<em>The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition</em> by Michael Tomasello. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999, 248 pp.

Abstract

(and even in the presence ofmore general cognitive deficiencies, such as autism), invariably acquire at least one language. A fundamental tenet of Chomsky's innateness argument is that language is species specific and that human beings are born with a dedicated cognitive module containing the elements of a Universal Grammar. Linguistic abilities are thus separate from other cognitive abilities, and a Language Acquisition Device resides within the human brain guaranteeing every newborn human child language. In order to provide support for Chomsky's genetic view of language, theorists such as Steven Pinker (1995, 1999) interpret recent findings in cognitive neuroscience to suggest that grammar resides in the human brain in the form of rules in one area and in the form of more idiosyncratic aspects of language such as lexicon in another area. Chomsky's innatist theories of language, however, have come under attack in recent years from both practitioners of cognitive psychology (particularly the connectionist and information processing approaches to language) and from practitioners of social-cognitive psychology.