Chomsky's Modularity Hypothesis - Is There an Innate Language Module?

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, RWTH Aachen University (Institut für Anglistik der RWTH Aachen), course: Proseminar Language Acquisition, language: English, abstract: This term paper deals with Noam Chomsky's Modularity or rather Innateness Hypothesis, particularly with the question if there might be an innate language module in people's minds. To discuss and maybe answer this question, I will first give a short summary of the Modularity Hypothesis as found in works of Chomsky and also of Jerry Fodor. After that, I will summarize Chomsky's theory of innateness, in connection with his belief that there exists a "Universal Grammar", which is responsible for people's ability to acquire language.