universal grammar

noun Linguistics.

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

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British Dictionary definitions for universal grammar

universal grammar

noun

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012