Generative theories of child language with their rationalistic approach asked deeper questions looking for clearer explanations of the mystery of language acquisition. The Nativist approach believes that we are born with a built-in device of some kind that predisposes us to language acquisition, to a systematic perception of language around us, resulting in the construction of an internalized system of language.
Lenneberg (1967) proposed that language is a "species-specific" behavior that certain mode of perception, categorizing abilities, and other language-related mechanisms are biologically determined.
Chomsky (1965) claimed that the existence of innate properties of language explain a child’s mastery of his native language in such a short rime despite the highly abstract nature of
Chomsky proposed a generative “rule-governed” model in which he assumed that the generative rules are connected together serially, with on connection between each pair of neurons in brain. This model was challenged later by Spolsky’s model of generative rule: Connectionism, also called Parallel distributed processing (PDP).
The theory of LAD developed later to what is called Universal Grammar (UG). UG suggested that all human beings are genetically equipped with language-specific abilities, attempting to discover what it is that all children, regardless of their environmental stimuli (the language they hear around them) bring to the language acquisition process. So, the child's language, at any given point, is a legitimate system in its own right. The child's language at any stage i
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