Is language an innate faculty of the mind? Are we born with the capacity for language, or is it simply a learned ability?
There is a theory, and damn me for forgetting it's name, that if a child doesn't learn to speak a language before a certain age, it will never have the ability to. In other words, language is something that we learn, not something that we are born with.
You're born with the ability to learn a language. I can't recall the exact names of the studies but when a child is born, for like the first two or so years of their lives their brains are specially-tuned to learn a language, and quickly. Language itself is not innate but the ability to learn one is.
I'm going with a little of both... but I'm leaning towards language being innate. Let's talk about that baby some more. A baby might not know how to speak a language properly, but they sure as hell know how to communicate their feelings. When they are hungry, pooped their daipers, or are in any other bad mood they will let you know with a very lucid cry. When they are happy, they laugh just like you and me to express themselves. We all very quicly become aware of the communicating ability of our voices. It would seem to be an inevitablity that it would evolve into more objective sounds known as language. Yes, we have to learn the meanings, sounds, syntax, grammar, etc. of language... but ultimately, the true cause of language, the desire to communicate, is in my estimation innate.
Interesting. I would think language is something the needs to be learned by the brain at it's period when knowledge has the capability to be imprinted. This is usually within the first few years of a human's life. It is only possible to imprint things into the brain again while under the influence of psychedelic drugs. Oh the power of psychedelics!
The theory revolves around the idea that if you have not learned to communicate via spoken word until the age of x (can't remember the exact age, but i think it is 8-12), your brain will have been downgraded to only using physical communication, such as sign language and/or yelling/screaming. What this means is that the brain in an infant is like a piece of clay. It needs to be molded into the right shape before it dries out, otherwise you will never be able to re-mold it.