Discuss the concept Universal Grammar

Universal grammar is a linguistic theory advanced by Noam Chomsky (1978).According to Chomsky; the human brain contains a limited set of rules for organizing language. This set of rules is found in all languages. He therefore defines universal grammar as “the system of principles conditions and rules that are elements or properties of all human languages’’. These abstract rules and principles make up the core grammar of all natural languages. This set of rules is what is referred to as Universal Grammar.
Chomsky’s Universal Grammar differs from Greenberg’s Linguistic Universals in the sense that linguistic universals relies on data. It is data driven whereas Universal Grammar is theory driven. In addition, the two types of approaches have a tendency to generate different types of rules. As we have already seen Greenbergian rules are based on the logic that “If a language has feature A then it is likely to have also feature B” Chomskian rules are of a more abstract and structural character and are claimed to be strictly universal rather than just tendencies.
Cook (in Sverker Johansson 1991) gives a number of such rules but here I will limit myself to two of these rules.
a. Structure dependency – all operations on sentences are defined in terms of phrase structure rather than linear sequence.
b. The Head parameter – Each phrase contains a head (main word) and all phrases in a given language have the head in the same position. The head position is however different from language to language which introduces the concept of a parameter governed rule.

The UG theory as proposed by Chomsky (1980) begins with the concept of learner ability. As already seen, Chomsky argues that the ability to learn Grammar is already present in the human brain at birth. According to the theory linguistic ability manifests itself without being taught. Thus by the time children are born they already have linguistic ability. Within this view children are assumed to bring to the task of learning their native language, some abstract linguistic knowledge which constraints the shape of grammar that they are trying to learn. It is further claimed that despite the highly abstract nature of the rules of language children manage to master their native languages in such a short time. Given this scenario, Chomsky argues, there must be something other than language input to which they are exposed that enables them to learn language with relative ease and speed. Universal Grammar is therefore concerned with investigating what this knowledge is and the role it plays in language acquisition.
Intimately connected to UG is the innateness hypothesis. Chomsky claims that human beings have the ability to acquire language and this ability comes from a specific language acquisition device in the brain equipped already at birth with specific grammatical rules and principles which are specifically designed for language learning.
This language acquisition device, which he calls LAD, is what is responsible for language acquisition and it forms universal Grammar. The language acquisition device (LAD) according to Chomsky is a mental organ in any child’s biological inheritance, just like the lungs, liver, hands, feet etc. Chomsky even stretches his argument further by claiming that in “certain fundamental respects we do not really learn language, rather grammar grows in the mind” (Chomsky 1978:1340). In this respect, languages are not learnt instead, like the human cells which grow into various body parts (e.g. lungs, liver hands feet etc) they too grow.
Stretching his comparison of language growth to that of any other body organ, Chomsky argues that certain factors of the environment are crucial in both processes. He argues that, just as water and nourishment are important in the growth of cells in the human body, so are language experiences in the case of language acquisition, these experiences help trigger the growth of the mental organ of language.

---

francis1897 answered the question on March 9, 2023 at 05:50