# Universal Grammar Universal Grammar (UG) is [[Noam Chomsky]]'s theory that humans are born with an innate language faculty—a set of grammatical principles hard-wired into the brain. This explains why children acquire language effortlessly despite "poverty of the stimulus" (insufficient input to learn grammar from scratch) and why all human languages share deep structural properties. UG was central to the [[Cognitive Revolution]]'s attack on [[Behaviorism]]. [[Steven Pinker]]'s *[[The Language Instinct]]* popularized the idea. Critics argue statistical learning and usage-based approaches can explain acquisition without innate grammar. The debate continues, but UG established that language has biological foundations. ## Core Claims | Claim | Evidence | |-------|----------| | Innate language faculty | Rapid child acquisition | | Poverty of stimulus | Input underdetermines grammar | | Universal principles | Cross-linguistic similarities | ## References - Chomsky, Noam. *Syntactic Structures* (1957) - Pinker, Steven. *[[The Language Instinct]]* (1994) ## Related - [[Noam Chomsky]] - [[The Language Instinct]] - [[Steven Pinker]] - [[Cognitive Revolution]]