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"...Because a language has to be relearned by every individual born into the language environment, there is a lot imperfect copying going on, leading to individ
by SiVal 16y ago
"...Because a language has to be relearned by every individual born into the language environment, there is a lot imperfect copying going on, leading to individuals having slightly different parameters of their Universal Grammars."
My point with respect to the parameters notion is that the more closely we examine every aspect of language, the finer the distinctions we discover. At some point, the number of necessary "learned parameters" grows so large that it's like claiming that all books are the same except for the character parameters. The characters ARE the book, with some near-universal exceptions such as paper and binding, and the learned language parameters ARE the language, with some near-universal exceptions that are general cognitive properties of human brain architecture that apply to much more than just language.
- Umofomia 16y agoJust because the parameters may be diverse does not mean the rules need to be just as diverse. If I may use the biological analogy again, despite the myriad combinations of DNA base pairs, they are all still translated by a universal genetic code that's simple enough to describe in one table (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_codon_table http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_codon_table ). I'm fully aware that a description of Universal Grammar would likely be more complex than this though. The collection of language parameters in a person's head is not the language itself, just like the DNA of an individual is not the species itself. It's the translation of those parameters by a shared mechanism that gives rise to the spoken language. This is where I think your book analogy falls through.