乔姆斯基“儿童即语言学家”命题的实质与作用

“儿童即语言学家”是乔姆斯基语言心理学理论中的一个核心命题。该命题包括两个方面：本体论上，儿童是构建语法的“语言学家”；方法论上，语言学家则应该是“学语的儿童”。理性主义内在论是该类比命题的逻辑起点，刺激贫乏是其经验支持，心智主义在心理学中的复兴则是其理论后果。该命题的提出，给行为主义予以沉重打击，为第一次认知革命的形成提供了有力的助推，确立了语言在心理学及整个认知科学中的关键地位。
The analogy of“ children are linguists”is a key thesis in Chomsky’s theory of language andpsychology. There are two dimensions in this thesis：ontologically，children are regarded as the linguists whocan construct a theory of grammar；methodologically，linguists should work as the children who are acquiringtheir mother tongue. The innateness hypothesis of rationalism constitutes the logical basis of this analogicalthesis；the argument of poverty of stimulus can supply it with strong empirical support；and the revival ofmentalism in psychology can be regarded as one of its theoretical consequences. After its inception，this thesisgave behaviorism a fatal blow and the first cognitive revolution a great boost，thus securing for language a keyposition in cognitive sciences as well as in psychology