Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Where is grammar in our brain?


Where is grammar in our brain?

Janpha Thadphoothon Ed D

Grammar is a set of rules or agreements, often in a language. For example, we talk about having to know English grammar.


Photo credit: NIH publication 97-4257, https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/aphasia 

Grammar is not a thing. Scientists will tell you that our ability or language ability is determined by neuron activities of our  brain.

Noam Chomsky postulates the so-called UG theory - Universal Grammar. He simply says that every individual language has similar limitations, Summing them up drawing the conclusion would leave use some simple structures e.g. every language has nouns and verbs.

Prior to UG, people back then believed that each language had its own grammar and they were not related to one another. Related to UG is another hypothesis, that is, LAD, or language acquisition device. This should be interpreted as human innate capacity, the ability to acquire language without conscious learning.




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