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- Skinner contrasted his approach with previous work on the topic, including work from the fields of linguistics, semantics, grammar, and literary criticism, in part because those disciplines approached language based on formal properties, rather than describing the conditions that gave rise to such behaviors.
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Skinner also criticized traditional explanations of human language that employed concepts such as “meaning” or “ideas.” He argued that such formulations relied upon explanatory fictions that should be left out of a scientific account of verbal behavior.
Interestingly, part of his criticism of linguistics and grammar probably resulted from his extensive reading of linguists who warned against the dangers of using the concept of language, unless one is truly aware of its nature as an abstraction, taken from the concreteness of speech.
- Maria de Lourdes R. da F. Passos
- 10.1007/BF03392270
- 2012
- Behav Anal. 2012 Spring; 35(1): 115-126.
Specifically, Chomsky criticized Skinner for proposing imitation and conscientious parental tutoring as the major explanations for language development. Chomsky also took Skinner to task for his supposed reliance on memorized Markovian chains as an explanation for grammar.
- Scott F. McLaughlin
- 2010
- Behaviorist Theory of Language Acquisition
- Chomsky Theory of Language Development
- Universal Grammar
- Contemporary Research
- Conclusion
- References
- Further Reading
One of the earliest scientific explanations of language acquisition was provided by Skinner (1957). As one of the pioneers of behaviorism, he accounted for language development using environmental influence, through imitation, reinforcement, and conditioning. In this view, children learn words and grammar primarily by mimicking the speech they hear...
However, Skinner’s account was soon heavily criticized by Noam Chomsky, the world’s most famous linguist to date. In the spirit of the cognitive revolutionin the 1950s, Chomsky argued that children would never acquire the tools needed for processing an infinite number of sentences if the language acquisition mechanism was dependent on language inpu...
Consequently, he proposed the theory of Universal Grammar: an idea of innate, biological grammatical categories, such as a noun category and a verb category, that facilitate the entire language development in children and overall language processing in adults. Universal Grammar contains all the grammatical information needed to combine these catego...
A decade or two later, some psycho-linguists began to question the existence of Universal Grammar. They argued that categories like nouns and verbs are biologically, evolutionarily, and psychologically implausible and that the field called for an account that can explain the acquisition process without innate categories. Researchers started to sugg...
However, finding a solid answer to the problem of language acquisition is far from being over. Our current understanding of the developmental process is still immature. Investigators of Universal Grammar are still trying to convince that language is a task too demanding to acquire without specific innate equipment, whereas constructivist researcher...
Ambridge, B., & Lieven, E.V.M. (2011).Language Acquisition: Contrasting theoretical approaches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. MIT Press. Pine, J.M., Conti-Ramsden, G., Joseph, K.L., Lieven, E.V.M., & Serratrice, L. (2008). Tense over time: testing the Agreement/Tense Omission Model as an...
An excellent article by Steven Pinker on Language Acquisition Pinker, S. (1995). The New Science of Language and Mind. Penguin. Tomasello, M. (2005). Constructing A Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition. Harvard University Press.
This paper examines more extensively this influence by comparing Bloomfield's and Skinner's formulations on the following topics: (a) the conception of science and of scientific method, (b) the act of speech or verbal episode, (c) meaning, and (d) subject matter.
- Maria de Lourdes R. da F. Passos, Maria Amelia Matos
- 10.1007/BF03392151
- 2007
- Behav Anal. 2007 Fall; 30(2): 133-151.
On the one hand, he criticizes linguistics' approaches, for example, by listing linguistics among the disciplines that have been neither able to identify clearly the subject verbal behavior nor to develop appropriate methods for its study ( Skinner, 1957/1992, p. 4 ).
Chomsky, who is considered as the founder of modern linguistics, stated that children learn language without being taught, at least in a way that aligns with a behavioral approach. The criticism of Skinner’s work added greatly to Chomsky’s reputation, and some call a foundation of the discipline that would become cognitive psychology.
