By Juan Uriagereka
Perhaps the most challenging as well as the most interesting question raised in linguistic studies is the Innateness Hypothesis of Human Language. There have been various types of evidence proposed to corroborate such a hypothesis. One type is based on different linguistic disorders resulting from brain damages. In the present paper, I shall focus on Specific Language Impairment (SLI), a linguistic syndrome, which does not correlate with general intelligence, but is known to be involved in linguistic deficiencies concerned with morphosyntax or the understanding of embedded (eg, relative) clauses.
This syndrome is related to the FOXP2 gene, which is active in the development of language skills, including grammatical competence. However, brain regions where the gene is expressed (caudate nucleus, cerebellum) are often characterized as being dedicated to the “motor control” phenomenon. Now the question is whether this gene is responsible for motor control or the linguistic behavior of the human kind. Investigating the role of this gene in chimps, mice and birds, we shall demonstrate that the findings corroborate the latter as well, in turn confirming the innateness hypothesis-or in today’s terminology, the genetic basis of language-adopted by Chomsky.