universal grammar

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universal grammar

n. Abbr. UG

An innate system of grammatical principles, parameters, and constraints believed to underlie all natural languages.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

universal grammar

(Linguistics) linguistics (in Chomskyan transformation linguistics) the abstract limitations on the formal grammatical description of all human languages, actual or possible, that make them human languages

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

u′niver′sal gram′mar

1. a grammar that attempts to establish the properties and constraints common to all possible human languages.

2. the properties and constraints themselves.

[1930–35]

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References in periodicals archive ?

It was Noam Chomsky who first formulated the idea of an innate grammar module in the brain's neocortex, which Steven Pinker developed into a 'language instinct'.

Beyond Evolutionary Psychology: How and Why Neuropsychological Modules Arise

In the '50s, Chomsky argues for an innate grammar common to all languages, challenging Sapir and Whorf's idea.

Brazil's Piraha grasp numbers without words: study challenges theories linking language, thought

In the "Universal Grammar section, NourbeSe Philip builds on Chomsky's concept of innate grammars (children at birth have the capacity to speak any language they are exposed to) and explores linguistic categorization per se as a historically determined phenomenon.