When Language Began

Noam Chomsky has argued that the ability to use language is innately specified in the human brain. The evidence for this includes how quickly we acquire language; how its acquisition seems to be keyed to youth, as are many critical human activities; that actual speech is full of errors and hesitations, yet all humans learn how to speak effectively; and that there are genetic defects that correlate with speech deficits. This view is controversial, however, with many linguists and psychologists seeing language as one facet of cognition rather than as a separate ability.