Piotr writes:
Chomsky has modified his position several times in his publications, but
his belief that the emergence of language was a single event seems to be
unshaken. I'm sure he wouldn't like the term "language instinct". His
original term for it was LAD [Language Acquisition Device], identified
with Universal Grammar -- the ability to produce and understand
sentences in any language -- from which all individual "grammatical
competences" are derived in the process of first language acquisition.
Piotr
Gerry here: So what I'm seeing on that very elementary translation
machine (Alta Vista)is not the beginning of a Universal Grammar? I think
that perhaps the problem lies in how we are viewing the material. No, a
word for word translation has no chance to be put forth. But something
more than jibberish has been produced using the translations from
English, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. But then, since all of
these languges are I-E, why should anyone expect less?
Now what would happen if we added German, Latin, and say Russian to the
lanugage machine? Would we then receive only babble?
Gerry
--
--
Gerald Reinhart
Independent Scholar
(650) 321-7378
waluk@...
http://www.alekseevmanuscript.com