Language Acquisition Device

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The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is a module in the brain postulated by Noam Chomsky that contains the knowledge of language and grammar required for language acquisition . The Language Acquisition Device Model (LAD) is a nativistic concept for language acquisition. According to the nativistic approach, innate prior knowledge is the basis of language acquisition because language learning would not be possible based solely on what the child receives as linguistic input from his environment.

Basic assumptions

The starting point for postulating a language acquisition device is the so-called poverty-of-the-stimulus argument : the input a child receives during language acquisition is too incomplete and flawed to be sufficient for language acquisition. The child neither hears all theoretically possible sentences in a language, nor are the linguistic utterances that the child hears at home always error-free: Slips of the tongue or broken sentences are not unusual. Therefore, according to Chomsky, it must be assumed that innate prior knowledge supports and controls language acquisition.

The basic assumption of the LAD model is that every child has a knowledge of language and grammar from birth. The most important components of the Language Acquisition Device include:

  • Language universals : Language universals include formal universals such as B. Transformation rules, a grammatical rule apparatus. On the other hand, this includes so-called substantial universals such as B. Knowledge of how linguistic sounds differ from non-linguistic sounds or that languages ​​contain nouns and verbs.
  • Hypothesis formation process: If the child receives linguistic input during language acquisition, this input is compared with the language universals that the child has at his disposal thanks to the Language Acquisition Device. On the basis of this input, the child creates hypotheses about which linguistic rules might fit the input. If the child z. If, for example, he hears a series of sentences with the sentence structure "subject-verb-object", it can make the hypothesis that the language to be acquired is an SVO language .
  • Hypothesis assessment procedure: If the child has made several hypotheses about linguistic rules that match the linguistic input, they must still have a mechanism with which they can decide between several hypotheses.

criticism

The concept of the Language Acquisition Device was criticized for the fact that the hypothesis formation process does not adequately explain why language acquisition takes place in phases that are more or less the same for all children: A babble phase is followed by a one-word phase, followed by the combination of the first words to simplify matters Constructions like Mama there up to simple and later complex sentences. So that these levels of language acquisition can be explained, there should be systematic gradations in the child's hypothesis formation. The Language Acquisition Device Model does not make any statements about this. The hypothesis evaluation in the Language Acquisition Device was also criticized: In order for the child to be able to evaluate hypotheses, it needs the input that some of its hypotheses are wrong. However, this type of input is usually not available in a systematic form in natural language acquisition.

Against Chomsky's nativism, it is generally stated that for the very strong thesis that linguistic knowledge is innate, only the poverty-of-the-stimulus argument is put forward, but no further detailed explanations. In addition to Chomsky's nativism, there are a number of alternative explanations for language acquisition, e.g. B. by Jean Piaget , whose models manage without a language acquisition device or a universal grammar.

Further developments

Chomsky has since abandoned the concept of the Language Acquisition Device in favor of further developments of his theory, in particular through the principle and parameter model in the rule and attachment theory and in the minimalist program . The formation and evaluation of hypotheses in the Language Acquisition Device is replaced in the principle and parameter model by a universal grammar with universal principles. The universal principles are supplemented by a narrow selection of options (parameters) from which the child can choose based on the linguistic input from his environment.

literature

  • Noam Chomsky: Review of Skinner's "Verbal Behavior" . In: Language 35 (1959), pp. 26-58.
  • Noam Chomsky: Aspects of the Theory of Syntax . MIT Press, Cambridge 1965, ISBN 978-0262030113 . (German aspects of syntax theory . Frankfurt / Main 1969)
  • Noam Chomsky: Language and Mind . Harcourt, Brace & World, New York 1968. (German language and spirit . Frankfurt / Main 1970)
  • Noam Chomsky: Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use . Praeger, New York 1986, ISBN 978-0275917616 .
  • Gisela Klann-Delius: Language Acquisition: An Introduction . 3. Edition. Metzler, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-476-02632-3 .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Noam Chomsky: Review of Skinner's "Verbal Behavior" . In: Language . tape 35 , 1959, pp. 26-58 .
  2. ↑ Noam Chomsky: Aspects of Syntax Theory . Frankfurt / Main 1969, p. 45-46 .
  3. ↑ Gisela Klann-Delius: Language acquisition: An introduction . 3. Edition. Metzler, Stuttgart 2016, p. 49-50 .
  4. ↑ Noam Chomsky: Language and Spirit . Frankfurt / Main 1970, p. 149 .
  5. ↑ a b Gisela Klann-Delius: Language acquisition: An introduction . 3. Edition. Metzler, Stuttgart 2016, p. 51 .
  6. ↑ Hans Bickes, Ute Pauli: first and second language acquisition . Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn 2009, ISBN 978-3-8252-3281-8 , p. 15-16 .