Reviewing the language instinct debate, this article identifies generativist views with the baby's proverbial bathwater. Suggests that instead of analyzing language into form-based units, it should be treated as an aspect of social life deriving from a capacity to contextualize experience. (Author/VWL)

Schlesinger defends his theory that grammar is acquired not merely through linguistic input but by observing that utterances are paired with appropriate situations, thereby learning the agent/ action relationship. Stemmer argues that word order learned by children is semantically determined. (CK)

Examines the innate faculties that underlie linguistic competence, especially syntactic competence, and proposes a theory of these faculties which accounts for the complexities of language and the evolution of human language. (AM)