Humankind's Greatest Gift: On the Innateness of Language

Authors

Tina Brown

Date of this Version

1996

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in Nebraska Anthropologist Vol. 13 (1996-1997). Copyright © Tina Brown; published by The University of Nebraska-Lincoln AnthroGroup.

Abstract

Although the environment has an effect on the quality of language development, the fact that language is limited to the human species, that neurological structures of the brain specialize in language functions, and that universal characteristics of language and language development occur independently of environmental factors suggests that human language has a definite biological component.