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The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is a theoretical section of the brain that allows infants to acquire and recognize a first language. It is the seat of the universal syntax shared by all humans, according to linguist Noam Chomsky. The LAD theory has been criticized by behaviorists who favor the idea that environment and nurture are responsible for language acquisition. The theory posits that infants know a list of acceptable sentence structures at birth and, with innate universal grammar rules, can construct a complete language in a few years. Chomsky linked the LAD to the nativist theory of language, which proposed that humans have an innate ability to aid in the acquisition of their native languages. However, further research in the 1970s and 1990s has led to new theories to explain children’s language acquisition.
The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is the name given to a theoretical section of the brain that should house the innate ability to acquire and recognize a first language. Presented as a theory by linguist Noam Chomsky, the language acquisition device was said to be the seat of the universal syntax shared by all humans. This theory of an inborn basis for language formulation, independent of the native language spoken around the child, has been strongly criticized by behaviorists and others who favor the idea that environment and nurture are responsible for language acquisition .
LAD theory posits that a list of acceptable sentence structures—that is, possible combinations of subjects, verbs, objects, and modifiers—is known to infants at birth. Although children rarely perfect spoken grammar during their early years, LAD theory argues that with the sentence fragments and sentences of ordinary human speech and innate universal grammar rules, children are able to flesh out a complete language in few years . According to LAD theory, a child does not spend his or her early years simply repeating nonsense words and phrases, but observing grammatical variations and supplementary rules to construct new variations on sentence structure.
The speech acquisition device theory was first introduced in the 1950s. Noam Chomsky linked it to the nativist theory of language, which proposed that humans have an innate ability or instinct to aid in the acquisition of their native languages. This was in opposition to the behaviorist theories of learning presented by BF Skinner, which did not admit such biological instincts in the human species. To build on nativist theories, Chomsky argued that all people must use the LAD to acquire language.
In the 1970s, further research at MIT, where Noam Chomsky taught linguistics, was starting to move away from the theory of a language acquisition device. With the in-depth study of new languages, the universal characteristics Chomsky assumed did not emerge. In the 1990s, Chomsky moved to an innate framework of constraint principles and parameters to explain children’s language acquisition. Most linguists have found this theory plausible. However, linguists have continued their research into children’s speech habits, and the speed and ease with which children acquire language has not yet been fully explained.
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