Name: Ayala, Lucas Javier

Linguistics.

1. What is the difference between general grammar and special grammar

2. What did John Heinrich Alster about general grammar
3. What does “linguists should be concerned with discovering the nature of language in
general” mean?
4. Investigate the Chomsky’s theory

1. The difference between general grammar and special grammar is that in grammar,
there are parts that pertain to all languages. These components form what is called the
general grammar. In addition to these general parts, there are those that belong only
to one particular language and these constitute the particular grammar of each
language. These are rules of particular languages such as English. Those rules
representing the universal properties that all languages share constitute a universal
grammar. The universal laws are of particular interest because they give us a window
into the workings of the human mind in this cognitive domain.

2. The philosopher John Heinrich Alsted first used the term general grammar as distinct
from special grammar. He believed that the function of a general grammar was to
reveal these features, “which relate to the method and etiology of grammatical
concepts”. They are common to all languages. Pointing out that general grammar is
the pattern NORMA of every particular grammar whatsoever.

3. Linguists should explore and discover the nature of language in general. Also, they do
work on specific languages but their primary goal is to understand the nature of
language. Moreover, they have to focus on the evolution and structure of language, in
order to deduce the laws that govern ancient and modern languages.

4. Chomsky says that in his linguistic theory, he states that we are born with an innate
ability to speak and that our acquisition process is based on learning the structures of
language and grammar. He affirms the existence of certain structures in our minds that
allow both the production of language and the compression of a message.
Noam Chomsky.

1. What is universal grammar?

2. What do you think about Chomsky thought?
3. What do we have to consider to learn a language? (e)

1. Universal grammar is the set of principles, rules and conditions that all languages
share. This rule pretends to understand and apply all the languages that we find in the
world be understood and applicable to others. His syntax structure release is
considered as the beginning of generativism. So, Universal grammar is the acquisition
and use of a language
2. I think that any person can learn any language without any trouble and quickly, in fact
we are owners of an encyclopaedia of languages inside our brains, only we just have to
activate it.
3. When we have to learn a language, we must learn not only the speaking form and the
words that make a sentence, but also we have to learn it grammatical order, because it
is not the same to say a sentence with our grammatical rules than another one with a
different grammatical pattern.