Noam Chomsky stated in the 1960s that grammar is innate to people, since we all are born with a language instinct. Now, even if some people disagree with Chomsky’s theory, it has been proved recently that he was probably right.
There is an example illustrating this: human are born with the ability to walk, but if someone has never practiced how to walk, he or she will not be able to do so. The same happen to language, since someone who is not exposed to language will not talk. Thus, we can understand phrases that make no sense as well as those which are grammatical correct thanks to the so-called universal grammar.
Researchers carried out an experiment to prove Chomsky’s theory. In this experiment, volunteers listened to both grammatical and grammatically incorrect sentences in English and Mandarin Chinese. Besides, researches wanted to see what was going on in the volunteers’ brain when processing the information, and to do so they used magnetoencephalography (first image below) and electrocorticography (second image).
Researchers carried out an experiment to prove Chomsky’s theory. In this experiment, volunteers listened to both grammatical and grammatically incorrect sentences in English and Mandarin Chinese. Besides, researches wanted to see what was going on in the volunteers’ brain when processing the information, and to do so they used magnetoencephalography (first image below) and electrocorticography (second image).
magnetoencephalography
electrocorticography
Lately, according to the results they knew that brain activity was different whether people were listened to a sentence, a phrase, or a word list, meaning they could understand grammar without hints (such as intonation). Thus, the ability to understand phrases and sentences is undoubtedly in our brain thanks to its capacity of dealing with language. Data also proved that through the structures someone is provided with, he or she can build abstract, hierarchical constituent structures of linguistic information. Apart from that, it is still not clear if this is accomplished based on acoustic or rather statistical hints. But because people can understand grammar without any cues, there is evidence that grammar is inherent to our brain, just like Chomsky stated.
Now, regarding the classification of grammar, Chomsky distinguishes among 4 types:
• Recursively enumerable grammars (Type-0 grammars)
• Context-sensitive grammars (Type-1 grammars)
• Context-free grammars (Type-2 grammars)
• Regular grammars (Type-3 grammars)
Firstly, recursively enumerable grammars is formed by all formal grammars and are useful in order to deal with the syntax of programming languages and natural languages. Secondly, context-sensitive grammars follow rules that work with the following characters: α A β → α γ β. Thirdly, context-free grammars follow rules such as A → γ or A → aBc and constitute the basis of the syntax of most programming languages. Finally, regular grammars follow not only the rule S → ε, but also regular expressions. (Strojny 2015)
If you want to have more detailed information and learn more about these experiments and their results, you can find more information by clicking on the following links:
And in case you are still curious about this topic, here you can find some essays with further information:
If you want to have more detailed information and learn more about these experiments and their results, you can find more information by clicking on the following links:
And in case you are still curious about this topic, here you can find some essays with further information:
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