Nativism:

what is LAD?

an innate brain mechanism that allows children to understand grammatical rules.

what is universal grammar?

the idea that all human languages share similar grammatical strcutures that the brain can innately decode.

evidence for nativism?

• wug test berko (1958)

• sign language

• human vocal anatomy

what was the wug test of berko 1958?

children correctly pluralised novel words. ‘wug’ into ‘wugs’.

what did sign language show?

follows same stages as spoken language, ad children were able to learn this.

human vocal anatomy?

adapted for speech prodcution.

limitation of nativism?

hard to emprically prove with evidence(LAD), underestimates the role of social interaction and CDS.

how do over/underextesnion relate to nativism?

they show children applying rules to new words and forming connections, relfecting innate pattern recognition.