36.728, Reviews: A Mind for Language: Villar González (2025)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-36-728. Thu Feb 27 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.728, Reviews: A Mind for Language: Villar González (2025)

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Date: 27-Feb-2025
From: Pamela Villar González [pamela.villargonzalez at rub.de]
Subject: Psycholinguistics: Villar González (2025)


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/35-291

Title: A Mind for Language
Subtitle: An Introduction to the Innateness Debate
Publication Year: 2023

Publisher: Cambridge University Press
           http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics
Book URL: https://cambridge.org/9781108456494

Author(s): Harry van der Hulst

Reviewer: Pamela Villar González

SUMMARY
A Mind for Language, An Introduction to the Innateness Debate, by
Harry van de Hulst, is a textbook that shows arguments for both
positions, that is to say, nature (‘innateness’ = genes) and nurture
(knowledge /culture) in the debate over whether or not we are born
with some “knowledge about language”. The book does not pretend to
give any new information or even insight, but rather to present the
current knowledge available without taking part in the discussion or
agreeing with any of the parts, revisiting the available arguments
from a linguistic perspective. However, no previous knowledge about
the debate itself or even linguistics is needed to follow the book.
A Mind for Language is, according to the author, a textbook intended
for undergraduate students. It is organized for a course consisting of
13 (weekly) meetings. The intention of the book is not adding ‘new’
information to the debate or proposing a ‘final solution’ to the
ongoing discussion, but rather to present the different arguments
available from both perspectives and why both make sense.
The book starts with a list of figures, acknowledgments, and a section
entitled ‘How to Use This Book’ that, together with the first section
of the book (Part I: Introduction), is very helpful in order to make
clear what is covered in the book. This could be very helpful, not
just for the instructor, but also for the students knowing what to
expect and how to use the book correctly and get the most out of it.
After the first chapter ‘What is this book about’, which comprises the
complete content of the first section, we find four chapters in the
second part of the book, entitled ‘The Never-Ending Debate’. In order
to present the debate, and why it is a “never-ending” issue, we need
to know the background of the debate itself. This second part provides
the context for the debate. In order to do so it is essential to
understand the main scientists involved in the debate, that is to say,
Noam Chomsky (the linguist who argued that we have ‘wired’ somehow a
great part of our knowledge about language), and B. F. Skinner, the
psychologist who defended the idea that everything is acquired.
Furthermore, to understand and participate in the debate, or at least
have our own opinion, we need to understand the main theories,
principles, and arguments that have been presented from the beginning
of the debate until nowadays.
Chapter 2 The Innateness Hypothesis discusses Chomsky’s hypothesis
about the instinct for acquiring language, together with other
perspectives on the nature-nurture debate.
Chapter 3 Philosophy of Mind addresses the debate from a philosophical
perspective, introducing terms and theories that were taken from this
discipline.
Chapter 4 Cognitive Science addresses “the science of the mind” (and
its processes), an interdisciplinary science that is based on
knowledge from Philosophy, Anthropology, and other scientific
disciplines like Psychology, Linguistics, and Neuroscience. Here
theoretical humanities and empirical science meet to explain how our
mind works, and of course, language is one of the key topics.
Chapter 5 Modularity addresses the “mental module” related to
language. The modularity of the brain and of the mind are discussed
here and how these theories have been created. During the chapter key
points are examined such as whether we really know what a module is
and whether those modules are innate or acquired.
After a broad introduction to the debate from different perspectives,
including philosophy, psychology, and other disciplines, the third
section, entitled “The Mental Grammar, Language Universals, and
Language Change”, focuses on the science that studies language,
namely, Linguistics. As for the rest of the book, previous knowledge
is not assumed, so many terms will be introduced and explained here to
understand the debate from this perspective. The discussion here is
less about the mind itself and more about language.
Chapter 6 The Organization of the Mental Grammar is defined by the
author as a “crash course” on the structure of language. It aims to
provide the reader with the needed understanding of how complex
language is and why many concepts are not as trivial as they might
seem. The idea is not so much that the reader learns all the technical
details and terms, but rather is able to understand how the mental
grammar that supports language works and why it is amazing that young
children (more or less) come to have control of it.
Chapter 7 Language Universals asks whether there are (some) linguistic
properties shared by ALL human languages and, if so, whether they
support the concept of “universal grammar” as well as why then do we
all not speak the same language. All these questions and many more are
visited in this chapter.
Chapter 8 Language Change discusses how, even though language is
something almost everyone has an intuition about, most people do not
realize how much language changes in brief periods as well as how many
parts of language do not change. It asks: Is there a reason for those
parts not changing or not “changing so much”? Going back to the
debate, is the fact that these properties that do not change (so much)
related somehow to the nativist perspective?
Once we have a clear background about how language and mental grammar
work, what can be considered ‘universals’, and what can or cannot
change, the book goes into the process of language acquisition. In
Section IV, the book explains how we acquire and learn a language and
