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Title:: Chomsky’s Analogical Thesis of“ Children Are Linguists”：Its Essence and Significance

Keywords:: language acquisition; linguistic theory; poverty of stimulus; mentalism; cognitive revolution

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.