A conceptual basis of language acquisition from Pinker's point of viewSever, Maja (Avtor) Jutronić, Dunja (Mentor) jezikmišljenjefilozofijajezikovni instinktotroški govorpridobivanje jezikaFor many decades language theorists and linguists have had a great interest in the development of the languages spoken today. Grammatical rules suggested by language experts and indeed society at large through the processes of standardization and codification enable people of a particular ethnic group or community to communicate with each other in an understandable and functional manner. However, there are many disagreements and contradictions among theories and theorists. In my paper I deal with the theory of Steven Pinker, a well known Canadian-American experimental psychologist and cognitive scientist, especially interested in language development in children. He aims to outline different aspects of language and its rules. His research is particularly dedicated to the impulses and calculations emerging in the human mind when it is trying to capture and comprehend different events and communicate them to the environment. He argues that language instinctively emerges in a child based on innate basic concepts such as substance, time, space and causality. The vocabulary becomes spontaneously extended through everyday communication. By following rule generalizations, children are capable of forming a countless number of possible word combinations out of the finite number of examples they have heard so far. Pinker introduces a metaphor for language as a window through which human nature manifests and can be explored.[M. Sever]20092009-09-13 13:56:56Diplomsko delo11704sl