The human language faculty. A biological object, a window into the mind and a bridge to other disciplines
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.31810/RSEL.50.1.1
Keywords:
Facultad del lenguaje; enfoque científico; gramática; didáctica de la lengua; sintaxis.Abstract
This paper provides a general summary of some of the current issues in the field of Generative Grammar, the study of the human Faculty of Language. We review some key ideas this approach to language has put forward and pursued, focusing on the basic properties of language and its interactions with other systems. We also point at some of the possibilities that a biological approach to language offers to build bridges between Linguistics and other scientific disciplines. Throughout the paper we take into consideration the advantages that incorporating some of these ideas would have in Secondary Education, –not only for the potentially intrinsic value of linguistic knowledge, but also for the impact of this approach on more general skills like observing, describing and comparing data, reasoning, providing arguments and counterarguments, formulating generalizations, analyzing, summarizing or inferring.
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