The Language Instinct

The Language Instinct? *

Hav= e you seen the film “Windtalkers”? During the early years of WW II, = in the South Pacific, the Japanese quickly broke every US military code. Then at the suggestion of Phillip Johnston, the US military enlisted Navajo Indians to translate messages from Engl= ish into Navajo to keep their communications secure. US eff= orts were successful and the Japanese were never able to break the Navajo “code”.

This Navajo “code” was= never broken because Navajo is not = a code for English. The Navajos didn’t just change words or try = to mask the form of English. Navajo and English are radically different kin= ds of languages. In fact, there are many layers of differences between these languages: vocabulary, sounds, word forms, grammar, and word-order. Nevertheless, during these years,= the Navajos translated messages nearly instantaneo= usly and extremely accurately, demonstrating that the languages must also be ve= ry similar. Until this time linguists had mistakenly believed that languages differed from each other because they were reflections of human culture th= at had developed over time in diverse environments in relative isolation (Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis). It= had been believed that speakers of different languages held different views of= the world and were not able to truly understand each other. Fortunately, this language relati= vity perspective is no longer main-stream.

Phillip Johnston, who first suggested the Navajo “code-talkers”, was one of the few white people at that time w= ho could speak Navajo. How did that happen? He grew up playing with Navajo children. His parents were missionaries living on the reservation. This is not unusual. Children do this all the time in = all languages. In five years or less, children d= o what computer scientists haven’t been able to teach a computer to do in 50 years – speak a human language, which ultimately brings us to the question “how are children able to learn language so quickly and at = such a young age?” It is tr= uly an incredible accomplishment.

Cog= nitive scientists, who study how humans process information, believe children must have some head start on learning a language. Children must prepossess knowledg= e of what languages are like. The= y must have some innate knowledge about the structures all languages contain and = must also have innate abilities to recognize those structures. This head start was named “Universal Grammar”, by Noam Chomsky, the linguist who first suggested this hypothesis. Steven Pinker, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Professor at MIT renamed “Universal Grammar” the “Language Instinct”.

Of = course, children are not born prepared to learn one specific language such as Amer= ican Sign Language or English. Th= ey must be prepared to learn the language of where they are. In other words, Universal G= rammar (UG) must equip children to learn all the possible human languages, all 10= ,000 of them. And, in fact,= this is what is found: “Any child is able to learn any language if immers= ed in that language environment at an early age.” This implies that all languages m= ust have things in common, similarities. They must be the same at some level. “All languages must follow a finite set of innate principles, although they appear different because of innate finite options that they choose, parameters.” This is t= he Principles and Parameters Theory. Noam Chomsky writes, “If grammar were bread, then flour and l= iquid would be the universal rules and the parameters would be yeast, eggs, suga= r, jalapenos, etc., which would yield a different product when added to the universals.”

Sign lang= uages are included among the natural human languages and have been found to deve= lop spontaneously among communities of the deaf if given the opportunity. Sign languages demonstrate the sa= me universal principles as all other human languages and are equally well sui= ted to communicate the same ideas.

Monterey Peninsula College<= /st1:PlaceType> now offers linguistics in its curriculum.= “Foundations of Language” (3 semester units) examines h= ow English works: its syntax, structures, and verb system. Class participants also examine a= second language of their choice (ASL?) in exploration of the Principles and Param= eters Theory. The Language Inst= inct by Steven Pinker is the class text.

Native speakers= of a language are completely fluent in their first language without awareness o= f how their language works. “Foundations of Language” will show you how English wor= ks, as well as enrich your understanding and appreciation of language, ASL and interpretation. Bring your knowledge into awareness. “Foundations of Language” is appropr= iate for NorCRID CEU’s and is offered online and on campus at Monterey Peninsula College. For more information contac= t Richard Abend, rabend@mpc.edu or call (831) 646-4112.

* Summarized from Atoms of Language