Rationalism vs. Empiricism re Language Acquisition

[Christina Behme]

Good day,

as part of my dissertation I deal with the question if empiricist or rationalist
theories of language acquisition are more plausible. In the literature I
consulted I found little agreement about what a 'rationalist' (also
?nativist?) or 'empiricist' is. Further, it was claimed that language
acquisition researchers do not always agree on whether a particular statement
is ?rationalist? or ?empiricist?. I was wondering if you could be so
kind and take a moment of your time to help me finding out whether or not
researchers who currently work in the field of language acquisition do indeed
disagree on this issue. I have selected a few quotes and ask you if you could
for each decide if it's from a rationalist or from an empiricist. This is not a
'test', I merely want to find out if there is indeed wide ranging disagreement.
Thus, any answer you give is a correct answer (this also includes: 'neither' or
'I can't decide' or....). Second, could you please also indicate for each quote
if you agree or disagree with it 'in principle'. If you disagree, can you
please briefly state why you disagree.

If you want to respond please do not post your answer to the list but send it
directly to me: christina.behme at dal.ca. You can also contact me at this address
if you
have any questions.

Thank you very much for your help
Christina Behme.

Here are the quotes:

1. "...knowledge which can be acquired without any process of reasoning, such
as languages... and in general any subject which rests on experience alone"

2. "... when we learn a language, we connect the letters or the pronunciation
of certain words, which are material things, with their meaning, which are
thoughts, so that when we later hear the same words, we conceive the same
things, and when we conceive the same things, we remember the same words"

3. "Among different languages, even where we suspect the least connexion or
communication, it is found, that the words, expressive of ideas, the most
compounded, do yet nearly correspond to each other: a certain proof that the
simple ideas, comprehended in the compound ones were bound together by some
universal principle, which had an equal influence on all mankind"

4. "[t]here are only two things to learn in any language: the meaning of words
and grammar"

5. "...besides the vast number of different figures that do really exist, in
the coherent masses of matter, the stock that the mind has in its power, by
varying the idea of space, and thereby making still new compositions, by
repeating its own ideas, and joining them as it pleases, is perfectly
inexhaustible. And so it can multiply figures in infinitum."

6. "When for example on hearing that the word ?K-I-N-G? signifies supreme
power, I commit this to my memory and then subsequently recall the meaning by
means of my memory, it must be intellectual memory that makes this possible For
there is no relationship between the four letters (K-I-N-G), which would enable
me to derive the meaning from the letters. It is intellectual memory that
enables me to recall what the letters stand for"

7. "... knowledge of things is not to be derived from [language]. No; they
mustbe studied and investigated in themselves"


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