  Although Chomskyan linguistics set the stage for a general Nativist revival, it took a while for this train to leave the station, and it will help to understand why. Part of the problem was that the original case for linguistic Nativism had been made, at least in part, by focusing on what looked to be unique features of language. Language has long been seen as exceptional; as the distinguishing feature of human cognition. Chomsky championed this view, and argued that language is central to a special kind of human creativity (Chomsky 1966).