how this can support the Innateness Hypothesis.
Chapter 9 Language Acquisition: The Road from Input to Mental Grammar
presents different arguments, including arguably the most famous ones,
about language acquisition, specifically: Chomsky’s model (why
children learn so fast despite having little and sometimes incorrect
input) supporting the Innateness hypothesis vs. Skinner (who claimed
the language can be learned by children just through the input, with
no preconditions or previous knowledge).
Chapter 10 The Stages of Language Acquisition treats the different
stages of language acquisition. While there is some variation across
children, there are existing clear milestones in the learning process,
which can support the idea of the developmental stages being supported
by a “biological timetable”.
Chapter 11 Critical Period Effects examines the maturation effect
presented in the previous chapter. The exact age of the critical
period has been widely discussed, but normally it is considered the
period of “puberty”. Learning a language after puberty presents more
challenges than the acquisition of the first language or the learning
of a second one before this “deadline”.
Chapter 12 How Children Create New Languages considers how children
starting from a “pidgin (a relatively primitive system of
communication created by adults that do not have a common language”
can transform this into a creole (a full and complete language).
Until this moment, we have talked about language in general, but
mainly referred to spoken language. In the next section, Part V,
entitled “Language in a Different Modality”, the case of Sign language
is presented. This is the only chapter in this section.
Chapter 13 examines Sign Languages. Most of the previous content of
the book can be directly addressed in the case of Sign Language. Small
variations and adaptations might be needed in others as we are still
speaking about a system of communication, but as stated by the author
“they operate in a completely different sensory channel”. Some
neurobiology insights are addressed as well, as spoken languages and
sign languages are processed in the same brain areas and ‘language
problems’ in the same areas affect language in a similar way,
independently of the modality.With this, we arrive at the last section
of the book, Part VI, which as its title announces, is for “Winding
Up”.
This section again contains just one chapter, Chapter 14, entitled
Evaluating the Arguments: A Forum Discussion. All the presented
arguments are revisited but in a ‘playful’ manner, not just as a
typical glossary, or summary, but like a fictional debate between
(non-existent) scientists. Some other arguments not presented in this
book, but in a sequel coming from different areas than linguistics:
psychology, sociology, anthropology, and more technical disciplines,
are presented as well.
The textbook finishes with a Notes section (including a substantial
bibliography indicating where the information presented in the chapter
is extracted from). There is also a Further Reading section which
includes readings about different topics addressed in the book, from
empirical approaches to the Nature-Nurture debate, to Multilingualism,
Genetics, Semiotics, and Linguistic Typology.
The Index finishes the printed book, but more information can be found
on the webpage of the book (www.cambridge.org/AMindForLanguage. This
includes a glossary, some discussion points recommended for the class,
questions for reflections for the students, and some project
suggestions to deepen one’s knowledge and/or work developed based on
this book.
EVALUATION
A Mind for Language, An Introduction to the Innateness Debate is
intended to be an (undergraduate) textbook and/or a book that
introduces the main arguments, theories, and perspectives in the
debate over whether language is innate or acquired. The book can be
used as well as an introductory reading about language in the mind
and/or for increasing the information about the different topics
addressed. As the author promises, it presents from a linguistics
perspective the discussion over whether language is (partly or
completely) innate or learned, also called the nature vs nurture
debate. The book is written from an objective perspective, without
taking sides on one or the other approach, but showing the different
arguments presented. It is easy to follow and enjoyable to read. Even
though it is not intended for scholars or researchers on the topic,
most of the available resources and bibliographic recommendations can
be useful for the advanced reader. This book can be part of the
bibliography not just for a curriculum about linguistics, but also
about Cognitive Science and  the (Neuro)psychology of language.
Most of the chapters but especially the sections are self-explanatory,
which allows the book to be used for different purposes, not just for
the debate over nature-nurture.
I am not so sure however that the book can work for a broader
audience. Even though the book is easy to follow and everything is
clearly explained, it still uses a lot of terminology that might make
it complicated to keep track of for the average reader. If the author
wants to offer an introductory book for a broad audience, maybe he
should prepare a summary of this one (I would suggest 250 pages,
maximum) and also make the book more visual.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Pamela Villar González is a lecturer and researcher in the Institute
for Linguistics, Chair for Psycho-Neurolinguistics at the Heinrich
Heine University Düsseldorf (Germany). Her previous works are in
diverse fields including Neuroscience (memory, study of biomarkers in
healthy aging and dementia, sleep), Cognitive Neuro-Psychology (brain
development), and psycho- and neurolinguistics (brain lateralization
of language, whistled languages, language in autism). Her research
interests lie mainly in language attrition, different systems of
communication, methods and techniques for researching, and Open
Science. Furthermore, she has her own Science Communication Project
through Social Media (Pamdemia Científica), co-organizes the Language
Attrition Network meetings, and collaborates with Brain Awareness Week
and Pint of Science, among other projects.



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