text_combined: rules innateness psychological reality guido vanden wyngaerd vol3 395 claims whisland constraint innate innate really nothing explain vindicate claim wyngaerd purports show cognitive principles analogy make false predictions structure yesno questions acquired acquired analogy one would expect less random distribution 1a 1b 1 man tall _ _ room b man _ _ tall room reason distributional expectation wyngaerd gives given main source evidence yesno questions child disposal overwhelmingly consist simple sentences form man _ _ room child could make generalisation either way terms linear precedence front first finite verb yielding 1b terms hierarchical structure front finite verb follows subject yielding 1a fact children make mistakes respect ie form 1b clearly shows rule one learned experience relevant experience rich enough determine nature rule able explain absence mistakes passage proves nothing would interesting indeed hear psycholinguists opinions kind conjectural psycholinguistics meanwhile let continue conjecturing sake argument relevant experience rich enough determine nature rule echoes wellknown poverty stimulus argument never proven case hand easy conjecture sort data experience relevant child infer yesno questions formed terms hierarchical structure consider wherequestions x x z x z x x z x z principle analogy works quite well wherequestion displays hierarchy analogically extended cases concerned whether analogy works particular case concerned objecting wholesale innatism notice make _ tabula _ rasa _ proselyte certainly children possess innate cognitive principles abilities follow human beings necessarily endowed grammar mental organ follow cognitive principles linguistic grammatical nature clear earlier postings hold children produce hear concur wyngaerd view children hear forms like buyed eated goed yet go stage produce forms make generalizations rules like go beyond hear expect wyngaerd concur forms like buyed eated goed due analogy far rest nyman remarks concerned still fail see motivate distinction grules lrules _ knowledge _ _ grammar _ 1986 chomsky speaks rules follws might appropriate describe way sheep dog collects flock way spider spins web way cockroach walks terms rule following reference underlying competence consisting rules sort 239 think analogical linguistic behavior wont need recognize conceptual distinction social normsof language l rules objects common knowledge theoretical generalizations formulated linguist g rules g rammatical rules need psychologically real supposed psychologically valid means g rules supposed describe internalized rule must consist one knows brain rules represented mentalese martti nyman department linguistics university helsinki finland