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A case is identified of a newborn baby who can talk.
Mentalese is the global grammar that is found in all languages. To master a language, all a child needs is to code the details of their native language(s) to the innate mental language (Clark et al., 45).
Since mentalese can combine noun and verb phrases, a child can master language(s) by identifying the verb and noun phrases found in their native language. Consequently, the children can identify the grammatical patterns and structure of their native language.
However, nurture also plays a very important part in learning language, especially in terms of understanding sentence structure. The period between birth and six years represents a crucial period for language development and is referred to as the automatic acquisition stage. From six years to puberty, further acquisition of language can be acquired but will be impaired.
The first few months after a child is born represent a time when the brain develops synaptic connections that are necessary for grasping information and other skills. However, as people grow older, the synaptic connections are lost and that is why it is difficult for adults to learn new languages. But while the ability to learn new languages wears off, other systems like the reproduction system are developed.
Therefore, the reason why language is innate is that while babies are faced with many linguistic challenges when they are born, they automatically manage to learn their mother tongue. Additionally, they lack the necessary linguistic stimulus to learn a language but still learn it. Simply, there is a poverty of stimulus.
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