'Needs only' analysis in linguistic ontogeny and phylogeny

Abstract

Recently, linguists from several quarters have begun to unpack some of the assumptions and claims made in linguistics over the last 40 years, opening up new possibilities for synergies between linguistic theory and the variety of fields that engage with it. A key point of exploration is the relationship between external manifestations of language and the underlying mental model that produces and understands them. To what extent does it remain reasonable to argue that all humans 'know' certain things about language, even if they never demonstrate that knowledge? What is the status of knowledge that is only stimulated into expression by particular cultural input? Many have asked whether the human's linguistic behaviour can be explained with recourse to less innate knowledge than Chomskian models traditionally assume. © 2007 Springer-Verlag London.