In a message dated 8/10/2003 3:55:10 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> This very concept is now being chalanged. Not the spoken ability, but the > assumption made by chomsky et. al. that writen ability is > also inate is now > under an increasing amount of attack. I am no linguist but I don't think Chomsky has suggested that writing is inate. Certainly Steven Pinker the major populizer of the idea that the ability to learn language is instinctual would not agree. Written language is so new (less than 5000 years that it could not an instinct at all. It is a cultural invention that to be sure requires certain inate ability but it is not an instinct. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
