universal grammar

American  

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.

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universal grammar British  

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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

universal grammar

Importantly, the presence of a universal grammar means humans can create an infinite number of meanings from a finite number of words.

From Salon ● Jun. 25, 2023

Noam Chomsky’s concept of universal grammar has come under attack in recent years, but to Adger—a Chomsky fan—this is evidence that at least some components of language are universally hard-wired.

From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2019

Noam Chomsky’s idea of a universal grammar underpinning all languages was based on a rather narrow empirical base.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 27, 2018

Chomsky’s theories of universal grammar and recursion are supported by massive evidence and landmarks in modern linguistics and neuroscience.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 16, 2016

What principle of universal grammar determines the gender when both sexes are taken together?

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown

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