Babies language and Grammar gene

At the beginning of the language instinct's chapter 9, one gets flabbergasted at the possibility of babies starting to talk right out of their mommies' wombs. But somehow the author leaves the matter unsolved after mentioning two or three such incidents reported in some magazines. He simply dismisses the possibility for some scientific reasons that are tied to how languages are learned by children. Through the rest of the chapter we are introduced to a clear sketch of different stages a child go through in his mission to develop what is already embedded in him as language instinct. Our assumptions about the true effects of motherese on helping the child fix his incorrect grammar are adjusted when the author puts forward the idea that motherese is useful insofar as it provides a two way collaboration in using the language helping the child develop his own language system. The child does this through a process of trial and error building up the language trees in his mind starting from simple branches. For this he needs to reach into his innate repertoire of grammar and use the most general forms in all languages. He would notice them by hearing his parents' speech. So correcting a child's language would show no effect unless the child realizes the underlying grammar through the aforementioned process.

When the assumption of the child language development processes is done with, the author turns our attention to an interesting evolutionary question:"Why is that the ability to learn the language fades away as one matures. The answer has to do with how the evolution theory works. The evolution premise chooses which benefits should stay with humans at what costs. For example the old age is the cost we pay for the benefit of youth. Likewise the ability to learn a language in an early age is the benefit we get (so we enjoy having the language for a longer time during our life span) at the cost of not being to speak a second language fluently at a later age.

In chapter 10, we get to learn which parts of the brain are involved in storing and producing the language so far as the science can say. It is interesting to know that all the tiniest parts of the language from the words, phonemes, sounds and so on each with their subgroups have different locations allocated to them in different parts of the brain. These locations that vary in different individuals are interconnected through a very organized network of neurons and synopses which act as paths for transferring language data. These paths get strengthened in the child's brain each time they are correctly used to convey a message through language. The language instinct containing the general language grammar guides the correct use of the language and therefore forms the correct paths. So contrary to the wrong assumption mentioned in the beginning of the chapter, there is no grammar gene making all that to happen, but a network of neurons and synopses reinforced through the use of correct grammar made possible by the language instinct.

This hypothetical sophisticated circuitry and its highly organized utility explained by Pinker has hugely contributed to my quest on how languages are learned. Although it might not be true for second language learning, at least it gives me some understanding as how the brain might also work in the case of SLL. So if before I suspected that the memory does all the job, now I have a wider perspective thanks to Pinker.

As far as genes are concerned, we know with a high probability that some genes interfere with the language "circuitry" and its function in brain and produce Specific Language Impairments (SLI). The linguists say so, because they find no environmental evidence to affect the patients with SLI.

Having read these two chapters I have found myself curious to know more about the effect of evolution on language learning ability. As well I would like to follow more closely any scientific advances made on the neorolinguistics.