tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Aug 18 12:35:18 1994

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Re: <Hol wIja'chuq> was: Re:...

>I believe pretty strongly in the theory of language that posits that 
>humans are born with a considerable amount of linguistic knowledge, 
>and that this knowledge must be the same for all humans, regardless of 
>what linguistic community s/he is born in to.  In this sense, most of 
>our knowledge and use of language, with the exception of vocabulary 
>and a few "parameter settings," are "instinctive," in the sense that 
>we're born with it.  I'm not going to bring a generative syntax lesson 
>to this list, but I wanted to point out that instincts are not 
>based on experience, especially when it comes to language.

>--Holtej

Ah, yes. Then I didn't mean instincts as in "unlearned behavior", but rather
as in "subconsciously-based behavior". And *that* is what language usage is
all about.

BoyWonder

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