The Innatenes Hypothesis

Chomsky has stated that the idea of innatenes hypothesis is that humans are biologically equipped with a knowledge of certain universal elements of language structure that is brought into play in the course of language acquisition. It is assumed that during the infants, children can learn language easily and rapidly because of the help of Language Acquisition Device (LAD), which makes hypotheses about language and almost always produces the right linguistic output, even in the absence of explicit input from their environment. However, some people still have little doubt about Chomsky’s argument that human brain is specially equipped for acquisition of human language grammar. In his defenses, Chomsky continuously explains that the innateness hypothesis accounts for a number of facts of language (such as the fact of its productivity; and the amazing fact that children acquire language quickly and effortlessly).

Productivity means the ability of children to form complex rules and construct grammars of the languages used around them in a relatively short time.

Children acquire language quickly and effortlessly means the ease and rapidity of acquisition despite impoverished input and uniformity across children and languages.