The Wug Test and Overgeneralization

In this clip from Scientific American Frontiers, Steven Pinker explains The Wug Test and also how the overgeneralization of grammatical rules suggests that children acquire the rules of language, rather than simply learning by imitation.   Looking to learn more … Read More

Birth of a Language in Nicaragua

This clip from the documentary “Evolution” shows the development of a new sign language in Nicaragua in the 1980s. This supports an interactionist approach to language acquisition, suggesting that our innate capacity for language must be combined with a social … Read More