| Eric Lenneberg
Eric H[einz] Lenneberg (1921 - 1975) was a linguist who pioneered
ideas on language acquisition and cognitive psychology more generally
about innateness. He was born in Düsseldorf, Germany. As a
jew, he left Germany because of Nazi terrorism. A professor in psychology,
he worked at the Harvard Medical School and at the University of
Michigan in Ann Harbor.
His 1964 paper "The Capacity of Language Acquisition"
sets forth the seminal arguments picked up later by Noam Chomsky
and popularized by Steven Pinker in his book, "The Language
Instinct".
He presents four arguments for biological innateness of psychological
capacities, as constructed in parallel to arguments in biology for
the innateness of physical traits:
- Universal appearance of a trait at a single time across a species.
"Species typical" traits.
- Universal appearance across time for a group. Not just an artifact
of cultural history. Again, "species typical" diagnostic
feature.
- No learning of the trait is possible.
- Individual development of a trait rigidly follows a given schedule
regardless of the particular experience of the organism.
He died at the young age of 54. These early papers remain a significant
legacy.
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