain how they get

this ability.

Competence and Performance

• Competence is knowledge of language• Performance is the actual use of language in

concrete situations– Universal grammar is concerned with competence

in that it tells what someone should know to have competence in a language.

UG Theory

• Universal grammar is a theory of knowledge.• Concerns with the internal structure of human

mind.• It holds that the speaker knows a set of

principles that apply to all languages, and parameters that vary from one language to another.

I-Language and E-Language

• Externalized Linguistic System (E-Language)– aims to collect samples of language and then to

describe their properties.– it brings order to the set of external facts that

make up the language.– is described in terms of properties of such data

through ’structures’ or ‘patterns.

• Internalised Linguistic System (I-Language)– It is concerned with what a speaker knows about a

language and where this langauge knowledge comes from

– It treats language as an internal property of the human mind rather than something external.

Chomsky’s Universal Grammar

• Language learning is facilitated by a predisposition that our brains have for certain structures of language.(innate knowledge )

• There are rules of language that all humans are born with, they are internal, not imitated.

• Despite superficial differences all human languages share a fundamental structure. This structure is a universal grammar. We have an innate ability to apply this universal grammar to whatever language we are faced with at birth.

Evidence for Universal Grammar

• Children follow linguistic constraints, even in new situations.

• Not possible for children to have heard all possible grammatical sentences (noun inflections, etc.). Must have mastered rules.

• Parents do not provide enough feedback to account for the rapidity and accuracy of child language acquisition.

Criticisms of Chomsky’s theories

• Opposed to that of Skinner or Piaget, for whom language is constructed solely through simple interaction with the environment.

• Philip Lieberman-language is a learned skill.

References

• http://informatics.indiana.edu/rocha/univgram.html

• http://www.thefreedictionary.com/universal+grammar

• http://grammar.about.com/od/tz/g/unigramterm.htm

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_grammar

• http://www.translationdirectory.com/articles/article1930.php