Chomsky’s Analogical Thesis of“ Children Are Linguists”:Its Essence and Significance(PDF)
《南京师大学报》(社会科学版)[ISSN:1006-6977/CN:61-1281/TN]
- Issue:
- 2017年04期
- Page:
- 109-
- Research Field:
- 心理学理论与应用研究
- Publishing date:
Info
- Title:
- Chomsky’s Analogical Thesis of“ Children Are Linguists”:Its Essence and Significance
- Author(s):
- LI Shu-guang
- Keywords:
- language acquisition; linguistic theory; poverty of stimulus; mentalism; cognitive revolution
- PACS:
- -
- DOI:
- -
- Abstract:
- The analogy of“ children are linguists”is a key thesis in Chomsky’s theory of language andpsychology. There are two dimensions in this thesis:ontologically,children are regarded as the linguists whocan construct a theory of grammar;methodologically,linguists should work as the children who are acquiringtheir mother tongue. The innateness hypothesis of rationalism constitutes the logical basis of this analogicalthesis;the argument of poverty of stimulus can supply it with strong empirical support;and the revival ofmentalism in psychology can be regarded as one of its theoretical consequences. After its inception,this thesisgave behaviorism a fatal blow and the first cognitive revolution a great boost,thus securing for language a keyposition in cognitive sciences as well as in psychology.
Last Update: 2017-08-30