full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Cameron Morin: What do all languages have in common?
Unscramble the Blue Letters
So what about the other part of Chomsky’s theory, that our language flcuaty is iantne? When he first proposed universal grammar, the idea that there was a genetically determined aspect of language acquisition had a profound, revolutionary impact. It challenged the dmaoinnt paradigm, called bhiovaiserm. Behaviorists aerugd that all animal and human behaviors, including language, were acquired from the outside by the mind, which starts out as a blank slate. Today, scientists agree that behaviorism was wrong, and there is underlying, genetically encoded biological machinery for language learning. Many think the same bgooliy responsible for language is also responsible for other aspects of coingiotn. So they dsregiae with Chomsky’s idea that there is a specific, isolated, innate language faculty in the biran.
Open Cloze
So what about the other part of Chomsky’s theory, that our language _______ is ______? When he first proposed universal grammar, the idea that there was a genetically determined aspect of language acquisition had a profound, revolutionary impact. It challenged the ________ paradigm, called ___________. Behaviorists ______ that all animal and human behaviors, including language, were acquired from the outside by the mind, which starts out as a blank slate. Today, scientists agree that behaviorism was wrong, and there is underlying, genetically encoded biological machinery for language learning. Many think the same _______ responsible for language is also responsible for other aspects of _________. So they ________ with Chomsky’s idea that there is a specific, isolated, innate language faculty in the _____.
Solution
- faculty
- behaviorism
- argued
- disagree
- dominant
- innate
- biology
- cognition
- brain
Original Text
So what about the other part of Chomsky’s theory, that our language faculty is innate? When he first proposed universal grammar, the idea that there was a genetically determined aspect of language acquisition had a profound, revolutionary impact. It challenged the dominant paradigm, called behaviorism. Behaviorists argued that all animal and human behaviors, including language, were acquired from the outside by the mind, which starts out as a blank slate. Today, scientists agree that behaviorism was wrong, and there is underlying, genetically encoded biological machinery for language learning. Many think the same biology responsible for language is also responsible for other aspects of cognition. So they disagree with Chomsky’s idea that there is a specific, isolated, innate language faculty in the brain.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
universal grammar |
3 |
noun phrase |
3 |
chomsky proposed |
2 |
human brain |
2 |
grammar rules |
2 |
grammar rule |
2 |
verb phrases |
2 |
proposed universal |
2 |
language faculty |
2 |
Important Words
- acquired
- acquisition
- agree
- animal
- argued
- aspect
- aspects
- behaviorism
- behaviorists
- behaviors
- biological
- biology
- blank
- brain
- called
- challenged
- cognition
- determined
- disagree
- dominant
- encoded
- faculty
- genetically
- grammar
- human
- idea
- impact
- including
- innate
- isolated
- language
- learning
- machinery
- mind
- paradigm
- part
- profound
- proposed
- responsible
- revolutionary
- scientists
- slate
- specific
- starts
- theory
- today
- underlying
- universal
- wrong