This paper aims to explore the role of nature and nurture in language development. Language is a free-form creative process with predefined rules and concepts. In contrast, the application of generating concepts is arbitrary and infinitely varied. Understanding and applying phrases is also a creative process. As a result, I believe that both nature and nurture influence and continue to influence human language development and that the landscape of language in the future will undoubtedly shift significantly from what it is now.
Language formation is viewed as a framework inside a social setting that is dependent on societal progress. Several philosophers have accentuated the significance of diverse elements in the development of language. For instance, the nativist approach advocates that neonates are hardwired with an inbuilt proclivity to learn their native language (Niparko, 2010). The nativists believed that nurturing could not reach the common lexicon because it was too difficult. Moreover, language development is a complex link between the child and their environment, with cognitive and interpersonal growth playing a significant role. Language evolved naturally, implying that it is the outcome of a person’s brain’s propensity to examine and learn numerous aspects of their surroundings.
Furthermore, some theorists and linguists claim that language results from inborn intellect derived from nature and formed biologically after childbirth. However, other intellectuals regard language as a learned skill acquired through exposure to external signals and impulses because of nurture. There are several methods for establishing whether language is an inborn, nature, development, or a function of the environment, nurture. Berwick et al. (2013) describe the evolution of language with respect to nurture or nature as a conflict involving nativism and empiricism. In addition, according to the Nativists’ perspective on language development, innate intelligence begins inside a newborn and is present at birth. They contend that the underlying norm of language is profoundly embedded in a person’s brain. Unlike in other animals, language is deliberately and scientifically implanted in the human brain, and this concept enables people to converse through linguistic skills. Therefore, both nativist and empiricist studies strongly suggest that language development is a neurocognitive process in which the role of nature and nurture is periodically disguised to demonstrate the skill itself.
References
Berwick, R. C., Friederici, A. D., Chomsky, N., & Bolhuis, J. J. (2013). Evolution, brain, and the nature of language. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 17(2), 89–98.
Niparko, J. K. (2010). Spoken language development in children following cochlear implantation. JAMA, 303(15), 1498.