universal grammar

noun

, Linguistics.

1. a grammar that attempts to establish the properties and constraints common to all possible human languages.
2. an innate system of principles underlying the human language faculty.

universal grammar

noun

1. linguistics (in Chomskyan transformation linguistics) the abstract limitations on the formal grammatical description of all human languages, actual or possible, that make them human languages

Example Sentences

He called the rules of this device universal grammar, and his method of studying the rules he called generative grammar.

From The Daily Beast

A simple universal grammar to be applied to the vocabulary of each national language.

From Project Gutenberg

Again, it is said that Universal Grammar or Philology is taught upon the basis of a foreign language.

From Project Gutenberg

If it were to illustrate Universal Grammar and Philology, this would be brought out to the neglect of translation.

From Project Gutenberg

In 1751 appeared the work by which he became best known, Hermes, a philosophical inquiry concerning universal grammar.

From Project Gutenberg

What historical grammar is to comparative grammar, comparative grammar is to universal grammar.

From Project Gutenberg