At 08:28 PM 1/30/2001 +0000, Clitennestra wrote:
>The knowledge we have of, at least, one language, says Chomsky, is partly
>innate and partly learned. When we acquired our own languages, we were put
>in the condition to enter, in a non-conscious way, the intricate network of
>our cultural background indispensable to grow to be meaningful speakers.
>This is proved by the fact that children who have been abandoned or lived
>isolated in infancy without the linguistic imaginative inputs of fables and
>rhymes, never really develop their linguistic skills, proving the damage
>caused by stimuli created too late.
No, this is an enormous leap beyond the verifiable facts. The very few
children studied who have not been exposed to linguistic communication
("wild" children) have never been known to develop more than the most
primitive linguistic skills. But no one has ever discovered the effects of
exposing children to all forms of linguistic communication except for
fables and rhymes.
Mark
