Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - 2009 - Volume 32, Issue 05  

Open Peer Commentary

Universal grammar is dead

Michael Tomaselloa1

a1 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany. tomas@eva.mpg.de

Abstract

The idea of a biologically evolved, universal grammar with linguistic content is a myth, perpetuated by three spurious explanatory strategies of generative linguists. To make progress in understanding human linguistic competence, cognitive scientists must abandon the idea of an innate universal grammar and instead try to build theories that explain both linguistic universals and diversity and how they emerge.

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