task specificity of language

the theory, mainly associated with Noam Chomsky, that language use differs from other cognitive tasks in qualitative ways and makes use of components that are specific to this purpose. The theory accords with Chomsky’s ideas of autonomous syntax and intuited grammaticality but is incompatible with the approaches taken in functional grammar, cognitive grammar, or behaviorist accounts of language (see verbal behavior). See also modularity; species specificity of language.

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Psychology term of the day

May 8th 2024

perceptual development

perceptual development

the acquisition of skills that enable a person to organize sensory stimuli into meaningful entities during the course of physical and psychological development.