Noam Chomsky saw language as an innate capacity. From this nativist viewpoint, people possess innate mechanisms for language acquisition. Many nativists believe in a critical period for language acquisition and cite the success of language adaptation among adolescent immigrants over adult immigrants as support.

Terms:

1. Phonology - he study of the sounds of a language
2. Phoneme - smallest unit in a language (in English "st" but not "sb")
3. Morphology - the study of morphemes or the smallest combinations of sounds that have meaning within a language (prepositions, prefixes, and suffixes)
4. Syntax - rules of grammar
5. Semantics - rules for selecting words that express an intended meaning
6. Pragmatics - the use of language in different social contexts (turn-taking, nonverbal communication, and slang)

Language Structure:

1. Surface structures - organization of words, phrases, and sentences (ex. "Visiting relatives can be tiresome.")
2. Deep structures - meaning gained from surface structures (ex."Relatives who visit can be tiresome.")

Effective verbal communication involves translating deep structures into surface structures that will be understood by the listener. Listening is the opposite - in order to understand the communication, a listener must determine the deep structure from the surface structure.