P. Ibbotson and M. Tomasello on the error of N. Chomsky: The impasse of universal grammar

In linguistics and allied fields, many researchers are becoming ever more dissatisfied with a totally formal language approach such as universal grammar — not to mention the empirical inadequacies of the theory.

Moreover, many modern researchers are also unhappy with armchair theoretical analyses, when there are large corpora of linguistic data — many now available online — that can be analyzed to test a theory.

The paradigm shift is certainly not complete, but to many it seems that a breath of fresh air has entered the field of linguistics.

There are exciting new discoveries to be made by investigating the details of the world’s different languages, how they are similar to and different from one another, how they change historically, and how young children acquire competence in one or more of them.

Universal grammar appears to have reached a final impasse. In its place, research on usage-based linguistics can provide a path forward for empirical studies of learning, use and historical development of the world’s 6,000 languages.

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Excerpts from an article published in Scientific American