While agreeing with psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic theories that suggest that innate language-related cognitive structures are the basis of language development, the author seeks to establish what it is that is innate and what is meant by innateness in the first place. The author considers the claims of psychological relevance made on behalf of Chomsky's transformational model and outlines a neuropsychological framework by which one could consider descriptions of genetically-determined cognitive-linguistic processes existing as the product of the evolution of the human nervous system. (VM)