Beyond Universal Grammar: Why Language Emerges from Patterns, Not Parameters
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Universal Grammar (UG) posits that humans are born with an innate, biologically hardwired set of grammatical principles. While empirical challenges to UG abound, this paper takes a step further: it argues that UG itself was never epistemically justified as an explanatory foundation. Rather than offering an alternative formal model, the Pattern-Based Communication Model (PBCM) reframes language as an emergent property of neuroplasticity, environmental pattern recognition, and social interaction during critical developmental periods. This shift relocates the burden of explanation from innate grammar to developmental systems and general cognitive learning. By grounding its critique in model selection theory, systems dynamics, and cognitive plausibility, PBCM seeks not to update UG, but to retire it as an unnecessary artifact of earlier theoretical limitations.Keywords: Universal Grammar, Chomsky, Linguistics, Cognitive Science, Language Acquisition, AI and Language, Syntax TheoryThis version is identical to the manuscripted submitted to PhilPapers LinkThis is a revised edition of the original paper submitted here: DOI - 10.5281/zenodo.15468891 and it contains added discussion and citations.
Author: Bouskill, Theodore William
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6930886511
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