The "innateness hypothesis" and explanatory models in linguistics
pp. 41-51
in: Robert S. Cohen, Mark W. Wartofsky (eds), A portrait of twenty-five years, Berlin, Springer, 1985Abstract
The "innateness hypothesis' (henceforth, the "I.H.') is a daring — or apparently daring; it may be meaningless, in which case it is not daring — hypothesis proposed by Noam Chomsky. I owe a debt of gratitude to Chomsky for having repeatedly exposed me to the I.H.; I have relied heavily in what follows on oral communications from him; and I beg his pardon in advance if I misstate the I.H. in any detail, or misrepresent any of the arguments for it. In addition to relying upon oral communications from Chomsky, I have also relied upon Chomsky's paper "Explanatory Models in Linguistics', in which the I.H. plays a considerable rôle.
