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It presents UG’s key tenets, arguing that principles are innate endowments of the human mind. 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It also illustrates the issues of language acquisition Chomsky argued which could not be supported by behaviourist theories and shows how Chomsky proposed a solution to this problem through his theoretical model of universal grammar. The next part outlines this theory’s key tenets, arguing that these principles must be an innate endowment of the human mind. Moreover, the study illustrates specific examples of grammatical phenomena that universal grammar seeks to explain. Lastly, it shows that certain distinct grammatical features are linked and that these connections can be explained within the Universal Grammar theoretical framework. The only reasonable explanation for the first language learning needs only limited linguistic exposure to activate them and set criteria for the language being learned for children whose minds have already been wired with essential language concepts. |\n| Article history\u003Cbr>Received: January 04, 2021\u003Cbr>Accepted: March 20, 2021\u003Cbr>Published: April 30, 2021\u003Cbr>Volume: 12 Issue: 2\u003Cbr>Advance access: April 2021 |  |\n| Conflicts of interest: None\u003Cbr>Funding: None |  |\n| Key words:\u003Cbr>Universal Grammar,\u003Cbr>First Language Acquisition, Principles and Parameters, Innateness,\u003Cbr>Noam Chomsky,\u003Cbr>Language Acquisition Device |  |\n\nINTRODUCTION  \nAn eminent American linguist Noam Chomsky’s theory of universal grammar explains that all human beings are born with a set of basic language structures in their mind irrespective of the different language communities they belong to. He believes that children would not grasp the language spoken to them without much effort quickly if not for the basic set of subconscious rules in mind. This predisposition in the mind which children are born with enables human beings to learn the language fluently. Thus, for Chomsky, language is innate and biological make-up. His view of all human beings possess some basic language structure in their minds is supported by two concepts: principles and parameters. While principles describe generalities, parameters explain differences among human languages.  \nTHE RATIONALE FOR UG THEORY  \nChomsky’s cognitive theories on language acquisition first appeared in 1959 in his book ‘Syntactic Structures’, a critical review of behavioural psychologist B.F Skinner’s‘Verbal Behaviour’. While explaining that every human possesses a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) in mind,  \nChomsky criticises the behaviourists’ idea that language acquisition takes place by learning, and it is learnt mainly by imitation. According to Chomsky, children do not imitate the adults, because there are numerous variations found in adults’ speech and the children. To illustrate this argument of Chomsky, we can look at the following examples. Children often use verbs like,‘goed’,‘comed’,‘speaked’and ‘putted’. The adults do not produce these verbs. These few examples per se show that children have an internal language structure in their mind, which in these examples is the past tense of verbs, formed by adding –ed to the verbs. In other words, children’s language is rule-governed, and their rules do not necessarily represent that of the adults.  \nMoreover, over-generalisation of such rules is common to all children of that age of that speech community. This feature also emphasises that children are genetically endowed with a basic set of language rules. If we loo","cbCaicLSb1nDjE8x","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaicLSb1nDjE8x","pdf",142243,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n# The Rationale for UG Theory","[{\"question\":\"How does Universal Grammar explain first language acquisition?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that children are born with basic language structures and an innate set of subconscious rules, enabling fluency despite differences across language communities.\"},{\"question\":\"What are principles and parameters in Chomsky’s view?\",\"answer\":\"Principles describe general properties shared across human languages, while parameters account for differences among languages.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the paper reject behaviorist imitation as the main mechanism?\",\"answer\":\"It states that children produce rule-governed forms they have not heard, and can generate and understand novel utterances using a finite set of rules, which supports innateness.\"}]","Universal Grammar: Arguments for its Existence - Article - Advances in Language and Literary Studies | PDF",1792068693,15]